🧱 The Scaling Problem

Seven per second

Bitcoin's base layer processes roughly 7 transactions per second.

A major card network can process tens of thousands.

So how is Bitcoin supposed to work for buying coffee?

The cost of security

Every Bitcoin transaction gets broadcast, included in a block, and independently verified by thousands of nodes worldwide.

That level of security comes at a cost: it limits how many transactions the base layer can process.

This isn't a bug anyone forgot to fix. It's the price of the property you came for.

Limited, regular block space

New blocks arrive roughly every 10 minutes, with limited space inside each one.

When demand is high, transactions compete for that space — and fees rise.

It's an auction, and everyone bidding is a stranger.

Right tool, wrong job

That's fine for large, infrequent settlements — think bank-to-bank transfers.

It's clunky for a $4 coffee.

Bitcoin needed a way to keep the base layer secure while still handling small, frequent, everyday payments.

Try it: Fit the block

Three blocks, more transactions than room. See what gets bumped.

Three blocks, more transactions than room. Pack each one, mine it, and see what gets bumped — then watch the fee rate go from 1× to 8× as the backlog bids harder. Notice which payments keep losing: the small everyday ones. Open the Fit the Block tool →

Quick check: Why can't Bitcoin's base layer handle massive volumes of small transactions the way a card network can?

1. The software is too slow
2. Every transaction must be verified and stored by the whole network, and block space and time are limited ✓
3. Miners refuse to process small payments

The bottleneck is the verification everybody does — which is exactly the property that makes it worth verifying.

Quick check: What tends to happen to fees when many people compete for limited block space?

1. They rise ✓
2. They stay fixed by protocol
3. They fall to encourage use

It's an open auction, so the price is whatever the busiest bidder is willing to pay.

Next up

So how do you keep Bitcoin's security, but make it fast enough for a cup of coffee?