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Years into the controversy around how to scale Bitcoin, there have been many challengers to Bitcoin core's dominance. After XT, Classic and others have faded, Bitcoin Unlimited has been gaining traction and emerged as plausible new way forward.

Bitcoin Unlimited wants to make the block size a parameter that is set by miners and nodes, but not fixed at a network level. They argue a natural fee market would emerge, allowing Bitcoin to rapidly scale and realizing its promise of electronic cash as well as store of value. The project is also member-driven, with democratic decisions driving its development decisions.

Core developer G. Andrew Stone and Bitcoin Unlimited President Andrew Clifford joined us for the episode.

Topics discussed in this episode:

- How Stone and Clifford first got involved in Bitcoin

- The history of the blocksize debate and Bitcoin core alternatives

- Why the Bitcoin block size should be determined by miners not developers

- The natural fee market that would arise controlling the size of Unlimited blocks

- How the non-profit organization behind Bitcoin Unlimited works

- How a transition to Bitcoin Unlimited could look like

Links mentioned in this episode:

- Peter Rizun: How Bitcoin Unlimited deals with large blocks: https://medium.com/@peter_r/the-excessive-block-gate-how-a-bitcoin-unlimited-node-deals-with-large-blocks-22a4a5c322d4#.7bd9dt2ig

- Bitcoin Unlimited Website: https://www.bitcoinunlimited.info/

- G. Andrew Stone: Examining Effect of Single Transaction Blocks on Network: https://www.bitcoinunlimited.info/resources/1txn.pdf

- Peter Rizun: A Transaction Fee Market Exists Without a Block Size: https://www.bitcoinunlimited.info/resources/feemarket.pdf

- Bitcoin Unlimited Member Forum: https://bitco.in/forum/forums/bitcoin-unlimited.15/

- Bitcoin Network Hashrate Distribution: http://www.xtnodes.com/

Sponsors:

- Ledger: Smart card security for your Bitcoins - Get 10% off your first order when you use the code EPICENTER - http://ledgerwallet.com

- Jaxx: Wallets that Unify the Blockchain Experience Across Devices - http://jaxx.io

Watch or listen, Epicenter is available wherever you get your podcasts.

Epicenter is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture & Meher Roy.