Below is a guest post Brendon Ced, Core Dao’s first contributor.
Satoshi didn’t invent Bitcoin to make it a generalist network – Jack of all trades, master without master. Bitcoin deliberately trades speed and scalability for decentralization and security. But contrary to popular myths, this is not a barrier to building new Bitcoin-based applications.
Slowness is the strength of Bitcoin, not its weakness. And the “building on Bitcoin” movement is only successful if the developers embrace it, strategically inheriting “around the edge” while inheriting the slow architecture of Bitcoin.
Don’t try to change your bitcoin
Bitcoin slowness is essential to the security model and transaction verification mechanism.
Instead of relying on a central intermediary, Bitcoin achieves the finality of unreliable transactions through Proof of Work (POW) consensus, prioritizing security beyond speed. Resource-focused, time-consuming Pow provides calculation guarantees to prevent malicious actors from modifying their Bitcoin transaction history.
So, 10 minutes of block checking time is one of the core security features of Bitcoin, although one of the most basics.
Shorter block times increase the chances of isolated blocks and forks. Meanwhile, if the block is slow, transactions are propagated among miners, confirming and agreeing to the longest chain. This denies the possibility of verifying wrong transactions and hard forks.
However, bitcoin scalability has always been a competing point. So the developers have tried to improve Bitcoin throughput and make it cheaper during high network crowds.
One such proposal was to increase the block size to reduce transaction fees while allowing more data storage within the block. The community fought back on good reasons, which led to what is called Block war.
Larger Bitcoin blocks could potentially handle transactions per second (TPS), making the chain faster and more scalable. It has a serious impact on decentralization and network security.
Larger blocks require more computation, so running a full node is more expensive. This means fewer miners will secure networks, increasing centralization and integration risks at the hands of wealthy elites. That’s exactly what Bitcoin was built to solve.
Lesson: Do not change Bitcoin. Bitcoin will change you.
A higher TPS is not the right way to scale Bitcoin. In fact, Bitcoin’s core doesn’t need to be expanded at all. Past attempts have failed, and future attempts must do so too.
Does that mean that Bitcoin is waiting to become obsolete as the underlying network of crypto innovation? Not at all.
Developers must stop trying to build directly with Bitcoin. Rather, they should take a layered approach to building Bitcoin, leveraging the security and resilience that caused network slowness.
Bitcoin will become a world of dangerous cryptos that would otherwise be slowly and secure cores, otherwise ume-eroded.
Slow and build “around the edge”
Bitcoin was not designed for high programming, complex smart contracts, high-throughput applications, and other flashy concepts.
It is tolerant of minimal censorship and provide an unchanging foundation for sound money and safe financial transactions. Still, Bitcoin can support programmable applications very well.
The “Bitcoin Building” movement shows that it is possible to expand Bitcoin’s capabilities while maintaining security and decentralization.
Upgrades like Taproot have sophisticated Bitcoin features, and enhancements such as contracts and bridges will continue to do so in the future.
However, the most transformative development takes place beyond the basic layers.
Scaling solutions such as Layer 2, Sidechain, Statechain, Rollup and various interoperability protocols will cause Bitcoin-driven innovations to occur at the edge.
By building “around the edge,” Bitcoin developers can achieve cutting-edge innovation and grow their ecosystem without compromising their core principles. These solutions unlock all new use cases for network and asset classes.
This makes Bitcoin easier to use Bitcoin as a medium of exchange and collateral assets, while maintaining the integrity of Bitcoin as the safest financial network.
Other chains will add the ability to compete for market share, but Bitcoin is undergoing rigorous scrutiny for upgrades. The community is withholding rushing decisions to make the network faster so that it doesn’t compromise on unparalleled security.
The slowness of Bitcoin is why this network can withstand. It forces developers to think of long-term solutions that strengthen the foundation rather than weaken it.
Developers should not follow fleeting trends or create reckless compromises. Why do they have to build such a solid, safe, resilient foundation?
You can build something great on Bitcoin without changing or hindering the core, just to avoid digging the building’s basement and building the above 3rd floor. That’s the path to a truly decentralized financial system.
Durability continues. Bitcoin is durable and can also be apps built on this ecosystem. It’s not a question of whether the developer is ready to take the right approach. Those who do so will dominate Bitcoin innovation for the next decade. It’s begun.
