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111 sats \ 5 replies \ @freetx 26 May \ on: The odds that a great scaling solution that is possible now remains undiscovered bitcoin

what do you think are the odds that a great (complementary) scaling solution is hiding in plain sight.

Its something I think about often. I do think - if severely pressed with no hope of a soft-fork - someone would come up with some novel way to scale BTC with the already provided OPCODEs.

Controversial Hot Take:

I think a deeper truth is that scaling doesn't really matter and we can probably make do as is for a long long time.

Simple fact is: People don't want to spend their Bitcoin. You can see this again and again....there was just a "El Salvador Report" on front page where it was mentioned that most of the shops that had "we take bitcoin" signs have now stopped taking it.

This is not because of some technical problem with Bitcoin...certainly not a scaling issue....its because there is no demand for it. If there were people lined up out the door trying to buy BigMacs with BTC, they would accept it....but there isn't.

Greshams Law is a real thing. People would prefer to spend their shitcoins (USD) and hold onto their gold (BTC).

21 sats \ 2 replies \ @jgbtc 27 May

I'd like to see the demand for scaling come from users via increased adoption rather than from impatient devs looking to make their mark by solving hypothetical scaling problems.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @nyan OP 27 May

I think calling Bitcoin scaling problems hypothetical is living in denial of reality. If you already have a big stack you might not care but bear in mind that without eventual scaling your stack’s terminal value will be significantly less.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @freetx 27 May

I think calling Bitcoin scaling problems hypothetical is living in denial of reality.

Well....right now 10 sat/vb transactions are clearing. What "scaling" issues actually exist at this moment? Is LN not usable for small transactions?

You may be saying "yes, its fine at the moment, but how can we onboard the world onchain". And yes that would be correct but it technically is a hypothetical problem.

I'm not sure (a) the world will arrive en masse and/or (b) that they will demand to be on-chain.

I think the likely state of on-boarding the next 3B users will be: Fiat -> CEX (SQL Database) -> LN. In which case I think we already have that covered?

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 26 May

Agree

Spend weak money, save hard or strong money

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @nyan OP 26 May

I like your hot take and I partially agree. As long as Bitcoin is in the process of filling its predestined place (pick your number, is it to replace all gold, all bonds, etc) people are unwilling to spend it.

However, I think at the same time we should not get complacent about the status quo because eventually, we all want and need Bitcoin to become the global currency.

Also, if I am not mistaken, in El Salvador the main reason why merchants are not taking Bitcoin is volatility but I might be mistaken. And in any case, I agree with you that Gresham’s law plays a big role in Bitcoin adoption.