Newbs might not know this, but bitcoin recently came out of an intense internal drama. Between July 2015 and August 2017 bitcoin was attacked by external forces who were hoping to destroy the very properties that made bitcoin valuable in the first place. This culminated in the creation of segwit and the UASF (user activated soft fork) movement. The UASF was successful, segwit was added to bitcoin and with that the anti-decentralization side left bitcoin altogether and created their own altcoin called bcash. Bitcoin's price was $2500, soon after segwit was activated the price doubled to $5000 and continued rising until here we are today at $15000.
During this drama, I took time away from writing open source code to help educate and argue on reddit, twitter and other social media. I came up with a reading list for quickly copypasting things. It may be interesting today for newbs or anyone who wants a history lesson on what exactly happened during those two years when bitcoin's very existence as a decentralized low-trust currency was questioned. Now the fight has essentially been won, I don't comment on reddit that much anymore. There's nothing left to do except wait for Lightning and similar tech to become mature (or better yet, help code it and test it)
In this thread you can learn about block sizes, latency, decentralization, segwit, ASICBOOST, lightning network and all the other issues that were debated endlessly for over two years. So when someone tries to get you to invest in bcash, remind them of the time they supported Bitcoin Unlimited :P
Summary / The fundamental tradeoff
A trip to the moon requires a rocket with multiple stages by gmaxwell (must read) http://ift.tt/1m0iO0I
Bram Cohen, creator of bittorrent, argues against a hard fork to a larger block size http://ift.tt/2CfBd3y
gmaxwell's summary of the debate http://ift.tt/1PVViKu
Core devs please explain your vision (see luke's post which also argues that blocks are already too big) http://ift.tt/2nw0lxD
Mod of r/btc speaking against a hard fork http://ift.tt/2DlfiaH
It's becoming clear to me that a lot of people don't understand how fragile bitcoin is http://ift.tt/2eNn6Yg
Blockchain space must be costly, it can never be free http://ift.tt/1Xss3r3
Charlie Lee with a nice analogy about the fundamental tradeoff http://ift.tt/2CeLixU
gmaxwell on the tradeoffs http://ift.tt/28TFhIK
jratcliff on the layering http://ift.tt/2CdQuSE
Scaling on-chain will destroy bitcoin's decentralization
Peter Todd: How a floating blocksize limit inevitably leads towards centralization [Feb 2013] http://ift.tt/1MEvF4e mailing list http://ift.tt/2Cgr5Yv with discussion on reddit in Aug 2015 http://ift.tt/1J6dVZk
Nick Szabo's blog post on what makes bitcoin so special http://ift.tt/2kXAe1z
There is academic research showing that even small (2MB) increases to the blocksize results in drastic node dropoff counts due to the non-linear increase of RAM needed. http://ift.tt/2n4AsCT
Reddit summary of above link. In this table, you can see it estimates a 40% drop immediately in node count with a 2MB upgrade and a 50% over 6 months. At 4mb, it becomes 75% immediately and 80% over 6 months. At 8, it becomes 90% and 95%. http://ift.tt/2Ce2Lqd
Larger block sizes make centralization pressures worse (mathematical) http://ift.tt/2aScUuZ
Talk at scalingbitcoin montreal, initial blockchain synchronization puts serious constraints on any increase in the block size https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgjrS-BPWDQ&t=2h02m06s with transcript http://ift.tt/2CdQvGc
Bitcoin's P2P Network: The Soft Underbelly of Bitcoin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6kibPzbrIc someone's notes: http://ift.tt/2DlfV43 reddit discussion http://ift.tt/291D5Ta
In adversarial environments blockchains dont scale http://ift.tt/2DlfXJd
Why miners will not voluntarily individually produce smaller blocks http://ift.tt/2CcpYsN
Hal Finney: bitcoin's blockchain can only be a settlement layer (mostly interesting because it's hal finney and its in 2010) http://ift.tt/1NpDdmP
petertodd's 2013 video explaining this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZp7UGgBR0I
luke-jr's summary http://ift.tt/2nHPLUu
Another jratcliff thread http://ift.tt/2uOWI6G
Full blocks are not a disaster
Blocks must be always full, there must always be a backlog http://ift.tt/2Ccq1Vv
Same as above, the mining gap means there must always be a backlog talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2453&v=iKDC2DpzNbw transcript: http://ift.tt/2Dlg3Az
Backlogs arent that bad http://ift.tt/1R7N1K4
Examples where scarce block space causes people to use precious resources more efficiently http://ift.tt/1WNDDg8
http://ift.tt/21qSIEd
http://ift.tt/2Dlg73h
Full blocks are fine http://ift.tt/2lp9PKw
High miner fees imply a sustainable future for bitcoin http://ift.tt/2Dlg7Aj
gmaxwell on why full blocks are good http://ift.tt/2CdQwde
The whole idea of the mempool being "filled" is wrong headed. The mempool doesn't "clog" or get stuck, or anything like that. http://ift.tt/2Dn23q6
Segwit
What is segwit
luke-jr's longer summary http://ift.tt/2Ccq9Et
Charlie Shrem's on upgrading to segwit https://twitter.com/CharlieShrem/status/842711238853513220
Original segwit talk at scalingbitcoin hong kong + transcript https://youtu.be/zchzn7aPQjI?t=110
http://ift.tt/2Dlg9YX
Segwit is not too complex http://ift.tt/2CeLjBY
Segwit does not make it possible for miners to steal coins, contrary to what some people say http://ift.tt/2Dn265g
http://ift.tt/2Cgf2dS
Segwit is required for a useful lightning network It's now known that without a malleability fix useful indefinite channels are not really possible.
