Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s civil war threatens to blow up the cryptocurrency itself

Quartz:

For the last several years, technical experts have been arguing over how to adapt the currency’s software to allow it to handle more transactions and meet the increased demand. The debate has recently become so heated that it threatens to throw bitcoin itself into chaos, a phenomenon most clearly seen in the recent plunge in bitcoin’s price.

https://www.theatlas.com/javascripts/atlas.js

… the very real possibility of a fork sent bitcoin traders scrambling to sell their holdings. Bitcoin fell 24% over two days, from March 16, though it has recovered significantly.

The issue is that Bitcoin needs change. The debate is over the blocksize, and any change would have technical, economical and philosophical implications.

One could argue that this is part of the “growing-up” of the technology but in my opinion, if this constant battle keeps up, Bitcoin’s future seems dismal.

Bitcoin was supposed to change the world. What happened?

Vox:

Bitcoin was supposed to render financial institutions obsolete

Too ambitious. Agreed.

There’s been little to show for $1 billion in venture capital investment

Though not readily apparent, learning is an important result.

Bitcoin never resolved its constitutional crisis

That’s why everyone is exited about blockchain and not just the Bitcoin community itself.

“The Bitcoin community has become more boring,” Sirer said. “That’s a good thing. We used to see a lot of scams. There are not so many scams anymore.”

True.

He pointed to a couple of areas where Bitcoin experiments might still bear fruit. One is in remittances.

Totally! To see this in the Indian context check out my paper.