Bitcoin’s saving grace for scalability (at least in the eyes of the vast majority of Bitcoin Core contributors) should be ready for use this summer.
The Lightning Network, which is a generalized network of payment channels that enables instant bitcoin transactions with practically no fees, could be live as soon as this summer. This new protocol layer built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain has received a lot of attention and hype over the past couple of years, and a fix for transaction malleability via Segregated Witness has resolved some of the code and design complexities involved with the network.
http://coinjournal.net/lightning-network-should-be-ready-this-summer/
