Seeking feedback on compression of packed transactions

[aaroncox]

We are seeking feedback and opinions on using compression for packed transactions using @wharfkit/antelope.

Currently we have a pull request open that:

• Adds support for the compressed version of packed transactions
• Makes all packed transactions compressed by default, with an opt-out if required
• Includes a new dependency (pako) to allow for compression

Being that this is a change in behavior for the core library, updating will cause every other SDK and every web application using these SDKs to change in how they submit transactions to the blockchain. The ripple effect over time will cause the majority of all transactions being submitted to go from uncompressed to compressed.

Merging this pull request and defaulting to use compressed transactions...

• will NOT increase CPU resource cost of transactions (compression time is not billed)
• will reduce NET resource cost of transactions (smaller transactions)
• will slow the growth of the block log (smaller transactions in blocks)
• will reduce server bandwidth usage (transmitting smaller transactions and blocks)
• will increase overall server CPU processing time (handling decompression)
• will NOT decrease the overall amount of transactions that fit in a block (compression time outside of maximum processing time)
• will increase the size of SDKs that deal with compression (like this library)

(Please correct me if I'm wrong on any of these statements, or let me know if any are missing)

After talking about this internally we feel this change would be a win for the ecosystem by making these changes. We however know there are probably factors we're not taking into account, and that's why we wanted to start a discussion here and also offer up a poll as to whether we make this change.

Please share your thoughts, whether for or against this change, as we consider whether or not to merge this into the core Antelope library provided by @wharfkit.

[aaroncox]

Compression is now available and set by default on the 0.8.0 release of the @wharfkit/antelope library.

Feel free to use this thread for feedback on this change!