I cannot wait until we fork this problem away.
Yep.
interesting reddit post that sums up the fork in the road debate nicely.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3ef6h1/bitcoin_ideology_do_you_vote_for_a_or_b/Multiple Choice Question:
Do you see bitcoin in the future as:
A) a scaling peer to peer network with ultra cheap transactions, for anyone globally to use, with bitcoin functioning as internet cash, avoiding financial intermediaries or banks.
B) a settlement layer for banks, fin tech companies and early adopters, with a low volume expensive to transact upon blockchain
The root of the issue is that option "B" Bitcoin as a high-fee high-value settlement layer,
without "A" scaling and widespread growing ecosystem usage happening first, is economic illiteracy of the first order.
Yes, well said, thank you.
The 1MB crowd constantly talks about how a fee market is necessary for bitcoin. Yes, of course, ultimately there must be a robust fee market. But there won't be one unless Bitcoin both continues to grow and continues to hold the vast majority of crypto-economic value. If we deliberately tell demand to go somewhere else at this stage, it will (and it won't necessarily be a btc-sidechain).
Many of us in this thread, who've been supporting the ecosystem for years, worked through the longrun adoption/mining/security/fee-market dynamic years ago. Fees remain low for many years while mining is subsidized by inflation. The combination of cheap/fast/global transactions is a big contributor (but not the only one, of course) to demand for bitcoin transactions. 3, 4, or 5 havings down the road, enough of this transaction demand probably exists that fees can still be low, and yet add up to about the same or more than the block reward. At this point, the fee market starts to really develop, and miners get selective, publish their fee preferences, vertically integrate services and compete all based on fees. Bitcoin matures and strengthens, all while remaining low-fee *and* high security; this is a very achievable years-from-now equilibrium.
With consistent demand, high security, a mature fee market, and known-well-in-advance dynamics, more and more people who operate the plumbing of the world's traditional financial system feel comfortable moving volume to Bitcoin. This is how a global settlement layer develops.
Intentionally stifling demand years before this happens is a terrible idea.