On August 1, 2017 — the Bitcoin community split (or a ‘hard fork’ fork if you will) on an all important and hotly debated topic, scaling Bitcoin. Two distinct camps with two different ideologies were formed from this date: one that wants to scale Bitcoin off-chain through solutions such as the Lightning Network, and the other that wants to continue scaling Bitcoin on-chain by increasing the block size “limit” from 1 MB. Both camps hold almost vicious beliefs that the opposing group is fundamentally wrong. This leads to multiple arguments online on social media, at conferences and interviews. What was once a united community pushing for a change in the world is now a divided one debating on this topic. Unfortunately, this made it difficult for new, average users to assess both sides without being tainted by one biased viewpoint or the other.

At Node Blockchain, we look to provide our readers with an independent analysis through research and data as investors of cryptoassets. This was a topic we’ve been consumed by since the fork occurred and after hearing both sides of the debate, we’ve provided our assessment within this paper.

Ultimately, in the long run, the market will decide what the optimal solution is. In the short run, opportunities such as this allow investors to make decisions on what they believe that long run equilibrium will be. At the very least, we believe that this paper serves as a reasonable case put forward for on-chain scaling.

Read the full paper here.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This document is intended for informational purposes only. The views expressed in this document are not, and should not be construed as, investment advice or recommendations. Recipients of this document should do their own due diligence, taking into account their specific financial circumstances, investment objectives and risk tolerance (which are not considered in this document) before investing. This document is not an offer, nor the solicitation of an offer, to buy or sell any of the assets mentioned herein.