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Did Bitcoin just prove it can't scale?

news.ycombinator.com

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Did Bitcoin just prove it can't scale?

#1

Post by graniter »

The past few days have shown what happens when many people attempt many transactions using Bitcoin. The network slowed to a crawl. Transaction prices went through the roof. And we still are at a point where only a tiny fraction of people are using Bitcoin, and only a tiny fraction of all financial transactions are using Bitcoin.

How is this expected to work with 7 billion people using it for every tiny financial transaction? I don't think it can.

I have owned BTC for 5 years and I am enjoying the rally, but with the high transaction fees, back log, and long transaction times, I wonder how well it can really work as a replacement for banks.

Am I wrong?

Re: Did Bitcoin just prove it can't scale?

#3

Post by TD-Linux »

I don't know what you mean by "prove". People have known about the block size limit for years. It's been increased, but most haven't updated their software to make use of it yet. Lightning now works on mainnet, but no one is using that either.

Maybe it's more proof that no one cares?

Re: Did Bitcoin just prove it can't scale?

#4

Post by jen729w »

IMHO (because to claim to "know" anything about how this is all going to turn out is to be a fraud), Bitcoin is the proof of concept for this whole crypto thing.

It was the first. It was the genesis idea. But good lord, do we think it's the actual solution? What would be the odds?

I imagine that Bitcoin will play its part as the public face of the blockchain revolution, but something else - or many other somethings - will be the successors that we actually use in the future. (Pick your own alt-coin as the successor; good luck.)

If I had a large holding in Bitcoin now I would be cashing out or I'd be nervous. I'm not saying it won't go higher, I'm saying that at some point its demise is inevitable. Might be quick, might be slow, but it'll happen because Bitcoin is not the technically best solution in this incredibly exciting field. It's not even close.

Re: Did Bitcoin just prove it can't scale?

#5

Post by MichaelBurge »

It's not really designed to handle every little transaction. I would expect it to be used by exchanges and banks as a settlement layer, with most transactions happening off-chain.

It's a mistake to look at recent news, because this has been known since the very beginning.

Re: Did Bitcoin just prove it can't scale?

#6

Post by aSockPuppeteer »

You may place too much value in the transactions of fiat currency. You can still do an in-person trade.

Credit payments may seem instantaneous but they are not. Research the gold standard and who actually stores the gold not the paper receipts for it.

The endgame for bitcoin...Transaction fees? Popup currencies ala private currency?

I hope we are solving some fun math problems with all this distributed hash power.

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