By the way, an important question: if I generate a 500KB block with only free transactions in it, it will be accepted by the network, right?
Or this current "default fee policy" is not just for the default client, but for the protocol as a whole?
Or this current "default fee policy" is not just for the default client, but for the protocol as a whole?
You can generate a 1MB block with only free transactions in it and it will get accepted (maximum block size is 1MB, although the standard bitcoin client will never generate blocks larger than 500K).
Quote from: Syke
That sounds like the pool needs to do it differently, not the network. If this is a pool payout to 500 people in a single transaction, then the pool needs to break it down into smaller transactions. I sent a few regular transactions yesterday and they were immediately included in solved blocks.
The problem isn't the pool payout-- the problem is that people participating in the pool end up with wallets full of tiny (e.g. penny-size) transactions. When they go to spend those tiny transactions, they're bundled up together to make a transaction that is small in value but large in size.
Pools can mitigate the problem by requiring larger minimum payouts (e.g. 1 BTC instead of 0.01 BTC).