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Comment by ashray | Hacker News Reader

This was just because of that single $147MM transaction yesterday. Of course it's great because this shows bitcoin can sustain a small number of high volume transactions.

Unfortunately one of the biggest challenges the bitcoin network is facing right now is getting smaller transactions confirmed faster. This issue will need to get solved and get solved sooner rather than later if bitcoin wants to be a competitor to VISA or MasterCard.

Maybe more HNers should take a look at the core: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin

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This is an argument not so different from those often given regarding 'linux on the desktop'. Bitcoin doesn't want anything. It's an idea, not a company.

If the protocol is effective, it will thrive in its own right. If it doesn't, something else will appear in its place. The designer(s) of Bitcoin could have favored short confirmation times, but they didn't. Plenty of companies are working on solutions that effectively yield shorter confirmation times for merchants.

If I want to buy a car with BTC, I'll be happy to wait five minutes to ensure the transaction goes through. It's a lot faster than going to the bank for a cashier's check.

> The designer(s) of Bitcoin could have favored short confirmation times, but they didn't.

Shorter confirmation times do not help with anything, because the system is based on proof-of-work. The idea is the longer you wait for the network to compute things, the more solidified your transaction becomes.

A coin network that has a shorter block duration (like Litecoin with 2.5 minutes instead of 10) doesn't make any difference because what you really want to wait for to ensure you got your coins is "time spent computing", not "number of blocks computed".

Bitcoins (and any other cryptocurrencies) can never have secure real-time transactions as long as they rely on the proof-of-work network.

Just a nitpick, not arguing your point in general, but: car dealerships generally don't require cashier's checks. Regular checks do just fine. Not that taking ten minutes to pay for a car is a problem, but you can pay for one with a normal check in no time at all.

I've only ever bought used cars :).

The real problem is that you consider Bitcoin as an absolute solution for every transaction.

I don't know for you, but when I want to transfer cash in my bank to someone in another country, it take way more than 60 minutes (6 blocks). If I want to do it faster, I use a private service that will do it faster. The same will apply with Bitcoin.

I don't really consider bitcoin to be the absolute solution. But it's certainly flexible enough to be a great solution.

With increasing transaction volumes the bitcoin network is lately having some issues confirming transactions with low or no fees. Furthermore, with the appreciation of bitcoin/usd value the minimum transaction fee (hardcoded at 0.0001 BTC) is getting too high. (Rising from 0.05 to 0.08 cents)

The thing is, bitcoin is still very much a WIP project, a beta if you will. It still needs more bright people working on it to improve it.

Transactions on the Ripple ledger are much faster, with a new ledger (analogous to a block) every few seconds. The speed-up is because there's no mining (proof of work).

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