Even though your videos are stream of consciousness type rants, you have a talent to break these complex issues down without losing the required nuance. Keep it up!
Thank you BM! 90% of new block content being op_return spam is incredibly sad. I hope that the community starts to shout more about the network's health rather than only shouting about the price going parabolic.
Good stuff, thanks. Minor non critical request: It would be great if you could prep your salient points prior to delivery, to prevent repetition and condense podcast length.
finding your hardware bottleneck is always fun. the network adapter on the pi5 will probably not be the bottleneck. it will most likely be the cpu in my opinion. the nvme wont most likely be the bottleneck if its not the cpu. it will probably be the usb interface bottleneck you face next. but if i could guess it will be the cpu holding you back. funny how it has no problem with the earlier blocks and the later you get in the chain is where the pi struggles. so i totally understand what youre saying here about spam on chain. great vid man good to see you back!!!
Definitely an neophyte when it comes to the Bitcoin mechanics tools and components. I felt as I was beginning to appreciate your concerns and its eventual outcomes til you briefly mentioned Mike Saylor as being a contributor to the problem. Eyes perked up! I genuinely always believed Saylors participation and views were safe and logical to emulate as his stake in btc is truly significant! Will continue to add to my stack but with a little more interest to the building blocks. Thx for the listen :)
Easy way would probably be to get a basic micro pc and install StartOS on it. Or start9 builds rigs that are basically plug and play out of the box, but this is a bit more expensive
Hi Mechanic, I love your videos, your viewpoints, your logic, your voice, and your dry humor. You make me smile every time I watch one of your videos. However, your audio output is really low - I always have to crank up my computer audio to the max to hear your voice. Have you ever thought of running your audio through the free audio editor Audacity to normalize the audio levels before uploading the video? That would help us viewers a lot, I think. Best regards!
What is with people that complain about audio levels on UA-cam videos? It’s super super strange. Is it really hard to just turn your volume up? What is wrong with people.
@@P__114 It is much more useful than stupid people who complain about listeners who inform the content creators that their audio levels are not standard. ALL of the creators who respond to my comments have responded to me with appreciation. Of course, I turn up my volume to adjust for the shitty levels (and hope that no other alerts go off to fry my ears). The stupidity of some YT comments seems unbounded.
300k block seems like a short sighted way to fix the problem. Understand we don't need it the capacity now, but surely there is other ways to stop the spam that doesn't drastically restrict the capacity of the network in the future.
Keep up the good work The Mechanic! What would you recommend for a regular Bitcoin user to support these fundamental principles? Just running a node is enough? Can we do something more?
once you have a meaningful amount of bitcoin, it's in your best interests to run a node, to verify the chain, to process your transactions privately and to increase the decentralise the network further, the most important attribute that gives your holdings value.
its fuckin easy, you literally just buy one, turn it on and leave it running. If you hold any meaningful amount of BTC its in your best interest. Most normies wont do that though, its fine, all you can control is yourself.
I bought bitcoin and then some arses in Core made it unusable for low value transactions and all the vendors who accepted Bitcoin stopped accepting it and the government and the banks won..
I disagree that bigger blocks would somehow make it "incredibly expensive to run a node". 1mb doesn't mean the same thing as it did in 2009. My phone had over 10x more storage capacity than 15 years ago. And my internet speed and available data have also greatly increased while my plan price has gone down by a lot.
It only needs to be fast enough for large entities to settle. Sure it would be great for everyone to use but then it would need block sizes vastly larger than 1mb. They would need to be over 100mb per block for the whole world to use. Then it will clearly become centralized. Projects like lightning can offer large scale usage and still prevent centralization. Most importantly it can prevent Bitcoin rehypothecation.
@@willspeakman2461 your information is incorrect. Even 100mb blocks would not be sufficient to scale the entire world. Not even for California alone, much less the entire world. However, you have to admit the claim that doubling or quadrupling the block size would result in unaffordable nodes, that is a false claim. In 2009 1 tb hard drives did not even exist. Now you can buy a 1 tb micro SD card for your freaking phone!
@@pepelapiu2004 But what is the point of increasing the block size if everyone still can't use it. Im not against bigger block sizes but we need to be extremely careful about making changes to core principles. It works currently and increasing the block sizes may have unintended consequences. The small sizes also secure the network for example. It attracts more miners due to the fees. If we double the block space then we may half the security?
