This might be an ill-informed question, but I came across this recently and was wondering how we feel about BTC upgrades/improvements?
It feels like BTC is now chasing fiat gains over building a global p2p economy, hoping that lightning network or some other L2 solves the scaling problems for non-custodial transactions.
https://blog.plan99.net/the-resolution-of-the-bitcoin-experiment-dabb30201f7Yeah. I remember when good 'ol Mike Hearn used to spread FUD about Bitcoin that it was a "failed experiment". It's now 2024 and Bitcoin is bigger and stronger than ever. Market prices are a lot higher than they were a few years ago. Mike missed out the opportunity to cash out big time.
What really "failed" is Bitcoin's Lightning Network. The L2 scaling solution has been unable to attract the masses into it. Besides being full of bugs (experimental), the network has a slight learning curve. This means newbies will have a hard time trying to understand how the LN works. It's somewhat complicated to use.
What good does near-instant and cheap transactions have if the network itself is centralized and difficult to use? What really works is on-chain scaling. To avoid centralization issues, developers should raise the block size at a slow and steady pace. Anyways, that's my point of view. I wonder if someday Mike Hearn will change its mind about Bitcoin? I could only imagine...