Jim Harper is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.
In this opinion piece, Harper reflects on recent elements of the bitcoin scaling debate and what it means for perceptions of the digital currency's viability.
Bitcoin doesn’t care. It continues to develop a monetary, financial, economic, intellectual, and social ecosystem around itself. But a pair of reports in the mainstream media makes Bitcoin look broken. Arguing with the messenger is an option. But the better path is to get on with the hard work of fixing up Bitcoin in perception and reality.
Unfair? Perhaps. A Planet Money podcast finding that Bitcoin wouldn’t relay a simple transaction appears to have been conducted on software that didn’t supply the fee required under current conditions. In light of such reports, new users may hesitate to get involved. Their reluctance may retard Bitcoin’s growth and slow desirable advances in global financial inclusion, financial privacy, autonomy, and monetary and financial stability, as well as Bitcoin’s growth in value on exchanges worldwide.
http://www.coindesk.com/controlling-perception-bitcoin-broken/