BTC with small blocks isn't and cannot be A P2P Electronic Cash System for the world which was the whole point of Satoshi creating Bitcoin in the first place
Bitcoin Cash is as profitable to mine as BTC with BCH up over 300% in one year. BTC hashrate should start switching to BCH IF there is a continued greater appreciation in the BCH price. Having watched this video three times now it is obvious there are huge issues with BTC. I watched Mow say he is talking with countries to get them to mine BTC, it's not hard to see a future where a few countries control the mining, a few companies control to L2 (off-chain) payment rails where they track, tax and confiscate. Saylor and his number go up corporate world have taken over the BTC show now. @Andrew-ho4vq
Having just watched What Bitcoin Did on scaling it should be obvious to anyone that watches it that seven years after the Blocksize Wars that small blocks was the wrong path @fatrick9001
I'm with you. Fine if you put stuff into op_return. I would like to put merkle roots in there too. But endless pushbytes is just stupid. I saw a trash rap song that filled the whole block, 0.5BTC fee and that waste of bytes will now be stored forever
Well this video sobered me up really quickly. I am going to have to watch this multiple times as it stretched my knowledge beyond breaking point. So many issues raised that i need to understand in greater detail.. i really hope this isn't a yearly video as this sort of cutting edge commentary on BTC is what more of us need to hear.
Just curious, are you a developer or bitcoin professional? I'm neither, and most of this stuff goes right over my head. I certainly pick up what I can, and I would love to educate myself more, but it's just not worth my time as I am neither professionally or financially invested in BTC enough. I'm just curious where people like yourself get the motivation to learn and keep up with these high level issues.
@@kqh123 It goes over my head as well. I am not a professional just an active investor. I learn by osmosis by throwing my self into a subject and learning the vocabulary as I go along. Bitcoin has its own special language which requires constant study to keep up. Mechanic is a prominent and respected figure in the BTC world. His opinions are always worth the price of admission and I never fail to learn from him.
I'm with you. you're right people are stupid. maybe try to make your points in a 30 sec video so it can be spread easier. people cannot handle elaborates thoughts like this in this long video. by the way I'm optimistic because it's all a hardware issue which will be overcomed. doesn't mean we shouldn't optimize hard and keep the trajectory right.
You can’t stop people from putting arbitrary data into blocks. So what’s your solution? People are never going to agree to change the protocol to attempt to filter out arb data. It’s an endless cacophony of cat and mouse, and the more restrictive you make it the more valuable the data becomes from the perspective of NFT/ordinal people.
you need to be even more loud my friend, no one will listen (you obviously know) unless they are strongly compelled...most are too distracted anyways and so therefore be louder and louder my friend
can you explain why the size of the utxo set is so critical? Is the issue due to a limitation of the current implementation, or is it a fundamental limitation that is unlikely to be overcome by better implementations?
Because spending a 9999 BTC UTXO and spending a 0.0003 BTC UTXO can very easily use exactly the same amount of data and in Bitcoin you pay for the amount of data you need in the chain. So the smaller your UTXOs are, the larger your on-chain fees end up being as a % of what you spend.
It blows my mind that you have to spell out why storing arbitrary data on the bitcoin blockchain is spam. It should be self-evident that that's not what bitcoin was designed for. We need more people working on this problem and filter the shit out.
@@osdiasthere was a big debate about op return about 10 years ago. It was seen as a compromise. It was only a matter of time before someone came up with a way to put meme coins in op return. Eventually imo people will learn that meme coin gambling is negative sum - just buy bitcoin and hold it the people spending more than the utxo is worth to move a meme coin are losing money and they will run out eventually.
My biggest problem woth bitcoin at the moment is the inevitability of inability to grant everyone on the planet their own UTXO. I remember watching a podcast with the Barefoot mining guy and his math indicacted that it would take something like 50 years to onboard new users with their own UTXO. That's if the network were to be running at full capacity doing that and not other transactions.
People will share utxos, not necessarily because they ‘have to’ but because they will want to. The smart people will want to have their own utxos, and they can now… however not everyone will want that.
