[Analysis] Bitcoin is not too slow

Parker Lewis, Head of Business Development at Unchained Capital, argues that we don't need don’t need the bitcoin network to be a payments rail and that the future of bitcoin is far more secure in a world where all market participants can depend on it having a reliably fixed and scarce supply, while accepting lower transaction throughput or speed as trade-offs.

Parker makes the point that Bitcoin should not be compared to Visa’s payment network, and that the proper comparison would be between bitcoin and the Fed as currency issuer and as a clearing mechanism.

It’s a little ridiculous to contemplate the problem bitcoin has already solved and then immediately pivot to a “but why not mass payments today” line of thinking. Especially when considering that bitcoin, in its clearing function, is already faster and more reliable than comparable mechanisms for final settlement of dollars, euros, yen or gold.