I just created my own fork of bitcoin. It’s called Ryan X. Charles Bitcoin, and it’s exactly the same as bitcoin, except MAX_BLOCK_SIZE is eight million instead of one million. RXC Bitcoin sees the same blockchain as everybody else, and can send and receive bitcoin. The only difference is that RXC Bitcoin will always pick the longest chain, even if miners start mining blocks bigger than one megabyte. I’m running it right now.

It is remarkable that it is possible for me to do this. Imagine if I didn’t like the way ACH or Swift worked, and I wanted to change the protocol. There would be nothing I could do besides lobby banks and try to get them to listen to me. Since I have no relationship with banks, I would be powerless to affect change. But with bitcoin, I can implement any change I want, immediately, just by modifying the software.

Of course, I can’t require other people to run my software. Should you run my fork of bitcoin? Should you run a different fork? Perhaps you should modify the software yourself and choose a policy that you find preferable. Perhaps more people will like your version, and it will become the most popular version.

I’ve been involved in the bitcoin community for almost five years, and it’s been fascinating to watch drama unfold around the block size limit. Now that blocks are often full, many bitcoin users find themselves irritated with a property of the bitcoin protocol. This is an opportunity to exercise the unique type of democracy that governs bitcoin: Simply run the version of the software whose block size policy you prefer.

Last May, I ran some numbers on the block size. Assuming bitcoin is only used as a settlement network, the block size will need to scale up to about 10 GB in order to achieve a transaction volume large enough for global adoption. To use bitcoin for more than just settlement, say micropayments, the block size would need to be even bigger. Personally, I’m in favor of global adoption, but I don’t really care if it is used for more than just settlement. So 10 GB sounds about right, long-term. I will bump up the MAX_BLOCK_SIZE of RXC Bitcoin gradually over time until it is 10 GB. Unless I change my mind along the way, in which case I will run whatever version of the software I prefer at that time.

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