@@prancer1803 I thought the whole point of Bitcoin was to get money out of the hands of third parties and into your own. "Be your own bank" was the mantra. If you don't own your own UTXOs, you're inherently carrying a risk of being rugged. This is a problem for me. I feel like BTC is making complex non-solutions to the problem. I guess people just don't care about financial sovereignty.
All the nfts and meme coins will go to zero (in bitcoin terms) and people will stop making them. Will it take time? Sure. But over the next years people will learn not to play the gambling game and that it’s just better to buy bitcoin and hold it. That learning has to take place and it will take time. The market will ultimately choose with or (right now) temporarily without 100% filters. Thank you for your commentary.
Wow! This is a great eye opener. i'm technical enough to understand the issues and track with the presentation. I'm curious to what extent Michale Saylor has encaged with you if at all and if so what is his position? Much thanks and appreciation.
Of all the research I have done trying to understand bitcoin, no one explains all the nuances of the actual mechanics and underlying challenges of maintaining the network as deeply or as thoroughly as you do. Well done and keep it up.
Great video, but its 2024 - I think we are going to have to rely on something other than "ability to run a node" as a primary differentiator, otherwise we're in trouble. We've got shitcoins in the top 10 that have been around for 3 cycles, use UTXOs, and are arguably more decentralized than bitcoin accross several different measures - including having lower requirements to run a node
That's scary as DUCK! Here we BTC Maxis are hopping and skipping around singing the praises of BTC, when there is a NODE MONSTER MAIN lurking in the depths! BTW - would love to see you and Erik Cason on the same podcast.
incidentally, I realise I used core not knots, cbf resyncing again BUT there's also an option within core to change the 83 bytes to another value, what should I set it at?
When i first sync'd a node, it took over a month. That was on the previous version of raspberry pi, though. You tech gurus getting way better times is not representative of how long it actually takes for most of us. So that issue is actually even worse than you said.
Since I became so rich in cryptocurrency I realise that crypto is the future cuz I invested 10k and made up to 36k as weekly profit I appreciate the help of your channel 😃🙂
As a "no coiner" but still hoping BTC succeeds, it was easy to see year's ago that all of the "add ons" likely would lead to dillusion of a potentially great protocol.
I could listen to you lecture all day. Thanks for posting and hope you continue to do so more frequently.
I am a moderately tech savvy pleb and I care. Run two nodes and have my modest home miners pointed to Ocean. Thanks for this!
Even though your videos are stream of consciousness type rants, you have a talent to break these complex issues down without losing the required nuance. Keep it up!
Layer 1 should have never allowed anything except financial transactions.
Hard to prevent arbitrary data
Thank you for all you do, for making this stand, for communicating why this is a problem. Please continue and don't give up.
Thank you BM! 90% of new block content being op_return spam is incredibly sad. I hope that the community starts to shout more about the network's health rather than only shouting about the price going parabolic.
Thank mechanic for all your hard work, you also helped me to get into bitcoin
Well done sir! Well done!
Appreciate this sir - even though I only understand half of it - and absolutely intending to run a node this year.
Well thought out. 300kb blocks might allow a smartphone to be a node, + 15Gb per year...
Wow, great stuff mate!
Good stuff, thanks. Minor non critical request: It would be great if you could prep your salient points prior to delivery, to prevent repetition and condense podcast length.
See you in Prague soon
finding your hardware bottleneck is always fun. the network adapter on the pi5 will probably not be the bottleneck. it will most likely be the cpu in my opinion. the nvme wont most likely be the bottleneck if its not the cpu. it will probably be the usb interface bottleneck you face next. but if i could guess it will be the cpu holding you back. funny how it has no problem with the earlier blocks and the later you get in the chain is where the pi struggles. so i totally understand what youre saying here about spam on chain. great vid man good to see you back!!!
Definitely an neophyte when it comes to the Bitcoin mechanics tools and components. I felt as I was beginning to appreciate your concerns and its eventual outcomes til you briefly mentioned Mike Saylor as being a contributor to the problem. Eyes perked up! I genuinely always believed Saylors participation and views were safe and logical to emulate as his stake in btc is truly significant! Will continue to add to my stack but with a little more interest to the building blocks. Thx for the listen :)
GREAT VIDEO!
Keep your chin up. You're doing good work.
Just had my coffee. Keep it going.
Thank you.
Thank you for posting
What's your opinion on the chances of centralized nodes, mining pools, and obviously media, coordinating an attack on btc via a hard fork.
