At the moment, BitCoin is only able to handle around 12 transactions per second - far from ideal for a technology that aims to be a global currency. Technical changes could increase this limit, but they have been knocked back by Bitcoin traditionalists: [QUOTE]A group of prominent developers backing a plan to expand the capacity of the Bitcoin network threw in the towel on Wednesday. "It is clear that we have not built sufficient consensus for a clean blocksize upgrade at this time," wrote developer Mike Belshe in a Wednesday afternoon email. In the short run, the announcement averts a looming crisis for the Bitcoin community, which faced the possibility that the payment network could be split into two rival, mutually incompatible versions. But the announcement also prolongs the capacity problems that have been plaguing Bitcoin for years.[/QUOTE] Read more at ArsTechnica: [URL]https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/11/bitcoin-compromise-collapses-leaving-future-growth-in-doubt/[/URL]