What will happen with Bitcoin if it never scales?

[deisik]

What do you think that might happen with Bitcoin if no scalable solution becomes accepted?

Will it remain as a store of value, while other altcoins take the lead for everyday transactions? Or will another cryptocurrency take its place as the top in marketcap?

I would like to know your thoughts about this, as the ongoing scaling debate will further limit Bitcoin from reaching new heights. As for me, I believe that the Bitcoin community would come up at a resolution somehow to put an end to this issue, and make the pioneer cryptocurrency great again. What do you think? 

Bitcoin will likely stagnate

And eventually a new Bitcoin will be born which will have these issues fixed (as well as a lot of others like PoW), with the old dying off eventually. Personally, I'm more curious why no one hasn't yet implemented instant payments in an altcoin. I heard that Dash was doing something like that but folks here quickly dispersed my suspicions. Litecoin was going for that too, but Wu and company seem to have halted this process as well

[bamboylee]

I don't know, I just had a transaction for only 0.03 BTC that cost me 89000 sats in fees.    The problem is I have a lot of small transactions in my wallet and even small transfers take lots of bytes!   This is the kind of thing that could kill bitcoin!

And in some cases, even if you paid that much fees, your transaction will take more than half a day to be confirmed. I do not know how much more bitcoin users can take this. The more the miners delay the activation of any of the solution, the more damage it make to bitcoin.

[deisik]

I don't know, I just had a transaction for only 0.03 BTC that cost me 89000 sats in fees.    The problem is I have a lot of small transactions in my wallet and even small transfers take lots of bytes!   This is the kind of thing that could kill bitcoin!

And in some cases, even if you paid that much fees, your transaction will take more than half a day to be confirmed. I do not know how much more bitcoin users can take this. The more the miners delay the activation of any of the solution, the more damage it make to bitcoin

Yes, that seems to be their deliberate choice

Namely, try to postpone any solution for as long as possible since virtually any solution would make the fees they receive for confirming transactions to decline. That's why they are rogue. If I were them I would likely do essentially the same but since I'm not one of them I'm telling how rogue they are. But even if they succeed in their effort of putting grit in the machine, they are still shooting themselves in the foot over long term. Some day some coin which is not constrained by the mining monopoly will dethrone Bitcoin and then miners will have to walk home

[CyberKuro]

What do you think that might happen with Bitcoin if no scalable solution becomes accepted?

Will it remain as a store of value, while other altcoins take the lead for everyday transactions? Or will another cryptocurrency take its place as the top in marketcap?

I would like to know your thoughts about this, as the ongoing scaling debate will further limit Bitcoin from reaching new heights. As for me, I believe that the Bitcoin community would come up at a resolution somehow to put an end to this issue, and make the pioneer cryptocurrency great again. What do you think? 

Bitcoin will stuck someday at some point of price, won't move up but keep fluctuate around the circle I think.
At current price, bitcoin will still has great movement, steady increase every month/year but people cannot use it just like we use fiat money if it isn't scalable right?
Maybe someday, another cryptocurrency which could be scalable will surpass bitcoin price and market cap. Whether this could be solved or not, only time will tell.

[angaper]

Because of the more advanced technologies to come, I think it is almost impossible for bitcoin to remain as the most valuable altcoin for ever. Even I am not so sure that any other current altcoin can displace bitcoin from its actual hegemony. But this revolutionary alternate economy is just starting to grow and I am convinced that amazing surprises are coming soon.

[deisik]

What do you think that might happen with Bitcoin if no scalable solution becomes accepted?

Will it remain as a store of value, while other altcoins take the lead for everyday transactions? Or will another cryptocurrency take its place as the top in marketcap?

I would like to know your thoughts about this, as the ongoing scaling debate will further limit Bitcoin from reaching new heights. As for me, I believe that the Bitcoin community would come up at a resolution somehow to put an end to this issue, and make the pioneer cryptocurrency great again. What do you think? 

Bitcoin will stuck someday at some point of price, won't move up but keep fluctuate around the circle I think.
At current price, bitcoin will still has great movement, steady increase every month/year but people cannot use it just like we use fiat money if it isn't scalable right?

