Slush Pool , a Czech-based Bitcoin mining pool accounting for 6 percent of hashing power on the Bitcoin network , indicates it will re-enable connected miners to vote for a block-size increase through BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal) 101 . Slush Pool was the first mining pool on the Bitcoin network to allow miners to vote for BIP 101, but recently suspended this option due to sustained DDoS attacks on its servers.
Speaking to Bitcoin Magazine , Slush Pool operator Marek Palatinus said: “We’re strengthening our infrastructure and we plan to enable BIP 101 mining again.”
The block-size dispute might reach a critical juncture over the next weeks, with the upcoming Scaling Bitcoin workshop in Hong Kong in the first week of December, and the stated intent of several prominent Bitcoin companies to change their code to allow for bigger blocks that same month. As such, Bitcoin miners (and pools) might be faced with an important decision as to which code they will support.
Palatinus said that the effort to re-enable miners to vote for bigger blocks is unrelated to this “December deadline,” however.
“We’re not focused on December with our decision, but we still think the block-size limit should be increased,” Palatinus explained. “Sometimes there are already blocks full of valid transactions, and there’s not any particular reason why user experience with bitcoin transactions should be limited because of an arbitrary limit of 1 megabyte.”
He added, “We’re close friends to Paralelni Polis, the first – and only? – bitcoin-only cafe and co-working space, located in Prague near our offices. We have real-world experience with day-to-day bitcoin transactions of common users. We also see issues related with transactions not going through the Bitcoin network and how it affects bitcoin acceptance. For this reason we consider this an urgent issue.”
BIP 101 – which is implemented […]
