Bitcoin pioneer Nick Szabo said cryptocurrency should make four “most important improvements” in the coming years as Bitcoin’s fortunes reverse this month.
Spotlight On Technical Robustness
In several tweets April 24, the renowned cryptocurrency figure identified “more secure storage,” decentralized exchanges, second-layer technology such as the Lightning Network and privacy as top priorities for the industry.
His ideas come as the consumer sphere related to cryptocurrency continues to face scrutiny of its technical robustness.
Despite crypto asset trading becoming an increasingly mainstream activity, hacks or attacks on weak links in security chains persist, the most recent being a DNS compromise involving MyEtherWallet this week.
“More secure storage” in the form of “key management” is hence of pressing concern to Szabo.
“Make sure it covers the whole human life cycle (e.g. inheritance), and a wide variety of institutional and cross-border travel uses cases,” he added.
So too is the need to reimagine the exchange industry, which many criticize as being overly centralized and hence vulnerable to the designs of CEOs, investors and hackers alike.
The latest contention involving both the largest US exchange Coinbase and p2p platform Localbitcoins has led online commentators to actively seek decentralized alternatives.
Cryptocurrency most important areas for improvement over the next few years:
* More secure storage (key management)
* Trust-minimized (decentralized) exchanges
* Make 2nd layers more user-friendly, especially via automated routing, while not overly sacrificing trust minimization— Nick Szabo
(@NickSzabo4) April 24, 2018
Layer 2 Needs A Facelift
Meanwhile, while so-called second layer (Layer 2) solutions continue to revolutionize the Bitcoin user experience, Szabo calls for these to be made much more “user-friendly” on the front end.
A case in point for this is the Lightning Network. While users can already make near-instant Bitcoin transactions for less than one satoshi in fees, the reality remains that using Lightning requires a level of technical proficiency which is off-putting for lay consumers.
Developers are already getting to grips with the issue, however, while LN’s popularity has been proven in the doubling of its capacity in the last two weeks alone to over $150,000.
What do you think about Nick Szabo’s suggestions? Let us know in the comments section below!
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