This is impossible for a host of reasons

Unless you mean Bitcoin price freezing at the temperature of absolute zero, of course. The primary reason is that Bitcoin is a virtual asset which has no value of its own. Real assets can actually get stuck at a price which roughly corresponds their internal or intrinsic value (at the so called "fair price") and stay there indefinitely long (provided the currency they are priced in is as stable, indeed). But this is not the case with Bitcoin and its likes. This has a practical implication and application, so to speak. For example, when you see the price stuck at some level and start to think that it is not going to move anywhere from there. Obviously, this is no more than an example of being deceived by your psyche, and you can use this effect to your own advantage (since other people feel basically the same)

[hajimasan]

What do you think that might happen with Bitcoin if no scalable solution becomes accepted?

Will it remain as a store of value, while other altcoins take the lead for everyday transactions? Or will another cryptocurrency take its place as the top in marketcap?

I would like to know your thoughts about this, as the ongoing scaling debate will further limit Bitcoin from reaching new heights. As for me, I believe that the Bitcoin community would come up at a resolution somehow to put an end to this issue, and make the pioneer cryptocurrency great again. What do you think? 

I don't think any altcoin  can take place of the bitcoin .
It is because the most of the users in the bitcoin market or you can say cryptocurrency market are dependent upon the bitcoin value and also you can see only few of the altcoins are dependent upon the USD or Another Fiat ( not upont bitcoin fully) .
But most of the altcoins have the value in the price of the bitcoin Satoshi , so here chances to replace the bitcoin by altcoins is impossible .
Since it is another matter that people start to use altcoins than what they have interest in the bitcoin​.
And here I think this is start for the bitcoin , Because here the prediction of the bitcoin for the increase in the price of 10k$ in 2021 can't be only the Prediction , after this prediction more and more people are going in the bitcoin Investment for the future .

[JorisK]

IMHO I don't see a problem here as the coin doesn't necessarily need to scale, it can function without block size/application improvements. But without scaling, i think it would change Bitcoins use dramatically. Small transactions will be taken over by altcoins, and BTC will more likely take the status of digital gold.

What i'm more worried about is Bitcoins ongoing centralization. Its ecosystem should be as decentral as possible, yet it is more and more being taken over by a few persons controlling monstrous minepools, and with that a ton of consensus power. The reason Bitcoin is still alive is because we trust in a few important things: it's reliable development team, its security and the fact that it is decentral. The last one worries me a bit, as the coin gets more and more centralized, even geographically.
BTCs development should be in the hands of the people, not in the hands of a few mighty miners that control enormous mine pools. They own enormous consensus power and seem to prioritize their own interest (making money) in front of ethics.

[maydna]

What do you think that might happen with Bitcoin if no scalable solution becomes accepted?

Will it remain as a store of value, while other altcoins take the lead for everyday transactions? Or will another cryptocurrency take its place as the top in marketcap?

I would like to know your thoughts about this, as the ongoing scaling debate will further limit Bitcoin from reaching new heights. As for me, I believe that the Bitcoin community would come up at a resolution somehow to put an end to this issue, and make the pioneer cryptocurrency great again. What do you think? 

i think altcoin can not be in the top of marketcap as bitcoin is the leader of cryptocurrency and bitcoin is like a path for the others. i think altcoin is like a helper for bitcoin and support for bitcoin in cryptocurrency. without altcoin, bitcoin is nothing and all of crypto currency is related with each others. in trading for example, if bitcoin is down, altcoin will be up and if we trade btc-altcoin, we have makes profit in bitcoin and we can also increase our bitcoin amount. but if bitcoin is down, altcoin will be down, so we can buy altcoin again and sell it in high price.

[Obito]

I think if bitcoin never scales the bitcoin will not be used by many people. Because that will not be useful for everyone and it is not applicable to be converted into their money currency. If bitcoin will not be scaled many people will not pursue to use the bitcoin.

[tobacco123]

I am certain that bitcoin will scale soon... but if it doesn't, other alt-coin will take over. Eth is a potential candidate but I think it also has problem- too easy to scale (centralization).

[bartolo]

If bitcoin never scaled we would have a problem, bitcoin would lose some of its interest and this would affect its adoption level as there are other coins that don´t have its problems by now and that could be presented as an alternative. However, despite the scalability debate that is still in place, I think that there will eventually be a solution because in the end the worst solution would be that there were no solution.

[Kemarit]

Alts coins are already attracting new users who have been disappointed with the current scaling war and I think this will continue if sooner than we think. Currently, bitcoin is no longer a choice of doing micro-payments because of its high transaction fees. Imagine if I want to send money back home as remittance, I would rather used other payment methods rather than used bitcoin because of high fees. We need this issues resolved so that bitcoin can scales up and be adopted globally, otherwise the general public will look for other alternatives.

