I'm talking about the Bitcoin Industry, not Bitcoin. Actually, I'm mostly talking about Ethereum and the End of Mining. Friday after midnight EST that's exactly what I'll be discussing on Coast to Coast with Connie Willis.
Wait, what? Who said anything about a Bitcoin Industry Train Wreck?
You heard it here first.
You see, hundreds of cool applications are currently being developed using popular blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum without having given any consideration to their ability to handle the load. I talk to executives of these companies all the time where they proudly boast how their applications are going to "convert their millions of existing users over to digital currencies the first month of operation." I ask them, "Um, how many transactions per second do you expect to handle at your site?" They say, "Oh, hundreds! maybe thousands! We're the biggest site of our kind, don't you know?"
Train Wreck.
I politely ask, "Um, how many transactions per second will your chosen blockchain handle?" Their smile fades a bit and they ask, "What do you mean?" Then I show them the second row this chart:
"Guys, your awesome new service has to share less than 30 transactions per second (TPS) with all the world's other traffic on that blockchain including hundreds of other applications just like yours coming on line early next year. Haven't you been paying attention to how it already slows down to a crawl every time a big ICO launches?"
They turn to their tech guru and ask, "Is that true?" That's when the guru turns pale.
Coming, to a web site near you.
The trend has already started with smart projects abandoning slow mining-based blockchains because their application needs the performance of real time blockchains like BitShares:
Why Bitspark.io stopped using Bitcoin for Global Remittance and now uses Bitshares
I know of several others planning to switch over who haven't announced yet, but we'll save that for another day.
At Cryptonomex, we are already planning to help scores of companies make the switchover to BitShares without losing too much momentum from their Big Product Launch. It will be a busy spring for us. We are already doing this for several companies we got to just in time before their Big Product Launches go live. Most won't be this lucky.
Anyhow, I'll be talking a lot about it on Coast to Coast Radio with Connie Willis this Friday After Midnight EST.
