Bitcoin.com Statement on the New York Agreement

[Bitcoin.com Team]

Although we do not believe that a “Segwit + 2MB compromise” is the best way forward for Bitcoin, we very strongly believe that the problems facing Bitcoin today are dire and that something must be done, as soon as possible, to increase Bitcoin’s on-chain transaction capacity. Doing so is the only way to alleviate Bitcoin’s exponentially rising fees and slow confirmation times. To the extent that the agreement provides a time frame, broad industry agreement, and a real block size increase, it is reasonable. Our acceptance of this agreement does not change our support for Bitcoin Unlimited or other implementations, and we will continue to push for the removal of all centrally-imposed capacity limits on Bitcoin. Any such limit will only ever serve to hinder Bitcoin’s future growth.

This agreement being the first such proposal in nearly two years to find support from major industry players on both sides of the scaling debate, we felt that to remain opposed to this development because it wasn’t our ideal outcome would only prolong Bitcoin’s capacity crisis and contribute to even more division than there already is. In our view, the long term health and survival of the Bitcoin network is of greater importance than being the “winners” of the block size debate.

At the same time, we have not forgotten that a previous agreement of this nature (with nearly identical terms) not only fell completely flat, but actually widened the divide in the Bitcoin community and prolonged this nasty debate by far longer than acceptable. We remain cautiously optimistic that the agreement made in New York this week may be able to bring an end, or at least temporary relief, to the existential threat that faces Bitcoin today. We wish to emphasize that while this is an agreement, it is not binding and we are not particularly attached to it. Should we feel that this agreement is not being acted upon in a timely manner, or if it begins to resemble another excuse for extended stagnation, we will quickly and emphatically withdraw our support and continue our efforts towards scaling Bitcoin on-chain, in accordance with the design of the system as outlined in the Bitcoin whitepaper.

[BitcoinXio]

Well said!

[grabberfish]

Please do not stop or slow-down your supporting and continuing efforts towards scaling Bitcoin on-chain, in accordance with the design of the system as outlined in the Bitcoin whitepaper. It is still the best route forward.

[thetimpotter]

this is not a compromise.

we are only 5% away from the tipping point. hodl

benefits: a hard fork, which may lead to future hard forks that may lead to on-chain scaling

costs:
bitcoin is hard wired for banking
numerous vulnerabilities will be introduced with a massive injection of unreviewed code. this is how intelligence communities inject vulnerabilities
massive new attack surface. no more bitcoin elegance. no more extreme security.
users will be forced off-chain to use bank like products
2 mb blocks are laughably small even today
miners are not compensated for off-chain transactions, breaking incentive to secure bitcoin
75% discount for segwit means this is an "increase" to 0.5mb blocks for on-chain bitcoin transactions
the byzantine generals solution is traded in for pre-2008 tech

[greatwolf]

In addition to what others already said, how does this new agreement guarantee and enforce the terms set and ensure both sides cannot renege on the agreement;aka. how do you make sure this doesn't turn into another HK agreement?

Maybe find a way to enforce this using an ethereum smart contract?

[Windowly]

It seems, the key concession the big block side made was to allow segwit to activate at 80% instead of 95%. The key concession the small block side made was to agree that within 6 months there would be a 2MB block size increase HF. The contract doesn't tell people they have to signal for segwit if they don't want to.

Segwit is dependent on certain percent supporting; 2mb block size increase hf is dependent on a certain time frame (6 months). Bitcoin Unlimited already supports both even though it doesn't signal for segwit.

Am I reading this right? What are your thoughts Roger?