Jihan Wu is generating a lot of buzz on Twitter once again, an albeit his comments are sparking substantial debate among bitcoin enthusiasts. In a recent tweet, the Bitmain CEO acknowledged his pool has been mining a lot of empty blocks. Despite users asking to prevent this from happening, Wu turned around and confirm the pool will mine empty blocks regardless of what people feel is the better option. Moreover, this seems to put a dark shadow over what Bitcoin unlimited brings to the table.
Jihan Wu Creates Controversy Once Again
The reactions to Wu’s recent Tweet are not all that kind, albeit that is not unexpected. When someone states how their mining pool mines empty blocks on the Bitcoin network just for the sake of doing so, it is evident they may not have the best interests of bitcoin at heart by any means.Moreover, Bitmain seems unwilling to do anything about this situation, which makes the whole ordeal even worse.
@sysmannet sorry, we will continue mining empty blocks. This is the freedom given by the Bitcoin protocol.
— Jihan Wu (@JihanWu) March 1, 2016
To put this news into perspective, Bitmain is one of the primary mining pools supporting Bitcoin Unlimited. Nott hat there is anything wrong with doing so, but it appears Bitmain is doing so for the wrong reason. They would rather mine empty blocks on the network than actively work toward scaling bitcoin. Being a roadblock just for the sake of being one is not helping anyone at this point. In fact, it will only make people the company less seriously, which is not good for business by any means.
It seems rather odd to see one of the mining pools support Bitcoin Unlimited – and its larger blocks – mine empty blocks on purpose. In doing so, Bitmain only adds to the network congestion, rather than try to prevent it in a constructive manner. Unfortunately, it appears this scaling discussion has become more of a proverbial “pissing contest’ rather than people trying to find a solution that works for everyone. If as much time was spent working together rather than arguing among one another, this problem could have been solved months ago.
Reactions on Reddit are not kind towards Bitmain and Jihan Wu, as was to be expected. Some bitcoin enthusiasts are annoyed by this statement and feel all supporters of Bitcoin Unlimited should be “thrown off the chain” That type of sentiment will only add more fuel to the fire, rather than contribute to a solution. It appears Bitcoin Unlimited’s struggle for market traction is making some players desperate enough they will harm the bitcoin network to drive a point home.It appears someone is also deliberately funding this type of behavior, albeit those statements remain nothing but allegations for the time being.
It is unclear how the future of scaling bitcoin will evolve in the future. The political angle to this entire debate has posed more problems and only delayed finding a solution.Mining empty blocks is not all that uncommon on the network, but doing so on purpose just to annoy others may not be the best course of action by any means. This statement will continue to cause a bit of controversy and heated argument among bitcoin users, that much is certain.
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