Much of the bitcoin industry no longer shares the same vision and are not likely to pragmatically compromise to avert a serious risk facing the industry. That was the impression of Peter Smith, CEO of Blokchain.info , at the recent Satoshi Roundtables , writing in Medium . Peter Smith Smith, in summarizing his thoughts about the state of the industry, noted last week’s spike in bitcoin activity offered an early look at the state of the network as blocks get fuller and the “mempool” gets backlogged. He saw a troubling trend in the data. Transactions Took Longer
Transactions took longer while fees rose significantly and prices declined. Users paid more for less value. The higher fees did not bring faster transactions, but only a longer backlog.
Comparing this scenario to last May’s conditions, the network’s performance losses become even clearer.
It is clear bitcoin users are paying more for less, Smith wrote. Blockchain.info historically has seen few tickets related to transaction times or fees. He is now seeing new records for the number of tickets received in this category every day. The tickets grow by a factor of 10 per week. It has become the exchange’s top support issue by ticket volume.
During this busy time last week, the exchange experienced a mere taste of what lies ahead as the network continues to become overwhelmed. The industry should plan for success, Smith wrote, not for previous growth rates and not for survival. The industry should seek an outcome where millions more decide to join the bitcoin economy. What Caused Congestion?
Smith noted that some argue the network gets congested on account of attacks or spam. He said this has occurred previously with low-value transactions. But during this recent deterioration of network conditions, there has been no room for low-fee or “dust” transactions. […]
