Blockchain

Chapter 6. Limitations

The blockchain industry is still in the early stages of development, and there are many different kinds of potential limitations. The classes of limitations are both internal and external, and include those related to technical issues with the underlying technology, ongoing industry thefts and scandals, public perception, government regulation, and the mainstream adoption of technology.

Technical Challenges

A number of technical challenges related to the blockchain, whether a specific one or the model in general, have been identified.

The issues are in clear sight of developers, with different answers to the challenges posited, and avid discussion and coding of potential solutions. Insiders have different degrees of confidence as to whether and how these issues can be overcome to evolve into the next phases of blockchain industry development. Some think that the de facto standard will be the Bitcoin blockchain, as it is the incumbent, with the most widely deployed infrastructure and such network effects that it cannot help but be the standardized base. Others are building different new and separate blockchains (like Ethereum) or technology that does not use a blockchain (like Ripple). One central challenge with the underlying Bitcoin technology is scaling up from the current maximum limit of 7 transactions per second (the VISA credit card processing network routinely handles 2,000 transactions per second and can accommodate peak volumes of 10,000 transactions ...