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Comment by mrorbitman | Hacker News Reader

I think raising this concern is a great first step into seriously thinking about bitcoin. Learning about bitcoin is a string of epiphanies and concerns, much like the actual bitcoin price chart over time.

No one gets to "maxi" without first going through all the ups and downs and common questions and misunderstandings

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I think going maxi is a negative rather than a positive. It's when you go too far in the journey and seek for simplicity. Crypto is a complicated and fast moving world, so it's understandable that some people become religious (as in stop accepting new evidence) and tribal. Still, it's always good trying to keep an open mind.

Modern “Bitcoin Maximalism” has similarities to religion, but I think it’s possible to independently arrive at the conclusions that there needs to be a single dominant cryptocurrency, and for various reasons Bitcoin has the best chance of being it.

And a lot of reasons it's terrible.

Front and center is the number of transactions per second it can process. It's no where near being able to handle the volume of transactions that happen around the world.

Clearly you haven't kept up to date with the lightning network.

The idea that any blockchain could squeeze all of the world's transactions on the system's layer one was always an absurd proposition to anyone with a basic understanding of computer science.

I don’t believe it’s possible to put every transaction on chain (or at least the main chain) while retaining the level of decentralization that makes cryptocurrencies interesting in the first place.

Most people believe a layered approach is necessary, and indeed, many are building L2 solutions on Bitcoin (Lightning) and other cryptocurrencies.

I think Bitcoin can and should be L1.

> but I think it’s possible to independently arrive at the conclusions that there needs to be a single dominant cryptocurrency

Why?

First step for an individual who has given very little thought to bitcoin, sure. It's definitely one of the more legit, systemic criticisms of the system's ability to be self sustaining long term.

First step for this specific concern at all? Definitely not. It's been raised and debated for years.

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