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Scaling Bitcoin Workshop Looks Forward To Hong Kong in December

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:45 PM
Justin OConnell
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:45 PM

Marketed as a way to discuss in person major issues regarding the Bitcoin technology, the Scaling Bitcoin Workshop was attended by many of Bitcoin’s most prominent developers to discuss technical issues facing the digital currency earlier this month. Now, they look forward to a similar event, “Phase II,” in Hong Kong in December. 

The Montreal conference was held under Chatham House Rules , meaning, while the entire conference is transcribed, who said what will not be known. 

“Many [were] interested or at least willing to accept a ‘short term bump,’ a hard fork to modify block size limit regime to be cost-based via ‘net-utxo’ rather than a simple static hard limit.  2-4-8 and 17%/year were debated and seemed “in range” with what might work as a short term bump – net after applying the new cost metric,” Bitcoin developer Jeff Garzik  wrote in a personal summary of the conference.

In the coming months, developers and the Bitcoin community plan to evaluate the discussions at the conference with the hope of testing and simulating changes in December in Hong Kong at a similar conference. The event is not unprecedented in the open-source community.

“Observe the Devuan  fork of Debian or the iojs fork of nodejs ,” MIT student and Bitcoin voice Jeremy Rubin  told CCN.com.

These also have many people antsy and have needed events in which the developers work together to mend the community and move forward to achieve important goals. So no, Montreal is not unique. It is, however, the only Bitcoin Scalability conference I know of.

Rubin hopes the conference brings excitement about the Bitcoin Scalability solutions.

“A lot of people observing the technical process might assume that there is some exclusivity between solutions,” Rubin said. “We can scale this way-and-that way. I hope Montreal will serve as a breeding ground for fresh ideas and better our understanding of existing solutions.” Others who attended believe the conference was a great way to move beyond text-based debates and discussions and build community.

“Scaling Bitcoin was an incredibly important workshop, not only for technical and academic purposes but for community building, as well,” ChangeTip’s Victoria Van Eyk  said.

“So much of communication is lost when people rely solely on text; words can be interpreted in hundreds of ways without having the added benefit of body language and tone for context,” she said.

This fact makes in-person meetings and discussions vital for the ongoing health of open-sourced communities, especially Bitcoin, which relies on consensus to succeed.

“It was re-energizing for everyone to come together in person and be reminded of our true dedication to and passion for Bitcoin,” she added. “Everyone is very much looking forward to reuniting in December in Hong Kong for the second workshop!”

Featured image from Shutterstock.