I want to run a node. What is an easy way I can do that?
Easy way would probably be to get a basic micro pc and install StartOS on it. Or start9 builds rigs that are basically plug and play out of the box, but this is a bit more expensive
Hi Mechanic, I love your videos, your viewpoints, your logic, your voice, and your dry humor. You make me smile every time I watch one of your videos. However, your audio output is really low - I always have to crank up my computer audio to the max to hear your voice. Have you ever thought of running your audio through the free audio editor Audacity to normalize the audio levels before uploading the video? That would help us viewers a lot, I think. Best regards!
What is with people that complain about audio levels on UA-cam videos? It’s super super strange. Is it really hard to just turn your volume up? What is wrong with people.
@@P__114 It is much more useful than stupid people who complain about listeners who inform the content creators that their audio levels are not standard. ALL of the creators who respond to my comments have responded to me with appreciation. Of course, I turn up my volume to adjust for the shitty levels (and hope that no other alerts go off to fry my ears). The stupidity of some YT comments seems unbounded.
🧡
Brilliant - thx so much Mechanic
Thanks! 👍
Truth ~!
300k block seems like a short sighted way to fix the problem. Understand we don't need it the capacity now, but surely there is other ways to stop the spam that doesn't drastically restrict the capacity of the network in the future.
Keep up the good work The Mechanic! What would you recommend for a regular Bitcoin user to support these fundamental principles? Just running a node is enough? Can we do something more?
What a great time to be in crypto! Projects like Revux will make millionaires in the bull run.
should there be a reward mechanism for running a full node?
once you have a meaningful amount of bitcoin, it's in your best interests to run a node, to verify the chain, to process your transactions privately and to increase the decentralise the network further, the most important attribute that gives your holdings value.
Sorry at 11:00 Mechanic says clogging up the blockchain makes everyone use custodial bitcoin?
Can someone explain to me why that is?
There's a buzz around Revux, and rightfully so.
I was about to put a large portion of my NW into btc, but until this is solved I will hold off doing so.
👍
Great video. What do you mean by Micheal Saylor's DID? What is this?
All I wanted to hear was your take on Trump and Bitcoin.
There are much more important things than that.
Would you say chainspam is more like Herpes or AIDS for nodes?
its more like cancer.
Can you share the config for the BTC nodes to not store this spam. Thanks
Everyday people don't want to run nodes.
its fuckin easy, you literally just buy one, turn it on and leave it running. If you hold any meaningful amount of BTC its in your best interest.
Most normies wont do that though, its fine, all you can control is yourself.
Mining is already centralised deslite claims to the contrary.
I bought bitcoin and then some arses in Core made it unusable for low value transactions and all the vendors who accepted Bitcoin stopped accepting it and the government and the banks won..
Could you give a short summary why LTC couldn't exist alongside BTC please?
I disagree that bigger blocks would somehow make it "incredibly expensive to run a node". 1mb doesn't mean the same thing as it did in 2009.
My phone had over 10x more storage capacity than 15 years ago. And my internet speed and available data have also greatly increased while my plan price has gone down by a lot.
Block space is infinite. No need to increase block size.
@@jimjones3482 WTF are you talking about?
It only needs to be fast enough for large entities to settle. Sure it would be great for everyone to use but then it would need block sizes vastly larger than 1mb. They would need to be over 100mb per block for the whole world to use. Then it will clearly become centralized. Projects like lightning can offer large scale usage and still prevent centralization. Most importantly it can prevent Bitcoin rehypothecation.
@@willspeakman2461 your information is incorrect. Even 100mb blocks would not be sufficient to scale the entire world. Not even for California alone, much less the entire world.
However, you have to admit the claim that doubling or quadrupling the block size would result in unaffordable nodes, that is a false claim.
In 2009 1 tb hard drives did not even exist. Now you can buy a 1 tb micro SD card for your freaking phone!
@@pepelapiu2004 But what is the point of increasing the block size if everyone still can't use it. Im not against bigger block sizes but we need to be extremely careful about making changes to core principles. It works currently and increasing the block sizes may have unintended consequences. The small sizes also secure the network for example. It attracts more miners due to the fees. If we double the block space then we may half the security?
