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Comment by iagooar | Hacker News Reader

I'm buying. Bitcoin might as well hit 20k soon after this.

Or it might hit 5k...

Watch for the dead cat bounce

Why would it, it is the largest cryptocurrency by marketcap, it is also the most well known. Also the lightning network is almost ready, meaning scalability issues are largely eradicated. Bitcoin will become usable again.

> Bitcoin will become usable again.

Make Bitcoin great again? ;) Seriously, I doubt that BTC will be usable as a day-to-day currency soon - you still have that nasty 10-to-30-minutes confirmation delay, and the tx fees make any kind of nanotransactions (sub-dollar) totally impractical at the moment.

I seriously hope that the Bitcoin devs find a way to resolve this... better sooner than later.

That's exactly what the lightning network that GP mentioned is supposed to fix, isn't it?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_Network

You can read all about it. There's a decent Alice/Bob description in the entry.

That's just the thing, it needing a patch - or consensus amongst miners - means it's broken and there might be better architected currencies around. Will Lightning allow it to do 50K transactions / second or more? <1 minute confirmation times? Low transaction costs?

It depends on what you mean by "it." The is that lightning networks are "off-chain" transactions that aren't validated by block miners unless/until they need to be.

The idea is that off-chain transactions can be free and instant. The problem is that those speedy transactions only work for transactions within the lightning network. Anything cross-networks needs to hit the block chain.

This introduces a new centralizing dynamic and it is hard to predict what sort of issues or complications may arise from this solution in practice.

>meaning scalability issues are largely eradicated

I don't know how much you know about the lightning network, but this is _not_ true by any means. LN introduces a lot of new challenges and is by no means the end of the road.

The naive approach, for example, means your morning coffee actually takes _two_ transactions instead of one, making the problem worse. To take advantage of LN will mean new networks, new organisations, centralised brokers, et cetera.

Well the largely part may be exaggerated but the Lightning Network offers a solution and a quite promising one for that matter.

I may not be a drop-in solution but with so much money circulating there is huge incentives to implement proper payment channels between the right parties what without a doubt will lead to more scalability.

Or perhaps a tangled web of rent-seeking gatekeepers. It's hard to predict at this point.

As it currently exists, BTC cannot be used as designed. You cannot have a functional currency where the value goes up and down 20% on any given day. There's no incentive to use it to purchase any good or service, it's only a vehicle for speculation or as an exchange value while dealing with other coins. Lightning network wont change that, either. Only price stability will.

Down almost 40% in 30 days.

Roll a dice. Is the next 30 days + or - 40%

That’s the point. Roll a dice indeed.

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