Judging from various reports in the media over the past year, Bitcoin is in a serious crisis that threatens its very existence. Longtime Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn even left the ecosystem entirely and claimed the project is now a failed experiment. Of course, Bitcoin has been proclaimed dead roughly 100 other times .
Scalability is the main concern in Bitcoin right now, but some, including Blockchain Capital Managing Director Brock Pierce , have argued that this is more a sign of success than anything else. The fact that the system needs to scale in order to welcome new users is a sign that people find this technology useful for a variety of use cases .
While it’s important to not become complacent (as longtime cypherpunk Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn recently warned ). Blockstream ’s Johnny Dilley said recently that much of the distress and panic coming from certain segments of the community is unwarranted. During an interview on The Crypto Show , Dilley said that progress on scalability is being made by the Bitcoin Core developers, and development gridlock is not as big an issue as some would think.
What Is the Worst That Could Happen?
One of the main reasons there is a belief that Bitcoin is reaching a crisis point has to do with blocks filling up to near capacity (at times). As blocks fill with transactions, a bidding war ensues for the right to get one’s transaction into a block (and confirmed ) in a timely manner. In response to this potential issue, Dilley told The Crypto Show : “The absolute worst thing that could happen to Bitcoin right now is the classic analog: Nobody goes to that restaurant anymore; it’s always full.” This point reiterates Pierce’s recent statement on how Bitcoin’s scalability issue is a sign of its […]