BTC with small blocks isn't and cannot be A P2P Electronic Cash System for the world which was the whole point of Satoshi creating Bitcoin in the first place
Bitcoin Cash is as profitable to mine as BTC with BCH up over 300% in one year.
BTC hashrate should start switching to BCH IF there is a continued greater appreciation in the BCH price.
Having watched this video three times now it is obvious there are huge issues with BTC.
I watched Mow say he is talking with countries to get them to mine BTC, it's not hard to see a future where a few countries control the mining, a few companies control to L2 (off-chain) payment rails where they track, tax and confiscate.
Saylor and his number go up corporate world have taken over the BTC show now.
@Andrew-ho4vq
Having just watched What Bitcoin Did on scaling it should be obvious to anyone that watches it that seven years after the Blocksize Wars that small blocks was the wrong path
@fatrick9001
I'm with you. Fine if you put stuff into op_return. I would like to put merkle roots in there too.
But endless pushbytes is just stupid. I saw a trash rap song that filled the whole block, 0.5BTC fee and that waste of bytes will now be stored forever
Well this video sobered me up really quickly. I am going to have to watch this multiple times as it stretched my knowledge beyond breaking point. So many issues raised that i need to understand in greater detail.. i really hope this isn't a yearly video as this sort of cutting edge commentary on BTC is what more of us need to hear.
Just curious, are you a developer or bitcoin professional? I'm neither, and most of this stuff goes right over my head. I certainly pick up what I can, and I would love to educate myself more, but it's just not worth my time as I am neither professionally or financially invested in BTC enough. I'm just curious where people like yourself get the motivation to learn and keep up with these high level issues.
@@kqh123 It goes over my head as well. I am not a professional just an active investor. I learn by osmosis by throwing my self into a subject and learning the vocabulary as I go along. Bitcoin has its own special language which requires constant study to keep up. Mechanic is a prominent and respected figure in the BTC world. His opinions are always worth the price of admission and I never fail to learn from him.
Rational, well reasoned arguments? We need more if this. Please speak up more often, Mechanic. Twitter doesn't count.
Fight the good fight sir.
Calm & informative, thank you 🙏🏼
Setup a node yesterday.
Appreciate your videos.
Which one? Any leads?
fine work, once again, by the legendary bitcoin mechanic.
Great video!! More please...i listen to all the btc podcasters, learn the most from you....thank you!
ok i activate my Node again...
You can explain this like no other, Bitcoin Knots!🤩
Welcome back 👋
Great video dude!
I'm with you. you're right people are stupid. maybe try to make your points in a 30 sec video so it can be spread easier. people cannot handle elaborates thoughts like this in this long video. by the way I'm optimistic because it's all a hardware issue which will be overcomed. doesn't mean we shouldn't optimize hard and keep the trajectory right.
You can’t stop people from putting arbitrary data into blocks. So what’s your solution? People are never going to agree to change the protocol to attempt to filter out arb data. It’s an endless cacophony of cat and mouse, and the more restrictive you make it the more valuable the data becomes from the perspective of NFT/ordinal people.
you need to be even more loud my friend, no one will listen (you obviously know) unless they are strongly compelled...most are too distracted anyways and so therefore be louder and louder my friend
I thought i was at a decent point down the Rabbit hole obviously with more tò learn. I have Just realised i am still at the top. Many tnx.
I’d love an explanation on why empty blocks happen
Your rambling stream of consciousness resonates with me and drips with reasonable logic. Well done
can you explain why the size of the utxo set is so critical? Is the issue due to a limitation of the current implementation, or is it a fundamental limitation that is unlikely to be overcome by better implementations?
Because spending a 9999 BTC UTXO and spending a 0.0003 BTC UTXO can very easily use exactly the same amount of data and in Bitcoin you pay for the amount of data you need in the chain. So the smaller your UTXOs are, the larger your on-chain fees end up being as a % of what you spend.
@@bitcoinmechanic I understand that. I meant, why is the size of the utxo set critical in terms of the time it takes to sync a node
@@kevalan1042 Oops - the bigger the UTXO set, the longer it takes.
It blows my mind that you have to spell out why storing arbitrary data on the bitcoin blockchain is spam. It should be self-evident that that's not what bitcoin was designed for. We need more people working on this problem and filter the shit out.
