Narula: Bitcoin's seven TPS throughput limit is an easily modified parameter
Neha Narula · The Architecture of Crypto Innovation · Aug 29, 2019 · at 23:37
This episode carries Neha Narula's own address, with nobody on the show putting questions to them. It still counts as said, and it is kept out of every score on their page.
Neha Narula, Director of MIT Media Lab's Digital Currency Initiative, explains scalability trade-offs in cryptocurrency architecture at the a16z Crypto Regulatory Summit.
0:00 / 0:08exact quote · 8.4s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“Bitcoin doing seven transactions per second is a choice based on two numbers in the code. One could change these two numbers very easily.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Neha Narula
Narula: Permissioned blockchains are more decentralized than ICO projects
“I put permission blockchains as being more decentralized than these so-called ICOs we're seeing, or initial coin offerings. Because quite frankly, if you can do an initial coin offering, if you can raise money, that means that there's an organization behind wh…”
Narula: Blockchains are anchors of trust, not databases; minimize on-chain data
“They're not a system for data storage. They're not a database. They're a piece of a puzzle, an anchor of trust. And so I think the real way we should be using blockchains is we should put as little on them as possible.”
Narula: Simple metrics for measuring decentralization can be easily gamed
“Simple mechanisms for trying to define it and trying to use it as a measure could pretty easily be gamed.”
Narula: Premature exchange regulation risks stifling crypto competition
“I think in this industry in particular, a regulatory moat too early could really stifle competition. We could end up with a few small, large exchanges which have a tremendous amount of control.”
Narula: Bitcoin was the first intermediary-free digital payment system
“It took me a little while to realize this, but this was actually the first time that this had ever happened. This was the first time we could make online digital payments without a bank or another financial institution in the middle.”
Narula: Bitcoin has operated reliably for 10 years without protocol compromise
“So proof of work has been, though it consumes a lot of electricity, it requires a lot of electricity to run the specialized hardware, has been working pretty reliably for 10 years. It's very impressive, actually. A lot of people never thought that it would wor…”