Visa’s (V) network can process 56,000 payments per second. Bitcoin can handle about 7, or if you believe Dave Hudson, more like 3. For those who would like to see Bitcoin adopted by a significant portion of the population, this is a problem.
Increasing the block size could solve this issue, but it has its own drawbacks which could be equally or even more detrimental to Bitcoin’s purpose than the status quo. The ideological rifts this dilemma opens up are beginning to look like a Cold War: one false move could nuke the whole project.
Skip This Section If You Know How Bitcoin Works
In case you need help with the terminology before we get into the specifics, here’s a rundown of how Bitcoin currently works.
Bitcoin is an open-source software developed by an individual or group called Satoshi Nakamoto and released in 2009. It is a decentralized payment system or cryptocurrency that operates using a neato technological innovation called the blockchain.
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http://www.nasdaq.com/article/the-cryptocold-war-bitcoins-politics-of-scalability-cm497963#ixzz3gS6Fv9ty
