Baseman posted:Drugb posted:The three main stumbling blocks to blockchain scalability are:
- The tendency toward centralization with a growing blockchain: the larger the blockchain grows, the larger the requirements become for storage, bandwidth, and computational power that must be spent by “full nodes” in the network, leading to a risk of much higher centralization if the blockchain becomes large enough that only a few nodes are able to process a block.
- The bitcoin-specific issue that the blockchain has a built-in hard limit of 1 megabyte per block (about 10 minutes), and removing this limit requires a “hard fork” (ie. backward-incompatible change) to the bitcoin protocol.
- The high processing fees currently paid for bitcoin transactions, and the potential for those fees to increase as the network grows. We won’t discuss this too much, but see here for more detail.
Drug, what you think of Ethereum vs Bitcoin? It’s growing fast and many are touting it as a better technical platform! What’s your view?
Not ready yet to jump on either band wagon. I leave investing in crypto and blockchain to sloppy boy and his crew who claim to have disposable income.
That being said, the issue I have primarily with crypto currency is its unregulated nature. It is not backed by any central authority and provides a haven for money launderers and other illegal activities. The currency is only as good as people who are willing to trade it. If there are no buyers, it goes to zero. If you lose your virtual walled, there is no customer service to complain to. If you pay by crypto and the seller does not deliver, there is no recourse. These are just some of the challenges. If in the future reliable regulatory bodies begin policing the currency then it may become scaleable to the mass for all sorts of transactions. Will it replace cash, credit cards, wire transfers and other traditional monetary instruments, possible, but not yet.