NEW YORK–Bitcoin payments around the world are being substantially delayed and many have failed as the digital currency platform that supports it struggles to cope with a surge in demand, according to several news reports.
Bitcoin, created in 2008, has a technical upper limit on how many transactions the blockchain—the decentralized ledger that powers bitcoin—can process per second, putting a limit on how much the digital currency can grow as a substitute for cash.
Last week problems materialized when the bitcoin network reached capacity, resulting in lengthy transaction times of 43 minutes, up from the usual 10 minutes, according to the Business Insider. Several of them failed completely.
A number of bitcoin experts have been warning that fundamental changes needed to be made to the core software of the system to avoid it being overwhelmed by the continued growth of bitcoin transactions. The bitcoin developer community is conflicted about how best to tackle the issue, and two sides have pushed forward with different, competing versions of the software.
Bitcoin users are reportedly confused and a number of retailers around the world have stopped accepting the digital currency, the Insider reported.