It also blows my mind that devs didn't consider this abuse of the network when they designed the protocol. Very poor in my opinion.
@@osdiasthere was a big debate about op return about 10 years ago. It was seen as a compromise. It was only a matter of time before someone came up with a way to put meme coins in op return. Eventually imo people will learn that meme coin gambling is negative sum - just buy bitcoin and hold it the people spending more than the utxo is worth to move a meme coin are losing money and they will run out eventually.
My biggest problem woth bitcoin at the moment is the inevitability of inability to grant everyone on the planet their own UTXO. I remember watching a podcast with the Barefoot mining guy and his math indicacted that it would take something like 50 years to onboard new users with their own UTXO. That's if the network were to be running at full capacity doing that and not other transactions.
People will share utxos, not necessarily because they ‘have to’ but because they will want to. The smart people will want to have their own utxos, and they can now… however not everyone will want that.
@@prancer1803 I thought the whole point of Bitcoin was to get money out of the hands of third parties and into your own. "Be your own bank" was the mantra. If you don't own your own UTXOs, you're inherently carrying a risk of being rugged. This is a problem for me. I feel like BTC is making complex non-solutions to the problem. I guess people just don't care about financial sovereignty.
All the nfts and meme coins will go to zero (in bitcoin terms) and people will stop making them. Will it take time? Sure. But over the next years people will learn not to play the gambling game and that it’s just better to buy bitcoin and hold it. That learning has to take place and it will take time. The market will ultimately choose with or (right now) temporarily without 100% filters.
Thank you for your commentary.
the question is: what can be done about it?
Wow! This is a great eye opener. i'm technical enough to understand the issues and track with the presentation. I'm curious to what extent Michale Saylor has encaged with you if at all and if so what is his position? Much thanks and appreciation.
Of all the research I have done trying to understand bitcoin, no one explains all the nuances of the actual mechanics and underlying challenges of maintaining the network as deeply or as thoroughly as you do. Well done and keep it up.
'nodes need to check the history FOR THEMSELVES'
but advocates using ASSUME VALID!
and these numptys praise you, lol
What is that bit about michael saylor at the end
Great video, but its 2024 - I think we are going to have to rely on something other than "ability to run a node" as a primary differentiator, otherwise we're in trouble. We've got shitcoins in the top 10 that have been around for 3 cycles, use UTXOs, and are arguably more decentralized than bitcoin accross several different measures - including having lower requirements to run a node
If I need to choose top 3 AI coins, my picks are FET, INJ and RVX (Revux), not in that particular order
That's scary as DUCK! Here we BTC Maxis are hopping and skipping around singing the praises of BTC, when there is a NODE MONSTER MAIN lurking in the depths! BTW - would love to see you and Erik Cason on the same podcast.
What if I told you that Revux will crush most of the top tier AI coins by the end of the year?
on shit australian internet on an 8gb pi4 running umbrel with a good ssd, it took me about 4-5 days to sync core.
incidentally, I realise I used core not knots, cbf resyncing again BUT there's also an option within core to change the 83 bytes to another value, what should I set it at?
Also, I noticed the last 90% on the sync it slowed down SO much.
Revux is one of the rare moonshot AI project out there, must check!
When i first sync'd a node, it took over a month. That was on the previous version of raspberry pi, though. You tech gurus getting way better times is not representative of how long it actually takes for most of us. So that issue is actually even worse than you said.
rpi 5 funning umbrel took 24 hours and i have no idea what im doing ..umbrel is free btw if you want to give it a shot
@@Btree33 I've tried it. I like StartOS better
I'd like to hear why empty Blockchains are a good thing please...🙏
Good explaining!
Since I became so rich in cryptocurrency I realise that crypto is the future cuz I invested 10k and made up to 36k as weekly profit I appreciate the help of your channel 😃🙂
For me trading has not been good well 😞 for me every day I came to watch video's I only see people appreciating how good they trading works
Which signal do you guys trade
I am currently guided by Sophia Grave
Her platform is really safe and secured, not quite long I joined her discord
Yes!!! That's exactly her name ( Ms Sophia Grave): so many people have recommended highly about her and am just starting with her from Canada 🇵🇪
As a "no coiner" but still hoping BTC succeeds, it was easy to see year's ago that all of the "add ons" likely would lead to dillusion of a potentially great protocol.