[The_Dark_Knight]

What do you think that might happen with Bitcoin if no scalable solution becomes accepted?

Will it remain as a store of value, while other altcoins take the lead for everyday transactions? Or will another cryptocurrency take its place as the top in marketcap?

I would like to know your thoughts about this, as the ongoing scaling debate will further limit Bitcoin from reaching new heights. As for me, I believe that the Bitcoin community would come up at a resolution somehow to put an end to this issue, and make the pioneer cryptocurrency great again. What do you think?  

If bitcoin never scales and another coin does then I think that coin will eventually become the dominant coin, that is why it is important to keep pushing bitcoin forward with new innovations, in the world of technology if you stay stagnant then other projects will eventually overtake you.

[AngryDwarf]

BTC market dominance now down to 59.5%. I guess that's what happens.

[Cryptonite310]

What do you think that might happen with Bitcoin if no scalable solution becomes accepted?

Will it remain as a store of value, while other altcoins take the lead for everyday transactions? Or will another cryptocurrency take its place as the top in marketcap?

I would like to know your thoughts about this, as the ongoing scaling debate will further limit Bitcoin from reaching new heights. As for me, I believe that the Bitcoin community would come up at a resolution somehow to put an end to this issue, and make the pioneer cryptocurrency great again. What do you think? 

BitCoin surely has the largest community and I think they can find a solution to this problem. But if it never get's resolved, you basically answered your own question. It will remain as a store of value, and other alt coins out there will take the lead because they can work better as a currency.

BitCoin can't be both a long term store of value, and an every day currency. I think the BitCoin community needs to choose a route, and stick to it.

[HEWRA]

I dont think what can we do if segwit won't happen and hardfork also.
The blockchain will be way too slow, and fees are too high to use btc for everyday use.

[shinratensei_]

What do you think that might happen with Bitcoin if no scalable solution becomes accepted?

And mass adoption just in a dream and more bitcoin traders will be looking for the fast transaction through off-chain.

Will it remain as a store of value, while other altcoins take the lead for everyday transactions? Or will another cryptocurrency take its place as the top in marketcap?

I think so, More people are interested using off-chain transaction to be his bitcoin scalability solution. With 15 minutes and you can deliver off-chain transaction just in some minutes rather than using bitcoin transaction, 15 minutes for a single confirmation.

I would like to know your thoughts about this, as the ongoing scaling debate will further limit Bitcoin from reaching new heights. As for me, I believe that the Bitcoin community would come up at a resolution somehow to put an end to this issue, and make the pioneer cryptocurrency great again. What do you think? 

Bitcoin must learn a lot from litecoin and how are they doing it.
But I will strongly disagree about UASF.

I dont think what can we do if segwit won't happen and hardfork also.
The blockchain will be way too slow, and fees are too high to use btc for everyday use.

Just the voters will give impact to the consensus. We are the spectators.

[countryfree]

Anyone having Swiss francs in his wallet?

I do. It's a strong and very stable fiat currency. Switzerland is a small country, and it's currency is well regarded by all investors, holding its value among the US dollar or the Euro from much larger economies.

I hope BTC will become like the Swiss franc.

[Abiky]

Bitcoin will likely stagnate

And eventually a new Bitcoin will be born which will have these issues fixed (as well as a lot of others like PoW), with the old dying off eventually. Personally, I'm more curious why no one hasn't yet implemented instant payments in an altcoin. I heard that Dash was doing something like that but folks here quickly dispersed my suspicions. Litecoin was going for that too, but Wu and company seem to have halted this process as well

Yes. That's what I've thought it would happen in the future, if Bitcoin doesn't overcome its issues. Another altcoin will take over for sure, addressing key issues that are essential towards mainstream adoption. When it becomes scalable and fungible enough, while taking in consideration its decentralization, it will become a huge success surpassing BTC's market cap, if it also adapts a limited supply.

There are many cryptocurrency which are having issues towards getting the approval of the miners for SegWit, but if a new coin comes released with SegWit into its code, then it would become much easier for the scalable solution to become accepted there, as it would have a small hashrate at start. Thus, the bigger the hashrate a cruptocurrency's network has, the difficult it would be to gain the necessary consensus for SegWit to become active. I think that is why Bitcoin and other alts haven’t gotten any luck so far.

Still, Litecoin is closer towards SegWit activation, and it will be very beneficial to the cryptocurrency if it becomes a reality. Just my opinion.