Depending on whom one poses the question to, Bitcoin either has a lot of problems or no significant issues. A new Twitter poll touches upon the factors that are a potential threat to cryptocurrency in the future. The usual suspects are named, including the block size and volatility. But there are some other things to consider as well.
For a decentralized cryptocurrency, there have often been remarks of how centralized the mining ecosystem is. The majority of mining pools – and hashpower – is directed at a handful of Chinese mining pools, giving them a significant ‘power” in the cryptocurrency space. At the same time, without Chinese mining pools, it is doubtful Bitcoin would be as successful as it is today.
The lingering block size debate, on the other hand, is a significant concern. Bitcoin Core developers are working on finalizing Segregated Witness, although that will take some time to complete. As long as there is no solution to this ongoing problem, scalability will remain a fatal weakness of Bitcoin.
Price volatility, while seemingly less spectacular compared to a few years ago, is still hindering Bitcoin adoption. Both consumers and merchants want to explore Bitcoin as an investment vehicle, rather than as a way to send or receive payments. The volatility associated with cryptocurrency makes it more appealing to hoard instead of spend, unfortunately.
Interestingly enough, this Twitter poll – which is not a valid reference for the general community feeling by any means- indicators co-opted development as the biggest problem. Throughout the years, there has been a lot of debate regarding the involvement of Blockstream, and how they are slowing down development of the Bitcoin protocol.
This poses an interesting question as to how Bitcoin development should be handled. While there are a fair few contributors, most of the ‘decisions” seem to come from a handful of people It is due time new people rise up as a Bitcoin developer and make their voice be heard. While not everyone wants the spotlight, there is nothing wrong with standing up for what you believe in.
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