Is bitcoin really viable as a peer-to-peer electronic cash?
Due to high transaction costs and slow transaction speeds, how can we ever use bitcoin to purchase, for example, a Sprite and a bag of potato chips at a gas station? If I want to send a micropayment, for example, of 1000 sats on-chain I can pretty much forget about it because miners can’t afford to and as a result the transaction hangs out in the memepool indefinitely. I had a lot of hope for lightning network, but I am now starting to have doubts about its long-term success. What happens when someone using lightning wants to settling a microtransaction on the bitcoin blockchain?
Yes it is. Actually, the transaction speed is maybe not high enough because it depends of miners an the technology of the devices they use. Time after time we will see miners using a new technology and this will make transactions much faster than before. Halving will help about this, after each halving, the non-profitable and and old generation of the miners should leave the network or upgrade their devices. Otherwise, they will lose money instead of taking profit. I think the transaction speed will increase time after time and this factor won't be a problem real soon. However, you can pay more transaction fee and make the transaction look like instant-transaction.