I believe the block size limit issue is getting critical. You guys should check out Reggie Middleton's Veritaseum. Quoting:
Veritaseum uses only bitcoin, and subsists completely on the bitcoin blockchain. It is the only bitcoin wallet system that can trade simple and complex value structures without using non-bitcoin tokens, alt coins, sidechains or alternative blockchains. It can trade the value of over 45,000 tickers in all asset classes, from major exchanges from all around the world. At its essence, Veritaseum is a hyper-intelligent Bitcoin wallet system that is able to create and interpret smart contracts through the blockchain. It coordinates with an Oracle to gain access to conventional, physical and legacy financial data and information and uses it to price, value, trade and settle OTC, P2P financial instruments - all in BTC.
The Veritaseum platform, using nothing but pure bitcoin with no tokens or alternative internal currencies, moves the value of all that he mentioned plus much more (over 45k tickers), with absolutely no counterparty risk on a fully autonomous basis using smart contracts based solely on bitcoin script
A member of our board of advisors, which we are just putting together, is the ex-chief investment office of one of the largest funds in the world a few hundred billion dollars. He was a maverick in his space, is excited about the opportunity to literally shake up the world of finance, and is tasked with basically getting institutions to do trades. So, for every ten billion dollar institution that [trades on our platform], thats the equivalent of an entire Bitfinex in one months worth of trades. Thats how were going to start, and then we have different verticals we have that vertical, we have retail, and we have other, specialized verticals.
Pretty bold claims from Middleton, but I have tried it and it works, at least in a beta phase, not vapor phase or proof of concept phase, but beta phase. You can trade all tickers that Cypherdoc mentions on here.
The potential for a massive influx of usage is there, but 7 tps won't cut it. We have already hit that limit with people just experimenting. Frankly, I don't think 20mb will cut it either, but its a step in the right direction. I am for a dynamic limit based on something like one standard deviation above a 30 day moving average of blocksize, or something similar, but I am with Gavin in that it has become mission-critical.
One more in a long list of efforts built around getting a free ride on the protocol at the expense of others. They should be being worried about it being ballooned, weakened, and ultimately controlled more than anyone unless they are running some sort of pump-n-dump scam platform or are as dumb as a box of rocks.
Whatever the case, this is a classic example of where a dedicated sidechain could shine. Reggie and co can make their own determinations about how much engineering and transparency they want to pay for for their VeritaseumCoin sidechain based on the market demand in their segment. They can also decide how much effort they should be putting into securing Bitcoin core, and I doubt that it would be less than it is today.