Bitcoin’s Growing Pains
Burgeoning Transactions Present Congestion Dilemma
http://panampost.com/franco-amati/2015/05/14/bitcoins-growing-pains/
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The bitcoin network processes approximately 100,000 transactions every day, or on average around one transaction per second. It seems like nothing by comparison with popular payment methods. PayPal says it handles 11 million daily transactions (127 per second), while Visa nears 216 million (2,500 per second).
Bitcoin is a long way from achieving such heights, but it’s growing. Around this time last year, the network processed half the volume it does today: transactions have doubled.
The concern is that bitcoin, as it stands today, can manage three transactions per second at most. This limit during peak times or specific scenarios is already a problem, delaying transactions and sparking controversy among developers: not only about the possible solutions, but also who gets to decide on them in a community that has always strived to be as decentralized as possible
...
Bitcoin is a long way from achieving such heights, but it’s growing. Around this time last year, the network processed half the volume it does today: transactions have doubled.
The concern is that bitcoin, as it stands today, can manage three transactions per second at most. This limit during peak times or specific scenarios is already a problem, delaying transactions and sparking controversy among developers: not only about the possible solutions, but also who gets to decide on them in a community that has always strived to be as decentralized as possible
...