Bitcoin Association Switzerland survey gauges redditors’ stance on block size

ZÜRICH – 11.03.2013 – ZEEDER, Luzius Meisser, Photo by Vanessa Püntener / Pixsil

Luzius Meisser, the founder of the Bitcoin Association Switzerland, has released findings of a block size survey he conducted, with responses coming from Reddit users.

Wanting to test the difference in opinions between entrepreneurial and technical mindsets regarding the block size, Meisser supposed that entrepreneurs likely support larger blocks than do those of a technical mindset, and the findings appear to support his hypothesis.

The survey results, published by CryptoCoinsNews, show that out of 269 respondents, 146 preferred a block size between 0.5 MB and unlimited, with most favoring more than 4GB. Meisser believes this is because he received more responses from r/btc readers than from r/bitcoin readers.

“There is a deep divide between readers of the traditional two forums [r/Bitcoin and BitcoinTalk] and readers of /r/btc,” Meisser said.

Thirty-nine percent of r/bitcoin and BitcoinTalk readers prefer block sizes of more than 4MB, while 94% of readers of the r/btc subreddit favor block sizes of more than 4MB. More than three-quarters of respondents who read other news sources first prefer a block size limit of more than 4MB. Those who favor a block size under 4MB consider bitcoin as a settlement system or digital gold. Of those who prefer over 4MB, 10 percent consider bitcoin as a settlement system, and six percent view it as digital gold.

“This confirms the widespread suspicion that the block-size disagreement is related to what we want Bitcoin to be, although not to the extent I would have expected to see,” said Meisser, as reported by CryptoCoinsNews. “The ‘electronic cash system’ still clearly wins among every group.”

Other data suggests wealth does not factor into one’s position on block size. Those who favor block sizes under 4MB generally consider technology more important than business strategy. Those who favor more than 4MB “tend to emphasize the importance of business strategy relative to technology.”

Meisser concluded, “I see the block-size decision as a trade-off between a technical risk (loss of decentralization, hard fork, etc.) and a business risk (missing the window of opportunity for growth). If correct, this would mean that people with higher technical awareness would tend to favor smaller blocks while those with an entrepreneurial background would favor bigger blocks. Anecdotal evidence supports this, with entrepreneurs like Erik Voorhees being a big-blocker, and considerable number of core-devs being small-blockers.”

Image via Bitcoin Association Switzerland’s website