Hot take: both sides ultimately lost. At first glance, it might seem like the “small blockers” won since the Bitcoin blockchain remained capped at 1MB for base block sizes. However, in reality, we got effectively bigger blocks through the implementation of SegWit (Segregated Witness), which increased the block weight limit to 4MB. This outcome wasn’t what the “big blockers” initially wanted, as their proposal focused on straightforward block size increases rather than protocol changes like SegWit.

Years later, the debate comes full circle with the rise of inscriptions and Ordinals, which allow the creation of NFTs and similar data on-chain. This has led to block spam filling up the expanded block space, essentially achieving the higher block size utilization that “big blockers” initially sought to avoid high transaction fees—but not in the way they envisioned. Instead of optimizing for payment transactions, much of the block space is now used for storing non-financial data, frustrating both camps.

In the end, the Bitcoin community settled on a compromise that pleased neither side fully, and subsequent developments have further blurred the lines between the two philosophies.