Author: Michael Naber 2015-08-11 19:26:48
Published on: 2015-08-11T19:26:48+00:00
The scalability of Bitcoin and its ability to accommodate a growing number of users has been an ongoing debate. Mark Friedenbach, a bitcoin developer, believes that the network has room for growth and can support up to 4 million people using it day-to-day without settling accounts on the blockchain more than every other week. This can be achieved through the use of micropayment channels that allow two parties to exchange funds rapidly while only settling the final balance to the blockchain in a trustless manner.However, some people have expressed concerns about Bitcoin's architecture limitations, including its lack of policy neutrality and how easy it is to shut down. In response, Friedenbach argues that Bitcoin offers something that alternative architectures do not: policy neutrality. The discussion on the bitcoin-dev mailing list includes concerns about the need for Bitcoin to be able to run over Tor or I2P in case of censorship or repression by future or existing governments. The conversation also touches upon the issue of increasing block sizes, which could benefit large miners but ultimately destroy the nature of Bitcoin and render it unable to compete with VISA/Mastercard. It is suggested that Bitcoin should play to its strengths of trustlessness via policy neutrality or risk heading towards a different direction like Stellar. However, optimization can be done in the area of propagation time and locality. Overall, there are differing opinions on the scalability of Bitcoin and its ability to accommodate a growing user base, but solutions such as micropayment channels and policy neutrality could prove helpful in addressing these concerns.
Updated on: 2023-06-10T18:42:38.818311+00:00