Part 5/13:
However, as the network’s fees spiked and scalability issues became apparent, the narrative shifted. Developers implemented changes—like increasing the minimum transaction fee and restricting block size—that hamstrung Bitcoin’s payment utility. Instead, Bitcoin was increasingly seen as a "digital gold"—a scarce, high-value asset suitable for holding rather than spending.
The Failed Blocksize Wars
The fundamental discord involved how to scale Bitcoin. The original design supported large blocks and high throughput, but factional debates emerged between big-blockers and small-blockers.
- Big-blockers advocated for larger blocks to enable more transactions per second, aligning with Satoshi’s vision of scalable payments.