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“Great engineering is the art of intelligent compromise” - Dan Watts The release of Bitcoin and the blockchain technology that powers it has ushered in an exciting new era for digital currencies and distributed computing,seemingly bringing into existence what many had thought impossible; a thrustless decentralised currency. However, like many great inventions in the past, this progress was achieved not by breaking any rules of nature or limitations that people imagined stood in the way, but rather by taking a long hard look at the requirements and then coming up with a clever new compromise. Most inventions of any significance contain many compromises and Bitcoin is no exception, as with most ground-breaking new systems, it would be naive and unrealistic to expect that the first iteration would get everything 100% right. It stands to reason that there is room for improvement. It has been over 8 years since Bitcoin burst onto the scene and numerous competitors have since come and gone, some of them bringing some minor improvements to the table, but overall very little meaningful progress has been achieved in core areas. It is my belief that a sober and proper reflection on the current shortcomings, as well as real solutions to some of them are necessary, or this promising new technology may easily falter while still in its infancy. This article attempts to pinpoint what I believe are the shortfalls and compromises of current blockchain technology, and analyse them in search of ways to improve the system, with the goal of implementing these improvements in our virtual currency Bahiti.
