If there are none currently, what part of the protocol do you suspect may eventually lead to the next hard fork?
The problem with secp256k1 will surely create a hard fork. I just don't know if it'll be the next one.
Could you expand on this?
I want to know what you guys think will be the biggest event for bitcoin in the next 5 years. What problems will be solved, what problems will arise,
I also hope for more adoption of second layer so that we can see less spam on-chain from big centralized services such as exchanges and gambling sites that would help scaling a lot.
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I believe that we do need a hard fork to increase the block capacity at some point, I don't know if it will lead to another long drama though.
This is interesting, I haven't heard much talk about larger blocks AND second layer, the conversation has always seemed pretty binary.
What makes you suspect the answer is a combination of the two, and in which order do you think the changes need to occur?
I also believe that hard fork increasing the max block size will occur over the next 5-10 years. It will be much more contentious than the segwit fork and lead to a protracted soul-draining war. The saddest part is that although everyone will agree with the technical merits for a size limit increase, the strongest objections will be based solely on small-blocker dogma.
I believe the end result will be a permanent split similar to BTC/BCH and ETH/ETC, with Bitcoin (BTC) taking the branch with the bigger blocks.
In the event that BTC's block size increases, do you think BCH users and miners will return and/or help big blockers in the fight? I'm a bit skeptical that bitcoin will go down the big block road because of how everything played out last time... however, big blocks seemed to be more popular among commercial players and with institutional investors coming in, companies like blockstream might have less of a say this time around...