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posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday May 20 2015, @01:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the grow-or-die dept.

In a test of Bitcoin's ability to adapt to its own growing popularity, the Bitcoin community is facing a dilemma: how to change Bitcoin's core software so that the growing volume of transactions doesn't overwhelm the network. Some fear that the network, as it's currently designed, could become overwhelmed as early as next year.

The answer will help determine the form Bitcoin's network takes as it matures. But the loose-knit community of Bitcoin users is not in agreement over how it should proceed, and the nature of Bitcoin, a technology neither owned nor controlled by any one person or entity, could make the impending decision-making process challenging. At the very least it represents a cloud of uncertainty hanging over Bitcoin's long-term future.

The technical problem, which most agree is solvable, is that Bitcoin's network now has a fixed capacity for transactions. Before he or she disappeared, Bitcoin's mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, limited the size of a "block," or group of transactions, to one megabyte.

Under the one-megabyte-per-block limit, the network can process only about three transactions per second. If Bitcoin becomes a mainstream payment system, or even a platform for all kinds of other online business besides payments (see "Why Bitcoin Could Be Much More Than a Currency"), it's going to have to process a lot more. Visa, by comparison, says its network can process more than 24,000 transactions per second.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/537486/leaderless-bitcoin-struggles-to-make-its-most-crucial-decision/

 
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  • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by cubancigar11 on Wednesday May 20 2015, @06:21AM

    by cubancigar11 (330) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @06:21AM (#185321) Homepage Journal

    HTTP is pretty much internet, and BitCoin pretty much runs on Internet. Simile FAIL.

    If Internet was only used for defrauding people, or as a MLM tool, or for drugs, at its inception itself, then most people would be right to avoid it. Fortunately, Internet, and even HTTP, is much more than that.

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  • (Score: 2) by f4r on Wednesday May 20 2015, @06:46AM

    by f4r (4515) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @06:46AM (#185329)
    Yeah, that's the exact same idea I'm trying to convey with bitcoin. Do criminals use it? Yeah, but criminals also use plenty of cash too. Bitcoin is just a protocol, people are going to use and abuse it just like everything else.
    --
    Do not use as directed.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @09:08AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @09:08AM (#185357)

      Not "just like" anything else, but "more than" anything else. Because it's so easy.

      I'm not anti-bitcoin. I'm anti-the-current-state-of-bitcoin. The bitcoin project's bug trackers are probably filled with lots of new technical issues like the one mentioned in the summary, but the biggest bug of all has been around since its inception:

      Bitcoin is extraordinarily susceptible to theft when not left to rot away in a private wallet.

      • (Score: 2) by JNCF on Wednesday May 20 2015, @03:21PM

        by JNCF (4317) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @03:21PM (#185522) Journal

        Bitcoin is extraordinarily susceptible to theft when not left to rot away in a private wallet.

        That's why you keep them offline until you need them, and only use each private key once. I understand that this is cumbersome, and not ready for end-users. If/when we see a secure, easy interface for using bitcoins I suspect that it will come in the form of dedicated hardware.

    • (Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Thursday May 21 2015, @10:52AM

      by cubancigar11 (330) on Thursday May 21 2015, @10:52AM (#185985) Homepage Journal

      Dude, BitCoin is not a protocol, it is a replacement for currency. To call it a protocol is hiding behind semantics. It was invented to be used instead of currency. And for any foreseeable future people have no need for a crypto-currency. That is just the fact, you know. And look at the situation here - people are already using virtual currencies on Facebook, FarmVille, SimCity and on so many number of games that have microtransactions. It is only BitCoin that doesn't seem to be accepted anywhere.

      On a philosophical point, I doubt it will ever change. BitCoin was invented so people have a currency that is not under the government control. But the only reason all of us use one currency is because of government enforces it and doggedly regulates it. So, IMHO, it is pretty much impossible for BitCoin to be ubiquitous - everyone will invent their own currency just like now.

      So, now that we have established that BitCoin will always be 'one of the currencies' and never 'the currency', why would anyone use BitCoin? What possible benefit it is providing? The answer to that question is that same as BitCoin's usage.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @04:26PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @04:26PM (#185567)

    HTTP is pretty much internet

    No, it isn't. Maybe you only use HTTP. Other people use other protocols as well (SMTP, IMAP, VoIP, SSH, ...)