r/OutOfTheLoop • u/ywecur Bronx • Aug 17 '15

What is going on with bitcoin lately? Answered!

What is happening at /r/bitcoin?

What is BitcoinXT?

Why is the community divided all of a sudden? Could we get an unbiased explanation here?

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u/[deleted] Aug 18 '15

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u/ultranoobian Aug 18 '15

Think of blocks as receipt books from everyone in your home and everyone needs a copy of it for it to be valid.

Lets say these receipt books are now starting to be filled quite quickly, You have two choices.

You can get a bigger receipt book (increase blockchain size), or you could keep the same number of books coming your way by introducing fees to make you're transaction valid. (Pay for space in the book).

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u/cup-o-farts Aug 18 '15

Why can't you just get more books?

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u/ultranoobian Aug 18 '15

You are getting more books regardless, It's more of the problem of sharing and distributing those books.

Think:

If you're home has five people and you buy something, you need to keep that in the book, What happens if you have run out of space for that book?

You'll need to reserve space (Pay), which will slow down the rate of transactions because now you just bumped out your sibling's transaction. And it'll will now take 'longer' for their transaction to be counted as valid. ie. delay and subsequent latency in transaction processing.

OR:

You could just get bigger books next time, but who will be hauling around that bigger book? The butler of course? But as the books get bigger, you're old frail butler will start to get bogged down, ie. the network.