[rob001]

Ok so I've learnt something there, just one transaction to open a channel that everyone uses. But then what happens when you've transacted with say 30 different merchants, and the tab is called? Is that one bitcoin transaction to settle, or 30 since you're presumably sending bitcoin to 30 different wallets?

Personally I don't like the glacial pace of ground layer dev, as it makes me think this stuff can't be solved. Each way you approach it is a compromise.

[xiphias2]

It's called lightning network for a reason. It's a network of Bitcoin channels. You can open a channel with Burger King and use it at McDonald's. The latter will route the payment instantly to the former, and all channel states will be updated. Read the lightning channel technical papers if you're interested, it's really worth it.

[keymone]

It’s one transaction to settle any number of in-channel transactions. That’s why it doesn’t make sense to talk about 7 transactions per second because every one of them can represent a billion value exchanges.

It is infinitely more important to preserve stability of foundation than it is to experiment with new features. Bitcoin runs in its current form for more than a decade and that stability is worth a lot.