Part 6/14:
Fast forward to today, the core issues remain complex and interrelated:
Mining Centralization: A persistent concern is that mining power is concentrated in a few pools, threatening the network’s censorship resistance and security. The dominant pools control transaction inclusion, with some pools representing over 50% of total hash power. Overcoming this centralization requires technological solutions like Stratum V2 and incentivization for miners to support more decentralized architectures.
Layer-2 Solutions and Their Limitations: Lightning Network and other second-layer solutions offer promising scalability and privacy benefits but face hurdles. Implementation complexities, regulatory pressures, and the need for user-friendly, privacy-preserving tools remain significant.