One potential complication to the vision, however, stems from the current uncertainty and controversy over how Bitcoin's core developers should modify its software so it can better handle growing transaction volumes (see "Leaderless Bitcoin Struggles to Make Its Most Crucial Decision Yet").
However, it's not all bad news for bitcoin, ethereum, ripple (XRP) and other major cryptocurrencies, with some pointing to bitcoin's growing transaction rate as a cause for celebration.
In the first installment of this series, I explored 10 reasons why Bitcoin could make a good investment, ranging from growing transaction volume to the possibility that Bitcoin is undervalued when compared to similar stores of value, so there's a possibility that an investment in Bitcoin could pay off handsomely one day (at least as of December 2015 — I expect the outlook to change over time).
With the advent of new, global technologies such as blockchains -- continuously growing transaction databases used, for example, to sustain virtual currencies -- the notion of data localization becomes even more misguided.
In addition to this core segment, we see a growing larger transaction segment who are leveraging our competitive currency conversion rate for larger transactions to pay bills or buy goods abroad," he adds.
As the circle of lenders and borrowers grew, financial transactions were able to muster larger sums and to spread risk, even as promises became harder to enforce.
Like-minded people sharing their obsessions were the soil in which the larger Internet once grew; those transactions, commercialized and monetized, remade the world, with infinite ramifications downstream, some miraculous, some horrible.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz described these developments and other efforts to grow mobile transactions as "taking a page out of the drive-thru business," which is known for convenience.
In recent years, as art prices have grown dramatically, transactions are often obscured by the use of offshore companies, front men, free trade zones, manipulated auctions and private sales.
