Paytm is one of the largest e-wallet service providers in all of India. Every since the cash crisis took place, their number of active users has increased more than tenfold. While this success is a positive sign that most enterprises can only dream of, it is also a grave concern for founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma. Growth is paramount for any company, but what if resources get spread too thin?
Digital Payment Success Is A Double-Edged Blade
The findings presented by Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma are an eye opener for anyone who is interested in digital payments. Unprecedented growth for mobile wallet solutions is a positive sign for what the future may hold for India. That ecosystem, however, can only be sustained if the resources allow it. Expansion is good, but overstretching resources can quickly cripple any business.
In a way, Paytm and the Bitcoin network are not all that different. Both projects provide an alternative way of thinking about money while adding convenience to store and use it. Paytm is far more widely accepted than Bitcoin is, of course, but under the hood they share similar struggles and concerns.
For example, the Bitcoin network has the resources to expand exponentially overnight. To do so, transactions must be confirmed quicker than currently, and block sizes need to be increased. Such a change needs to be accommodated by existing resources, as well as by the entire community. Right now, that scaling effort is starting to take place, but it is far from finished.
Paytm has seen a significant increase in active users ever since India introduced its cash ban. For the company these new users are more than welcome, but resources are on the brink of getting stretched a bit thin if this trend continues. Rapid scaling is problematic for any payment initiative, whether it is Bitcoin, Paytm, or anything else.
For the Bitcoin world, scaling is of the utmost importance right now. Segregated Witness facilitates that change, even though its network activation threshold may not be met anytime soon. Paytm is facing similar struggles, although they have a slightly easier time scaling the service. Unfortunately, that came at the cost of delaying a new feature that allows anyone to accept card payments without a PoS terminal.
It is safe to say that the world of payments is changing rapidly. Accommodating those changes will require scalability and even some foresight by developers and engineers. It is OK to be afraid of what the future may hold, but one has to grasp every opportunity when it presents itself. For both Bitcoin and Paytm, the future’s looking bright, assuming the scalability concerns are addressed promptly.
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