A lot of the discussion shifted to this issue on Github instead. I will do my best to write an abstract
It addresses more avenues of improving the current situation
Shortlist of solutions
Updating Cost Functions and Hardfork
Muneeb-ali and jcnelson suggest updating the cost functions, which would require a hardfork. They propose bundling this change with an upcoming emissions-related hardfork to minimize disruptions.
Increased Frequency for Tenure Extensions
Muneeb-ali and obycode propose allowing more frequent tenure extensions to alleviate budget constraints. This would let nodes reset budgets faster and use resources more flexibly.
Flexible Budget Resets
Owenstrevor discusses the idea of resetting compute budgets more flexibly. However, the flexibility should be limited to prevent abuse, with resets tied to specific conditions or intervals.
Gradual Budget Decay Mechanism
Jude Nelson suggests a decay mechanism for unused block budgets, allowing them to decrease gradually over time. This would avoid abrupt resets and prevent hoarding of resources.
Key takeaways
Priority Alignment
There is consensus among key contributors (Muneeb Ali, Jude Nelson, Brice) to update cost functions and align these changes with the planned hardfork. This approach reduces the need for multiple disruptions.
Incremental Improvements
Softer solutions like increasing tenure extensions and implementing a decay mechanism can be done incrementally. These changes are seen as less risky and can be adjusted over time.
Balancing Flexibility and Stability
Flexible budget resets have potential benefits but must be controlled to prevent abuse. Owenstrevor emphasizes the need for limits to ensure stability.
And I thought this post was very insightful about how Nakamoto differs from Stacks 2.x and other blockchains because it decouples the notion of resource consumption from the notion of blocks.
https://github.com/stacks-network/stacks-core/issues/5398#issuecomment-2463725827
That means signers could even enforce transaction expiration rules. I will explain why that is useful in my next post.