Bitcoin Is on the Verge of a Constitutional Crisis

The bitcoin community is facing one of the most momentous decisions in its six-year history. The bitcoin network is running out of spare capacity, and two increasingly divided camps disagree about what, if anything, to do about the problem.

If these two sides fail to reach a consensus, the bitcoin network could — according to one side, at least — slowly grind to a halt as the number of transactions exceeds the network’s capacity to process them. Even worse, if a fix for this problem is forced through prematurely, it could split the bitcoin network in two and permanently damage public trust in the network.

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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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