http://ift.tt/2Dn279k
http://ift.tt/2CcqdUJ
http://ift.tt/2Dn29hs
Clearing up SegWit Lies and Myths: http://ift.tt/2lD8dJc
Segwit is bigger blocks http://ift.tt/2Dojcj7
Typical usage results in segwit allowing capacity equivalent to 2mb blocks http://ift.tt/2p5VIMQ
Why is segwit being blocked
Jihan Wu (head of largest bitcoin mining group) is blocking segwit because of perceived loss of income http://ift.tt/2n8G7K1
Witness discount creates aligned incentives http://ift.tt/2Ccqjf3 http://ift.tt/2DmRVh7
or because he wants his mining enterprise to have control over bitcoin http://ift.tt/2sEPJ1V
Segwit is being blocked because it breaks ASICBOOST, a patented optimization used by bitmain ASIC manufacturer
Details and discovery by gmaxwell http://ift.tt/2oEqXNX
Reddit thread with discussion http://ift.tt/2nLCjfH
Simplified explaination by jonny1000 http://ift.tt/2ppfEWU
http://ift.tt/2of3imy
http://ift.tt/2ojtKLP
Evidence http://ift.tt/2o431kk
http://ift.tt/2Ccqrex
http://ift.tt/2Dlgf2L
Bitmain admits their chips have asicboost but they say they never used it on the network (haha a likely story) http://ift.tt/2nhDCqt
Worth $100m per year to them (also in gmaxwell's original email) https://twitter.com/petertoddbtc/status/849798529929424898
Other calculations show less http://ift.tt/2p3pMYF
This also blocks all these other cool updates, not just segwit http://ift.tt/2Ccqt69
Summary of bad consequences of asicboost http://ift.tt/2DnVzay
Luke's summary of the entire situation http://ift.tt/2CcquqJ
Prices goes up because now segwit looks more likely https://twitter.com/TuurDemeester/status/849846845425799168
Asicboost discovery made the price rise https://twitter.com/TuurDemeester/status/851520094677200901
A pool was caught red handed doing asicboost, by this time it seemed fairly certain that segwit would get activated so it didnt produce as much interest as earlier http://ift.tt/2tu1Sog and http://ift.tt/2vSLuP9 and https://twitter.com/petertoddbtc/status/889475196322811904
What if segwit never activates
What if segwit never activates? http://ift.tt/2Dn2twG with http://ift.tt/2mz1H6N and http://ift.tt/2buwKxJ
Lightning
bitcoinmagazine's series on what lightning is and how it works http://ift.tt/2kXxW0m http://ift.tt/2n80Xcp http://ift.tt/2mJOfND
The Lightning Network ELIDHDICACS (Explain Like I Don't Have Degrees in Cryptography and Computer Science) http://ift.tt/1V9L1hT
Ligtning will increases fees for miners, not lower them http://ift.tt/2Dn2yjY
Cost-benefit analysis of lightning from the point of view of miners http://ift.tt/2Ce2O5n
Routing blog post by rusty http://ift.tt/25xQuoH and reddit comments http://ift.tt/1P3oi3A
Lightning protocol rfc http://ift.tt/2iI75Ue
Blog post with screenshots of ln being used on testnet http://ift.tt/2mOZRDP video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxGiMu4V7ns
Video of sending and receiving ln on testnet https://twitter.com/alexbosworth/status/844030573131706368
Lightning tradeoffs http://ift.tt/1THGqod
Beer sold for testnet lightning http://ift.tt/2nLWz36 and https://twitter.com/MrHodl/status/848265171269283845
Lightning will result in far fewer coins being stored on third parties because it supports instant transactions http://ift.tt/2rRSMBV
jgarzik argues strongly against LN, he owns a coin tracking startup https://twitter.com/petertoddbtc/status/860826532650123264 https://twitter.com/Beautyon_/status/886128801926795264
luke's great debunking / answer of some misinformation questions http://ift.tt/2Cebngr
Lightning centralization doesnt happen http://ift.tt/2Do9NrA
roasbeef on hubs and charging fees https://twitter.com/roasbeef/status/930209165728825344 and https://twitter.com/roasbeef/status/930210145790976000
Immutability / Being a swiss bank in your pocket / Why doing a hard fork (especially without consensus) is damaging
A downside of hard forks is damaging bitcoin's immutability http://ift.tt/2CcqI13
Interesting analysis of miners incentives and how failure is possible, don't trust the miners for long term http://ift.tt/2Dm5SM0
waxwing on the meaning of cash and settlement http://ift.tt/2CewnE1
maaku on the cash question http://ift.tt/2Dn2Gjs
