Bitcoin Community Reaches Consensus, Block Size Grows from 1MB to 8MB

There is consensus in the Bitcoin community at last, with regard to increasing the block size on the Bitcoin Blockchain. The move, first suggested by Gavin Andresen – The Bitcoin core developer was met with a strong resistance from certain groups in the Bitcoin community.

There is a need to increase the block size in order to accommodate the rising number of Bitcoin transactions and other Blockchain based applications. When Bitcoin was first introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto, he had set 1 MB as block size limit which could be increased as needed. The block size has remained the same for over 6 years whereas the number of Bitcoins and transactions haven’t. The Blockchain, with current block size is capable of processing about 7 transactions per second, which is less and results in a lag.

In order to improve the efficiency of Bitcoin Blockchain and to make it capable of handling Bitcoin 2.0 applications, Gavin Andresen had earlier proposed the block size to be increased to 20 MB. The proposal was opposed by the mining communities as it might result in reduced pay-outs. Few people from the development community also voiced their concerns about compromising the integrity of Blockchain by increasing the block size.

Finally, the Bitcoin community has managed to reach consensus with regard to block size after making few concessions to the original proposal. A group of Chinese Bitcoin mining pools have reached a consensus by agreeing to increase the block size from 1 MB to 8 MB instead of previously proposed 20 MB. According to the agreement, the block size will be doubled every two years for a period of 20 years. The increase in block size will improve the usability of Bitcoin and promote overall growth of Bitcoin. We can expect the block size to be increased from 1 MB to 8 MB by early next year. If any further changes are required, it has to be included in the next patch only after achieving miner super-majority.