Scaling Bitcoin Preview: 5 Talks to Watch at Bitcoin’s Big Summit

Will bitcoin, the much-hyped $10bn distributed digital currency network, scale?
The open question is set to be addressed at the latest in a series of developer conferences aimed at the issue this week. Scaling Bitcoin, scheduled to run from 9th to 10th October, is the third conference of its kind since divisions in the digital currency’s community beganfollowing debate on how to accommodate more transactions, and some argue, more users.
While the conference has lost some of its former intrigue, what’s at stake is still the development roadmap for bitcoin, a project that critics argue is losing ground (or refining its value proposition) amid increased competition.
Still, the conference won’t just be about scaling, as it has expanded its mandate to focus on improving bitcoin more broadly. For example, no announcements are expected related to the scaling issue, with work on a potential solution, Segregated Witness, still continuing.
So, what’s there to see in person or via the livestream?
Organizers say the conference’s technical talks will be divided into six sections, with the schedule promising to see top developers address the payment network’s problems including privacy and network security.
So far, the first two iterations have proven to be marquee events, with developers bringing big new ideas to the table. Forward-looking technical projects, such as capacity-boosting Segregated Witness and Bitcoin-NG, a proposed experimental overhaul of bitcoin, have been unveiled in the past.

This post was published at Coin Desk on October 6, 2016.