Digital gold funamentalists gain nothing from supporting a hard fork to larger block sizes http://ift.tt/2Cd5Ruu
Those asking for a compromise don't understand the underlying political forces http://ift.tt/2Dn2Hnw
Nobody wants a contentious hard fork actually, anti-core people got emotionally manipulated http://ift.tt/2lqCWtf
The hard work of the core developers has kept bitcoin scalable http://ift.tt/2Dn2JvE
Recent PRs to improve bitcoin scaleability ignored by the debate https://twitter.com/jfnewbery/status/883001356168167425
gmaxwell against hard forks since 2013 http://ift.tt/29HTusA
maaku: hard forks are really bad http://ift.tt/2Dlggnl
Some metrics on what the market thinks of decentralization and hostile hard forks
The price history shows that the exchange rate drops every time a hard fork threatens: http://ift.tt/2Cgf45u
and this example from 2017 https://twitter.com/WhalePanda/status/845562763820912642
http://ift.tt/2Dn2NLU r/btc users lose money
price supporting theymos' moderation http://ift.tt/2CggahH
old version http://ift.tt/2DnVzY6
older version http://ift.tt/2CggblL
about 50% of nodes updated to the soft fork node quite quickly http://ift.tt/2Dm5T2w
Bitcoin Unlimited / Emergent Consensus is badly designed, changes the game theory of bitcoin
Bitcoin Unlimited was a proposed hard fork client, it was made with the intention to stop segwit from activating
A Future Led by Bitcoin Unlimited is a Centralized Future http://ift.tt/2Cd79pt
Flexible transactions are bugged http://ift.tt/2eGGRCY
Bugged BU software mines an invalid block, wasting 13 bitcoins or $12k
http://ift.tt/2khfkdt
http://ift.tt/2jLtvo0
bitcoin.com employees are moderators of r/btc http://ift.tt/2Cggehr
miners don't control stuff like the block size http://ift.tt/1NZ8qAo
even gavin agreed that economic majority controls things http://ift.tt/2mO2moQ
fork clients are trying to steal bitcoin's brand and network effect, theyre no different from altcoins http://ift.tt/2DmDcmg
BU being active makes it easier to reverse payments, increases wasted work making the network less secure and giving an advantage to bigger miners http://ift.tt/2gtc3WF
bitcoin unlimited takes power away from users and gives it to miners http://ift.tt/2DnhfU2
bitcoin unlimited's accepted depth https://twitter.com/tdryja/status/804770009272696832
BU's lying propaganda poster http://ift.tt/2CgghK9
BU is bugged, poorly-reviewed and crashes
bitcoin unlimited allegedly funded by kraken stolen coins
http://ift.tt/2DnaEZZ
http://ift.tt/2dyHE4w
Other funding stuff
http://ift.tt/2nHkRbt
A serious bug in BU http://ift.tt/2go85Oi
A summary of what's wrong with BU: http://ift.tt/2Dn2Rv8
Bitcoin Unlimited Remote Exploit Crash 14/3/2017
http://ift.tt/2nBmDev http://ift.tt/2nBJiY7 http://ift.tt/2n6TxXP
BU devs calling it as disaster https://twitter.com/SooMartindale/status/841758265188966401 also r/btc deleted a thread about the exploit http://ift.tt/2DmAD3o
Summary of incident http://ift.tt/2mGK4nl
More than 20 exchanges will list BTU as an altcoin
http://ift.tt/2mXvWrr
Again a few days later http://ift.tt/2mS0mcd
User Activated Soft Fork (UASF)
site for it, including list of businesses supporting it http://www.uasf.co/
luke's view
http://ift.tt/2DlBxNG
threat of UASF makes the miner fall into line in litecoin
http://ift.tt/2Do3EvR
UASF delivers the goods for vertcoin
http://ift.tt/2Cd5RL0
UASF coin is more valuable http://ift.tt/2pYRmYw
All the links together in one place http://ift.tt/2r417U0
p2sh was a uasf http://ift.tt/2mHbQlk
jgarzik annoyed at the strict timeline that segwit2x has to follow because of bip148 https://twitter.com/jgarzik/status/886605836902162432
Committed intolerant minority http://ift.tt/2qiSZfG
alp on the game theory of the intolerant minority http://ift.tt/2qFFckc
uasf delivered the goods for bitcoin, it forced antpool and others to signal (May 2016) http://ift.tt/2l2mU8q "When asked specifically whether Antpool would run SegWit code without a hard fork increase in the block size also included in a release of Bitcoin Core, Wu responded: "No. It is acceptable that the hard fork code is not activated, but it needs to be included in a 'release' of Bitcoin Core. I have made it clear about the definition of 'release,' which is not 'public.'""
