Nostr Web Client

Limiting data on witnesses makes no sense and would break many use cases of bitcoin including those that are “purely monetary”. I’m not appealing to authority as an opt out. I’m making the point that

(a) this is not as simple as “just get rid of things I don’t like” and

(b) you would need someone to implement the type of limit you describe and if everyone that could says that’s a bad/dangerous idea, that’s a problem.

The difference about the pandemic is that experts that disagreed were silenced so it wasn’t universal agreement.

Lift the cap on OP_RETURN and no more witness discount. If it’s not just about the discount then you’re really just asking to censor data you don’t like.

clr 2y ago

I would be pleased if the segwit discount was removed. About the OP_RETURN cap, I’d rather keep it unless there is a justification for increasing (not removing) it. You mentioned the “expresiveness”. I definitely don’t want to censor data, but I believe that transactions should be as concise as possible rather than expressive/verbose. The bitcoin blockchain is, first and foremost, an accounting ledger, not a blank canvas to paint or write novels. I am OK with short strings of text, such as the Times’ headline in the genesis block or the miners writing their name on the blocks they mine. It’s not about the contents, but about the length/size.

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Discussion

buck 2y ago

At some point what is concise will become a subjective value. The way we make that objective is by scarce block size and the free market. Costs encourage users to be as concise as possible.

clr 2y ago

Yes and no. The protocol is opinionated: whether to keep, alter or remove OP_RETURN, the segwit discount, and so on alter the conditions of the “free market”, i.e. the playing field that the protocol enables. Even the block size limit is opinionated. For example, with an unlimited OP_RETURN, it would be cheaper to make an inscription using it, because you wouldn’t have to split it among several transactions.

buck 2y ago

Great point. What you’re describing is a change to the protocol, which by definition would not be how it works today. But yes, removing OP_RETURN limits (which I believe is just policy anyway) and the segwit discount would make the market more free. Discriminating against data (a la current segwit discount and OP_RETURN limits does) is would not.