What will happen with Bitcoin if it never scales?

[delphic]

All must decide, and for the better! Bitcoin will remain and retain its value, and may even increase. Go to a higher asset class. And other coins will perform for him all the dirty work.

[Rowena123]

Part of the solution is Lightning Network. However, if I'm not mistaken is still in test mode. So I guess scalability will not be much of a problem in the future when the core and developers know what's missing and will not allow other electronic money to lead without a good fight. I was worried about another question. To be honest, bitcoin is the leading in the encrypted world and I never thought that other currencies would pass bitcoin in the future. When you meet someone and you want to talk to them about digital money, you must first mention bitcoin. So even if it never scale it would be a big shop of value, people would buy it then swap it with other codes especially ethereum or hyphens that is if they wanted have a faster transaction.

[Pan Troglodytes]

i think in the future bitcoin will be forgotten like other coin.

I am afraid you may be right, that if Bitcoin developers sleep longer and don't develop (research and develop?) way for an on-chain scaling (not off-chain, like LN), Bitcoin will be forgotten ...

[Treasurer]

i think in the future bitcoin will be forgotten like other coin.

I am afraid you may be right, that if Bitcoin developers sleep longer and don't develop (research and develop?) way for an on-chain scaling (not off-chain, like LN), Bitcoin will be forgotten ...

Now there are more and more projects based on the blockchain of the 4th generation. The speed of transactions on these platforms is 10 times higher than the speed of Bitcoin transactions. Of course, Bitcoin remains the leading blockchain, but if no steps are made towards modernization, then the leading role of Bitcoin may take another currency.

[Pan Troglodytes]

Bitcoin is currently worth more than gold. Most people buy Bitcoin to buy Altcoins rather than using it in practice. Whether Bitcoin is expanding or not, Bitcoin will never be forgotten.

So you are sayig that people buy bitcoin only to eventually buy altcoin and not to use it; and this is the reason bitcoin will not be forgotten... Well, strange thinking, I would say this is exactly the reason that the middleman (=bitcoin) will be eventually eliminated.

[Chuksbrownj]

Then Bitcoin would become a store of value, more than Gold.

[Haliburton]

Scaling is really compulsory and not optional if we are to talk about massive global adoption. In fact, some are asking if the world is ready for bitcoin, but the more profound question is quite the opposite, is bitcoin ready for the world? And as of now, there is this constraint of scalability and it is not negligible.

Bitcoin had to to scale should it want more market activities and bitcoin knows exactly that. That is why we have witnessed a number of forks that took place in the past. This forks either soft or hard are proof that bitcoin will not stand still in the issue of scalability and that is good news for all of us.

That's true. But what really matters is that if Bitcoin scales, it should do it in the most decentralized way possible. It's been seen that on-chain scaling is not the most decentralized solution, but it has allowed other cryptocurrencies to perform well with low fees and fast transactions speeds. One good example of this is Bitcoin Cash, which has already scaled to 32mb block size for on-chain scaling without the Lightning Network. But, the downside of this is that it will make the coin more centralized over time since storage costs and bandwidth requirements would be a lot higher for node operators.

For Bitcoin, the Lightning Network seems to be the most decentralized approach to scaling, yet it has some level of centralization. Off-chain scaling would allow the cryptocurrency to perform as usual without the risk of compromising the whole network in case the Lightning Network were to fail over time. Sure, it relies on third parties to route payments and open channels, but it's the best solution available yet for Bitcoin to scale for the whole world to enjoy.

All in all, even if Bitcoin will never scale, that shouldn't be a problem since people would have the choice to transact in altcoins, while using Bitcoin as a store of value.

[Huskarls]

Altcoin is a development of Bitcoin based on Blockchain technology. I think we should not stop there, someone will make Bitcoin change and establish its position with the world. The development of technology will not stop, I still hope Bitcoin will go further in the future.

but until now the development of the altcoin and its rapid growth and cannot be controlled can prove to be damaging to the market. People are still principled by the large number and reject quality because they will think "its just the same project"

[Ozero]

people will still use it as a speculative tool like gold, to store wealth, and someone will still use it as a currency with the merchants that are accepting it, will remain without any much doubt a niceh market

but if you think about it, if few people will begin to use it, the fee shoudl decrease over time, thus making it usable again

According to polls, and information from practice, people buy bitcoin just because they hope that it will go up in the future. If the probability of such a hope decreases, then the demand for it will drop and digital bitcoin gold will collapse at one point.
If the scalability of bitcoin grows very slowly, bitcoin will gradually continue to lose demand and the level of capitalization, until the price ceases to dominate the price over other types of crypto currency. As soon as this happens, bitcoin will lose everything and at best remain an honorary crypto currency with the use for expensive transactions. The truth in this case is very difficult to predict its price.

