[bitcoin-dev] A reason we can all agree on to increase block size

I realize that my argument may have come across as anti-Chinese, but I can assure you that my concerns are not nationalist or racist in nature, so I apologize if they came across as such. I was raised under another oppressive regime, the US government, so I am sympathetic to the problems of the Chinese people. I am in fact only concerned with the very real fact that a majority of the Bitcoin network's hashing power is centralized within the political borders of one country and consequently the entire Bitcoin economy is at risk of political manipulation. I have seen frequent instances within my own homeland where the government has seized control over private businesses through draconian regulation. I have witnessed in other countries where businesses are seized and nationalized more directly. I am concerned that the Chinese government might decide to nationalize the Bitcoin mines within its borders, and what they might do with 57% of the network hashing power. If it were any other country I would be equally concerned. But it's not any other country. It's China. And I don't trust the Chinese government any more than I trust any other government not to take actions that might harm Bitcoin. On Aug 2, 2015 8:21 PM, "Pindar Wong" <pindar.wong at gmail.com> wrote: > Dear Jim, > > Thank you for sharing your view w.r.t. the so called 'Chinese Miners'. > > Diversity of opinion, and mining, are IMHO both good and it's indeed a > free world.... so others who wish to mine bitcoin should be encouraged to > make the capital and technical investments to do so. > > May I ask what is your technical suggestion to move this discussion > forward beyond your anti-Chinese/anti-China rhetoric? e.g. I would be > particularly grateful if you could share your views w.r.t. colluding miner > attacks in draft 0.5.9. of Joseph Poon and Thaddeus Dryja's 'Lightning > network' paper, found here:- > > http://lightning.network/lightning-network-paper.pdf > > Respectfully, > > p. > > > > On Mon, Aug 3, 2015 at 4:02 AM, Jim Phillips via bitcoin-dev < > bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org> wrote: > >> China is a communist country. It is no secret that all "capitalist" >> enterprises are essentially State controlled, or at the very least are >> subject to nationalization should the State deem it necessary. Most ASIC >> chips are manufactured in China, so they are cheap and accessible to >> Chinese miners. Electricity is subsidized and essentially free. Cooling is >> not an issue since large parts of China are mountainous and naturally cool. >> In short the Chinese miners have HUGE advantages over all other mining >> operations. This is probably why, between just the top 4 Chinese miners, >> the People's Republic of China effectively controls 57% of all the Bitcoin >> being mined. >> >> The ONLY disadvantage the Chinese miners have in competing with the rest >> of the world is bandwidth. China has poor connectivity with the rest of the >> world, and Chinese miners have said that an increase in the block size >> would be detrimental to them. I say, GOOD! Most of the free world has >> enough bandwidth to be able to handle larger blocks. We need to take >> advantage of that fact to get mining out of the centralized control of the >> Chinese. >> >> If you're truly worried about larger blocks causing centralization, think >> about how, by restricting blocksize, you're enabling the Communist Chinese >> government to maintain centralized control over 57% of the Bitcoin hashing >> power. >> >> -- >> *James G. Phillips IV* >> <https://plus.google.com/u/0/113107039501292625391/posts> >> <http://www.linkedin.com/in/ergophobe> >> >> *"Don't bunt. Aim out of the ball park. Aim for the company of >> immortals." -- David Ogilvy* >> >> *This message was created with 100% recycled electrons. Please think >> twice before printing.* >> >> _______________________________________________ >> bitcoin-dev mailing list >> bitcoin-dev at lists.linuxfoundation.org >> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev >> >> > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/attachments/20150802/c9cf600a/attachment.html>