On-chain scaling - a review of historical performance optimization made to Bitcoin’s reference software. Part 1
The following post aims to highlight development milestones that helped preserve a reliable experience for users of the Bitcoin software client over the years. We present several upgrades that were critical in maintaining the decentralized properties of the network and mitigate the resources burden of its participants. We describe how numerous orders-of-magnitude optimizations were made so that the Bitcoin network could support the growth in transaction activity without dramatically increasing the costs of participation for new and existing users. Finally, we note how those improvements all fall within a larger, systematic approach to protocol development that uses insights from Big-O complexity concepts and leverages smarter algorithms that make more efficient use of the network’s resources.
https://bitcoincore.org/en/2017/03/13/p ... zations-1/