The Future Of Bitcoin

I sent one-half bitcoin to my wallet at Coinbase. So far it hasn’t arrived. And I can’t see my transaction on the blockchain. Please assist.

Some are more panicked.

“Did I just lose all my bitcoin?” John from Australia asked me last week.

These readers were experiencing what’s called an “unconfirmed transaction.”

Understandably, this message freaks out a lot of people who are new to bitcoin. But you shouldn’t be worried. (It did me as well in my early going with Bitcoin.)

EVERY Bitcoin transaction requires at least two confirmations from other parties before it is an official transaction, and some programs want a few more before it is considered finished. (If you check on any of your transactions that have been made a day or so ago, you will see perhaps HUNDREDS of confirmations.)

Because of its rapid growth, the bitcoin network at times experiences bottlenecks. This happens when there are too many transactions to process at once. And that can result in an unconfirmed transaction.

It can take hours to verify smaller transactions. And to a novice, it looks like their bitcoin just disappeared.

The bitcoin is never lost. And the transaction will go through.

Like any new technology, bitcoin is going through growing pains. In this case, the network needs to expand (called “scalability”).

I’ve been researching bitcoin for months. And I see a solution on the horizon.

If the bitcoin community can make these fixes, it will make the cryptocurrency more user-friendly. And much more profitable for investors.

First, let me explain why this scaling problem is such a big deal…

Increasing Traffic Flow

Longtime readers will know that the underlying technology of bitcoin is called the blockchain. The blockchain is a digital public ledger that tracks bitcoin transactions.

Now, think of the blockchain as a two-lane highway in a small city.

If the city grows, traffic on the highway will increase. And that will cause traffic jams if the highway is not expanded.

But if you add new lanes to the highway, you can increase its capacity.

That’s where bitcoin is now. It needs to add capacity to handle the increasing number of transactions on the network.

There are three modifications bitcoin can make to solve this problem. I think we’ll see them implemented within the next year.

Adding Lanes to the Bitcoin Highway

The first modification is called SegWit.

Without getting technical, SegWit increases the size of each block on the blockchain.

It’s like being able to print on two sides of a piece of paper instead of one. You just doubled your capacity.

On April 26, a cryptocurrency called Litecoin activated SegWit on its blockchain. This is big because Litecoin is similar to bitcoin. So it will serve as a testing ground.

Litecoin rallied from $4.25 to $10 on news of the SegWit adoption. It’s rocketed up to $35.50 since the network signaled adoption—a 735% total gain.

If SegWit is successful on Litecoin, bitcoin will likely follow.

The next modification is called the Lightning Network. It works on top of the bitcoin blockchain.

The Lightning Network uses payment channels. That allows near-instant transactions at rates of millions per second. And the fees are just a fraction of a cent. The local payment channels all tie into the global bitcoin network.

The Lightning Network will give bitcoin the speed demanded by the marketplace.

The final modification is called Rootstock.

The program offers many features. But the one I’m most excited about is smart contract functionality. This feature will increase the capability of the bitcoin network.

If bitcoin adopts all three modifications, it will be like going from a two-lane highway to an interstate freeway with six lanes. And that will solve bitcoin’s scaling issue.

That’s a huge deal for users and investors.

Bitcoin is about to become more user-friendly. As it becomes easier to use, we’ll see increased adoption. And that means we’ll see the price go up further.

You still have an opportunity to get in before the masses. And the easiest way to profit is to buy bitcoin today.