Samson Mow of Blockstream wants to move the discussion away from the performance of Bitcoin in transactions every second and towards its role in ushering in “a new financial paradigm,” that is, acting as a permissionless store and value transfer medium.
Data from Blockchain.com reveals that the overall estimated value of transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain was estimated at $4.627 billion as of December 1. This figure was $5.15 billion, similar to its all-time high, on November 5. TPS (transaction per second) has long been presented as the purported Achilles heel for Bitcoin, whose potential is at a lower threshold than that of competitor coins like Ether. This is in particular the line taken by Bitcoin Cash evangelists such as Roger Ver, who tout the commodity as a better currency for market use in small-scale transactions.
Mow’s Bitcoin line was consistent, arguing that those involved in daily transactions should use second-layer solutions such as the Lightning Network. In itself, Bitcoin, he says, has a very different purpose: “It’s more of a store of value and a medium of wealth transfer. It’s not something you would use every day in payments. I’ve said this before, and people have twisted around and said I hate Bitcoin, but Bitcoin is bad for payments.”
