Growing adoption doesn't mean we need to scale beyond 1MB. Certainly not at this point in time.
Not every coffee purchase needs to be in the blockchain. I doubt bitcoin can support microtransactions anyway, not even with gavin's proposals.
I think many people support the idea of bitcoin as a store of value and want to cut the third party risk of the current monetary system.
Think gold - you buy an ounce, or 1/10ounce. What's the point of paying with gold for a coffee? Only if gold could be sent over the internet....
I understand the other side of things - that it would be nice to have bitcoin supporting even micropayments but lets slow down and think it over first. I mean those changes suggested are still not a final solution to all bitcoin flaws and haven't even touched on more important things like mining centralization. It will make the system even more centralized - there is no doubt about that.
I guess people with the 'Fork it hard' attitude don't hold enough stake or are simply arrogant to the dangers of a hard fork.
Value is a moving target.
The less people use something the less valuable it becomes.
I don't think that off-chain/side-chain stuff is the right approach, it introduces backing. It is divide-and-conquer tactics at its best. Fiat was once backed with gold, you know how that turned out. At some point people will realize: "hmm, if i can buy food with these centralized off-chain coins, why do I need those bitcoins anyway?"
I'm not saying "let's change all the rules", but we need to figure out what are the rules and what is the game. In my recent discussions on the forum I've come to believe that money is a dynamic essence. You need to keep up with the flow in order to maintain and even gain value. If Bitcoin doesn't move others will replace it.
People would still be using Bitcoin just not on chain.
When the dollar was backed by gold it worked perfectly well and the country experienced its greatest growth.
The dollars were essentially off chain transactions which were backed by gold which would be analogous to the blockchain.
When gold backing was removed it enabled massive deficit spending by governments shifting the balance of economic power from individuals to a central authority. The result are unsustainable measures like quantitative easing and monetary manipulation not just in the US but in the EU and Japan as well. The fiat currency system is broken beyond repair and Bitcoin solves the problem.
As an aside Bitcoin is a transparent system which makes it less susceptible to manipulation compared to physical gold whose holdings are much more difficult to audit.
