I see Bitcoin as the oldest and most secure cryptocurrency for all of the reason you already know. It is the first and most mature cryptocurrency and blockchain, and althou is pretty straight forward in the sense that it works essentially as a currency, leaving no space to fail. The proof of work consensus mechanism isn't the most energy efficietn but still the saffest and most secure. The compensation mechanism works, incentivizing miners to not take bad action or they will potenttialy undermine their own investment on the mining rigs.
Still, one question as been bothering me: the development team. Github shows that there are "only" around 700 developers contributing to the project. And although that seems alot, it dosen't sound much compared, for instance, with the whole open software comunity.
I also searched for the name BLOCKSTREAM, the company that agregates almost all the Bitcoin development team. As a company, they have there interests, but that dosen't have to be a red flag. Miners have companies and interests too. Still, the most skeptics about BLOCKSTREAM argue that this company keeps the Bitcoin Blockchain underdeveloped purposefully.
In theory, as Bitcoin strives for scalability, the network gets overloaded with transactions and the fees go up.
This could be solved in tow ways:
1: Update the blockchain so it can manage more transactions, as with BCH and BSV;
2: Build second layer solutions on top of the existing blockchain, for instance the Lightning Network;
Now, the problem with the Lightning network Solutions is that, assuming that it can really scale, the fees go to the nodes of the lightning network and not the bitcoin miners supporting the real blockchain. This means that Blockstream is finding ways to monetize on top of the bitcoin ecosystem without participating on it. And the Lighning is just an example.
What is your opinion on that? Do you feel like the Bitcoin development team is th ultimate form of centralization, as they control the "brain" of the chain?
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