The significance of a scalable blockchain infrastructure cannot be overstated. It has become increasingly evident that scalability is a paramount consideration for this transformative technology’s sustained growth and efficiency.
The ability of a blockchain to seamlessly scale not only influences its performance but also determines its adaptability to diverse use cases, ultimately shaping the trajectory of its integration into mainstream applications. This was expanded upon in more detail by Mike Hennessey (Senior Advisor at Unbounded Capital) speaking during the recent Unbounded Capital Summit in New York.
‘When most investors think of Bitcoin their immediate questions are often whether it is a fiat currency, a stablecoin or a replacement for the dollar. The alternative thing they ask is whether they can trade with or do arbitrage,’ said Hennessey. ‘The problem with this approach to Bitcoin is that Bitcoin is fundamentally a network. And there are network effects attached to it.’
He pointed to the Bitcoin white paper which states that Bitcoin is a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash that would allow online payments to be sent from one party to another without going through a financial institution. ‘That to me is the most important part of the white paper – and something we have lost track of,’ he said.
Why we need a scalable blockchain
Hennessey explains that truly scalable blockchains – such as the BSV blockchain – are necessary to help achieve the goal of a new Internet. ‘Blockchain infrastructure can store the Internet’s data, provide an immutable ledger, payment layer, and offer interoperability,’ he said.
He noted that this scalability is not just conceptual but is fast becoming a necessity for some of the biggest companies in the world. He pointed to the fact that the ‘trillion-dollar club’ of Google, Amazon and Microsoft are all effectively cloud service and storage companies.
Hennessey also believes that blockchain holds the key to how online payments are made going forward. He noted that subscriptions only exist because the current infrastructure is not able to offer true micropayments – something that is possible through the BSV blockchain.
Teranode to offer unbounded scaling
The BSV Blockchain technical team is currently hard at work on Teranode – Bitcoin node software which has the ultimate goal of creating unbounded scaling.
Teranode is the BSV blockchain’s solution to the challenges of vertical scaling by instead spreading the workload across multiple machines and employing Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) (section 8 of the Bitcoin white paper). This horizontal scaling approach enables network capacity to grow with increasing demand through the addition of cluster nodes, allowing for Bitcoin scaling to be truly unbounded.
Teranode is meant for nodes catering to transaction processing of large volumes from users. When enterprises or governments start using the blockchain network for various use cases, they might choose to either contract with nodes or run their node. These volume-hungry audiences are the customers of the Teranode initiative.