The Inconvenient Truths About Crypto
Crypto assets and their respective projects have come a long way since Bitcoin’s debut in 2009.
The vast swathe of dApps that have burst onto the scene since the advent of smart contracts, dozens of reputable exchanges (and DEXes), a growing range of non-custodial wallets, NFTs, layer-2 scaling solutions that provide a much better UX/UI experience for the end user, and more companies embracing the technology are impressive achievements for this nascent asset class.
Despite the progress, certain aspects of crypto have barely changed since the early days, or, in a few cases, things have gone backwards.
Bitcoin and Ethereum are still slow
Anyone who suggests measures to significantly boost throughput (transactions per second/TPS) is quickly reminded of the Scalability Trilemma, also known as the Blockchain Trilemma.
First described by Vitalik Buterin in a 2017 post, this represents a trade-off between security, scalability, and decentralisation. To date, only two of these have been possible simultaneously.
It’s the same with tasks. It’s very rare to find someone who can do a job very well, quickly, and cheaply.