Screenshot of peter rizun capitulating https://twitter.com/chris_belcher_/status/905231603991007232
Fighting off 2x HF
https://twitter.com/MrHodl/status/895089909723049984
http://ift.tt/2CcqN4R
http://ift.tt/2DlS8AW
http://ift.tt/2CbUcwb
http://ift.tt/1TwURLO
b2x is most of all about firing core https://twitter.com/WhalePanda/status/912664487135760384
http://ift.tt/2yrPAPq
Misinformation / sockpuppets
http://ift.tt/2ws2ZsN
three year old account, only started posting today http://ift.tt/2Cf9nol
History
Good article that covers virtually all the important history http://ift.tt/2xtTMNV
Interesting post with some history pre-2015 http://ift.tt/2niUP1I
The core scalabality roadmap + my summary from 3/2017 http://ift.tt/1Zm3n26 my summary http://ift.tt/2lC8fBi
History from summer 2015 http://ift.tt/2m5n1SE
Brief reminders of the ETC situation http://ift.tt/2Cd2qUG
Longer writeup of ethereum's TheDAO bailout fraud http://ift.tt/2s1KBl5
Point that the bigblocker side is only blocking segwit as a hostage http://ift.tt/2Cewnnv
jonny1000's recall of the history of r/bitcoin http://ift.tt/2DmXcoB
Misc (mostly memes)
hard fork proposals from some core devs http://ift.tt/2lyJoiV
blockstream hasnt taken over the entire bitcoin core project http://ift.tt/2o3Lbk6
blockstream is one of the good guys http://ift.tt/2CdnaLW
Some stuff here along with that cool photoshopped poster http://ift.tt/2mhFQno
Nice graphic https://twitter.com/RNR_0/status/871070843698380800
gmaxwell saying how he is probably responsible for the most privacy tech in bitcoin, while mike hearn screwed up privacy http://ift.tt/2CcKoll
Fairly cool propaganda poster https://twitter.com/urbanarson/status/880476631583924225
btc tankman http://ift.tt/2tdz7wW https://twitter.com/DanDarkPill/status/853653168151986177
asicboost discovery meme https://twitter.com/allenscottoshi/status/849888189124947971
https://twitter.com/urbanarson/status/882020516521013250
gavin wanted to kill the bitcoin chain https://twitter.com/allenscottoshi/status/849888189124947971
stuff that r/btc believes http://ift.tt/2CejN7s
after segwit2x NYA got agreed all the fee pressure disappeared, laurenmt found they were artificial spam https://twitter.com/i/moments/885827802775396352
theymos saying why victory isnt inevitable http://ift.tt/2DnhtdQ
with ignorant enemies like these its no wonder we won http://ift.tt/2CdJKEo ""So, once segwit2x activates, from that moment on it will require a coordinated fork to avoid the up coming "baked in" HF. ""
a positive effect of bcash, it made blockchain utxo spammers move away from bitcoin http://ift.tt/2DlghHV
summary of craig wright, jihan wu and roger ver's positions http://ift.tt/2fv0uzr
what happened to #oldjeffgarzik http://ift.tt/2ibpEnX
big blockers fully deserve to lose every last bitcoin they ever had and more http://ift.tt/2Cd2sMi
gavinandresen brainstorming how to kill bitcoin with a 51% in a nasty way https://twitter.com/btcdrak/status/843914877542567937
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