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, will mining centralize more (maybe in the US?) or disperse across the globe? When we talk about "bitcoin transactions", will we be referring to on-chain, or lightning transactions (i.e will lightning be more relevant to the avg user than on-chain)?
Are there any contentious BIPs, that could force another block-size type war? If there are none currently, what part of the protocol do you suspect may eventually lead to the next hard fork?
Please don't reply "the biggest event will be btc mooning/hitting 100k", I will delete those replies as they are not constructive.
Solved problem: The inflation problem. Bitcoin has slowed inflation in the US by being a competitor currency. The US inflation problem could still get well out of hand, which no one should wish for.
The biggest problem might be that bitcoin isn't good for your coffee transactions as it currently stands. I could see banks stepping in to fill this role. What if a state issued a physical currency and backed it by bitcoin?
Problems that arise: It will be too valuable too quickly. If it rises too fast and for too long without having a period to relax, people would speculate on more than their homes. Fast rises burst, liquidating an increasing number of people chasing their moon.
Mining centralization: Who cares? Nodes are distributed across 10k+ computers. That's much more important. These are very distributed, although the majority of nodes are in Europe and the North Americas.
If miners are centralized, then it helps solve the environmental problem. So, pick your poison: centralization or environment. People who hate bitcoin don't realise that it doesn't really matter how many miners there are - given two weeks.
Bitcoin transactions: These will remain referred to as the on chain transactions. I suspect a different name will be used for the more common transactions. It needs to be something catchy. em-bits? "Sats" is too caucophonous to be catchy. Sits (satoshi-bits)? Pits (part-bits)? McBits (microbits -- too McDonalds..)?
Other currencies: I doubt another currency will take centre stage for a while. A Musk could start one. You'd have to have that level of prestige to have a shot to be competitive. Even ethereum hasn't been able to successfully decouple from proof of work and solve the transaction computation well. There is an opportunity here for the next stage to solve as fundamental problems beyond currency.