Bitcoin has proven to be slow compared to other cryptocurrencies in terms of payments. When it was introduced over ten years ago, many expected that it would take over other fiat currencies but this has not been the case.
Bitcoin scalability priority problem
Bitcoin scalability is still a big question. On Untold Stories podcast, Jameson Lopp, Co-founder, and CTO spoke about the Bitcoin Scaling Problem. He said
I suppose this fundamental priority point was the issue of scaling. Are we prioritizing low transaction cost, or are we prioritizing low network history validation costs?
Second-layer platforms such as the Lightning Network have been useful in order to limit Bitcoin scalability issues. But such a solution may not be the ultimate, given that BitMEX research has shown that, although the Lightning Network was able to improve confidentiality to an extent, its scalability benefits are less than anticipated.
BitMEX stated that:
The fact that non-cooperative shuts are more prevalent than much thought means that lightning’s privacy and scalability are less than expected.
Inconsistencies in the structure will cause failure
A further example of Bitcoin’s scalability problems in pursuit of the exchange medium is given in recent Blockchain.com data on Bitcoin’s transactions per second (TPS).
In response to a question about the position of Bitcoin developers, users, and miners in the world of Bitcoin, Jameson said:
It is likely that some parts of the structure will have inconsistencies and that it will fail. I think this is a problem because the rules on governance are generally well established in structures of hierarchy and of hierarchical command and control.
He continued his remarks on the governance frameworks in the Bitcoin ecosystem:
I think this is a new form of leadership or even anti-governance, you might even say it may be called cryptoanarchy.
A spell of disagreements in the Bitcoin community led to various forks and Bitcoin variants, and Lopp noted that there are certain differences between them.
The beauty of Bitcoin as a protocol is that it’s programmable and therefore adaptive. The Bitcoin community is actively and constantly looking for more efficiency, despite these disagreements in the community.
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