If there is one thing Bitcoin needs to overcome, it is transaction fees. More specifically, these fees have gotten out of hand as of late. Solving this problem should e relatively easy, assuming service providers would work together. In fact, all they need to do is improve SegWit adoption. Making this new solution mandatory for all transactions is the only major priority right now.
It is evident Bitcoin is far from a perfect cryptocurrency. There are many issues associated with it, including the ways to obtain this currency. Moreover, high transaction fees are making it far more expensive to use as an actual currency. There is a solution ready to address this latter situation. When SegWit was activated, all service providers could have easily integrated it. For some reason, they decided not to do so. A silly decision, looking back on things.
Bitcoin Needs Better SegWit Adoption
Instead, most companies were too busy with SegWit2x. This integration has turned out to be a waste of time and effort. If these companies had worked in integration SegWit properly, most issues would have been resolved already. We would have cheaper transactions and a real test to determine if a block size increase is even necessary. Right now, we are stuck with no viable test data and too high fees. All companies still not supporting SegWit properly need to take a long hard look at themselves.
The rise in transaction fees shall continue until SegWit adoption improves.
— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) November 9, 2017
Until this adoption rate improves, high fees will be the new norm. It is unclear when we can expect any significant changes in this regard. So far, it seems no companies are actually planning on making big changes before the year is over. Right now, a small percentage of all Bitcoin transactions are SegWit-supported. Mainly wallets and exchanges have to step up their game in this regard. This problem has been persistent for far too long already. We all want a better Bitcoin, but by not implementing existing solutions things remain at a standstill.
At the same time, it is possible Bitcoin miners are content with the current situation. Higher fees mean they get paid more per block. Combine that with a Bitcoin price of over $7,000 and SegWit adoption is not in their best interest. Then again, if the service providers enforce it everyone else has to follow automatically. We can only hope things change in a positive manner in the coming weeks.
Header image courtesy of Shutterstock