Yes, if Bitcoin will not be able to increase its bandwidth in transactions, it will gradually lose its value, but will remain among the cryptocurrency and will be more used for large expensive transactions. It will remain in the elite of cryptocurrency and will not be used for daily purchases.

[Verde_Mantis]

If the scaling problem doesn't get solved in a few years bitcoin's future could have serious problems because there is a high possibility that it could be replaced by some other coin that doesn't have this problem. We still have time, but it must be solved asap.

[miguelborges99]

Lightning Networks is not a solution for bitcoin to scale, and the market is not taking it seriously or using it.
Bitcoin has lost the ability to discuss the topic. It was tried in the past with block size increase (what would be the problem to increase it and not split the community), but blockstream guys have took over the development of this coin.

If bitcoin does not scale, then it will go to zero as any shitcoin.

[nightxglow]

It's kinda hard to think about that, because i sometimes wonder about that as well. The future of bitcoin, how will it be accepted widely, and many other things.
And i think, the altcoins also has the potential to become as big as bitcoin, although i'm not sure whether they will beat and replace bitcoin position as the top or not, but maybe if some potential and great coin comes, or something drastic happen, it might be. Moreover bitcoin is already high and in the top, i mean the greater it is, it will take much time, hard work or effort to climb even higher. Sometimes it just reaches the limit and can't do nothing but fall.
But still, i wish none of bad things will happen and we will figure out and know what's best to do with bitcoin future.

[Pan Troglodytes]

Part of the solution is Lightning Network. However, if I'm not mistaken is still in test mode. So I guess scalability will not be much of a problem in the future when the core and developers know what's missing and will not allow other electronic money to lead without a good fight. I was worried about another question. To be honest, bitcoin is the leading in the encrypted world and I never thought that other currencies would pass bitcoin in the future. When you meet someone and you want to talk to them about digital money, you must first mention bitcoin. So even if it never scale it would be a big shop of value, people would buy it then swap it with other codes especially ethereum or hyphens that is if they wanted have a faster transaction.

No, as I say earlier, (1) LN is the off-chain solution, so it is solving bitcoin's problems outside of bitcoin, and as the result bitcoin gets slowly eliminated from the equation, and (2) if people buy bitcoin only to swap it to some other altcoins (altcoins that they can use more easily), they will just buy the altcoins directly when they have an easier way to do so, and that will take part in eliminating bitcoin too.

[Bonnie113]

If the future bitcoin can't be expanded, the crypto market will be in saturation. Other electronic currencies will be affected more or less. But in my view bitcoin isn't expanded anymore is very difficult.

[SanvabD]

Lightning Networks is not a solution for bitcoin to scale, and the market is not taking it seriously or using it.
Bitcoin has lost the ability to discuss the topic. It was tried in the past with block size increase (what would be the problem to increase it and not split the community), but blockstream guys have took over the development of this coin.

If bitcoin does not scale, then it will go to zero as any shitcoin.

LN is a solution, but it is not fully decentralized. How this will be adopted depends on what the general public thinks is more important: Scalability or decentralization. If there is a way to trust a third party, it might be a solution. LN is not fully developed now, or at least it isn't easy to use now. When wallets start adopting LN, we will see how the community will respond.

I don't see Bitcoin going to zero as it is the holy grail of crypto. There will always be people interested in owning some Bitcoin even if the product can't compete with other protocols.

[pumbum]

perhaps it does not need scalability, because it is only needed for long-term storage within the cryptocurrency

[Abiky]

Much of the value for bitcoin as shifted from being that of a currency to more of being an asset or a store of value,much like gold.It will remain so even if it never scales

Exactly. I believe that there's no reason to worry about Bitcoin's scalability since it will remain alive for a long time. If it scales, then a lot of people would be able to use it simultaneously. However, if it doesn't, then it'll simply remain as a store of value (like Gold) just as it is right now. Whereas Bitcoin cannot fulfill certain tasks or needs for everyday people, there's the choice of altcoins as they're much faster, cheaper, and scalable than the pioneer cryptocurrency.

What's important here is for Bitcoin to remain decentralized. Hence, if scaling it would sacrifice its decentralization, then it would not be worth it. Hopefully, if the Lightning Network becomes widely adopted by people in the mainstream world and highly successful, then Bitcoin would've scaled to millions of users without sacrificing its decentralization. Just my thoughts

[CoinsGazer]

Whenever bitcoin prices rise, more new users will join the Bitcoin ecosystem, and more people will use Bitcoin every day. Simply put, if Bitcoin networks can't handle increasing transaction flows by increasing throughput, Bitcoin will be difficult to retain users for a long time.

[GazorpPozorpec]

I think that then bitcoin will cease to be used for frequent transactions and will become more of an asset for the accumulation of money. IMHO

[Ridersss]

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 if there is no solution, bitcoin is only a value in the digital world, not the real world. then there must be a solution that is made so that barriers to existing barriers can be used as opportunities.