BTC is primed for a price panic/crash similar to 2017. Given that people aren't hugely bothered by the congestion, it seems that no one even transacts BTC onchain anymore. Tether is there to support $26k price, but there could be a huge price dump if markets drop.
https://preview.redd.it/hy90sue8xz1b1.png?width=1908&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=b32a41e257fe3f9ea67d1d854197661bb95553c0
https://preview.redd.it/iz0l6kkexz1b1.png?width=979&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=93ba08f04753a479b3d8adde499c4e9e9205ea0b
> 150k Unconfirmed Transactions
Try 325K
EDIT: Johoe’s node had some issues (see note about May 16).
https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#BTC,3m,count
>Given that people aren’t hugely bothered by the congestion, it seems that no one even transacts BTC onchain anymore
Mempool would be empty if nobody transacts, don’t you think?
Why people don’t complain is simple: they use basically free Lightning for small amounts and don’t mind to pay $3 fee for big ones.
this happened in Dec2017 (i think; that date stands-out to me) and it was the eye-opening moment when my BTC couldn’t be moved for under $50…and even that was uncertain. from then on, i’ve been 100% into crypto that can be used as daily cash. currently buying and holding BCH to hedge against this upcoming BTC crash
what i wonder is now crypto will adjust to a stock market and housing crash; it would seem that crypto would go up relative to fiat/stocks, but that hasn’t been the case in the recent years. BCH is still unknown to 99% of humans, so i’m buying accordingly
*Notes high congestion on mempool
*Says nobody seems to transact on chain anymore
Obviously has major issues, but isn’t the fact that the mempool is so big really a positive for them? It means there’s high demand to use it. Now you and I know that BTC is technically inferior to BCH, but if nobody wants to use BCH, then who cares? BTC already moved away from the daily transaction model. BCH fans will say, how can this be used as a daily currency when you can’t even buy a cup of coffee? But here’s the thing, BTC no longer advertises itself that way and yet it STILL has this crazy high demand. We can speculate that daily transaction will become more on demand in the future, but right now, BTC is absolutely thriving at the thing that it wants to be now – an in demand slow and expensive store of value and not something you use every day.
I wish BCHs mempool was a tenth of BTCs, but as of right now the demand isnt there, or at least there’s too much supply of all different types of coins that offer to do similar things.
I’ve never really understood the permanent small block argument. I sort of got it in 2016. Now though? I mean it’s like having a small highway in a small town it works while all else is equal. The town keeps growing. If you don’t increase the roads you have massive congestion. Even 8mb blocks would keep the transaction fees high enough for miners but out of the stratosphere at least