Vitalik Buterin reflects on the Bitcoin block size debate and its impact on Ethereum

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of ethereum, has shared his eth.limo/general/2024/05/31/blocksize.html” rel=”noopener nofollow noreferrer”>reflections about the bitcoin block size war, a heated debate that took place within the bitcoin community between 2015 and 2017.

The conflict centered on whether to increase the block size limit to accommodate more transactions, thereby reducing fees and improving bitcoin's utility as a payment system. Buterin said his reflections come when he looks at the debate “with new eyes.”

Buterin, who initially aligned himself with the “big blockers” who advocated for larger blocks, analyzed the perspectives presented in two books: “The Blocksize War” by Jonathan Bier and “Hijacking bitcoin” by Roger Ver and Steve Patterson. Small blockers (Bier) prioritized maintaining bitcoin's decentralization and security, arguing that larger blocks would centralize control among a few large entities. In contrast, the big blockers (Ver and Patterson) believed that bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf” rel=”noopener nofollow noreferrer”>The original vision of bitcoin was going to serve as a “digital cash” system and that not increasing the block size would undermine this use case.

Big block or small block?

Reflecting on the debate, Buterin acknowledged that while he believed the big blockers were right about the need for larger blocks to keep fees low, they often lacked the technical competence to implement their solutions effectively. He criticized their inability to agree on realistic limits for block size increases and their technical errors, which ultimately discredited the big block movement.

“Overall, in reading the two books, I found myself agreeing more often with Ver on general issues, but with Bier more often on individual details,” Buterin said.

Buterin also found the small blockers' approach to governance and protocol changes to be too conservative, and disagreed with their rigid stance against hard forks and their reliance on soft forks. He criticized its alleged censorship on social media and exclusion of dissenting opinions, which stifled open debate within the community.

The ethereum co-founder highlighted the “one-sided competition trap” as a recurring problem in political and organizational conflicts, where one side monopolizes competition but does not consider broader perspectives. This dynamic hinders constructive dialogue and progress. Buterin stressed the importance of balanced and inclusive approaches to avoid such pitfalls.

“One side monopolizes all competent people, but uses its power to push a narrow and biased perspective; the other side correctly recognizes that something is wrong, but focuses on the opposition and fails to develop the technical capacity to execute it on its own,” Buterin argues.

Buterin also criticized the lack of technological foresight in the debates, pointing out the absence of discussions on zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-SNARKs), which could have offered scalable solutions. He claims that the “ultimate diffuser” of political tension “is not compromise, but new technology.”

Impact on ethereum development

According to Buterin, the bitcoin block size war significantly influenced the development of ethereum, particularly scaling, governance, and decentralization. ethereum learned from bitcoin's reliance on a single client, emphasizing client diversity to improve security and avoid single points of failure.

“ethereum's focus on customer diversity was born from observing the failures that arose when bitcoin had a single team of customers. Their version of Layer 2 was born from an understanding of how bitcoin's limitations lead to limitations on what types of Layer 2 with what trust properties can be built on top of it,” Buterin said.

It also took a multi-layer scaling approach, improving Layer 1 through protocol upgrades like ethereum 2.0 and implementing Layer 2 solutions such as rollups to handle off-chain transactions. This approach was intended to maintain scalability while ensuring that the network remained decentralized and secure. Technological innovation became a key focus, with ethereum integrating solutions such as EIP-1559 and zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-SNARK) to improve scalability and user experience. By taking a layered approach to transactions, ethereum ensures its network remains accessible and affordable, balancing technical improvements with user needs.

The block size war also shaped ethereum's governance philosophy, promoting a more inclusive and transparent decision-making process involving various stakeholders, as ideas like network states take off and present an alternative. from “digital nation” to current social and political systems based on centralized authority.

“Like rogue cryptocurrencies, rogue network states need to learn how to run and build, and not just party and vibe and share memes comparing modern brutalism to 16th century European architecture on twitter,” Buterin said on twitter. joke.