2026-01-31 –, Blink
Bitcoin’s base layer prioritizes security and decentralization, but this comes with strict limits on throughput and latency. As Bitcoin adoption grows, second-layer solutions are becoming essential to scale usage without compromising core properties.
This panel explores the current landscape of Bitcoin scaling approaches, including the Lightning Network, transaction batching techniques, and emerging Layer 2 designs. Panelists will discuss architectural tradeoffs around custody, trust assumptions, liquidity, finality, and user experience, highlighting where different solutions excel, where they fall short, and what open questions remain for scaling Bitcoin sustainably.
Bitcoin’s conservative design ensures robustness and neutrality, but also imposes hard constraints on transaction capacity and confirmation times. To scale Bitcoin for broader adoption, a growing ecosystem of second-layer solutions has emerged, each making different tradeoffs between security, trust, liquidity, and usability.
This panel brings together researchers, builders, and practitioners to examine how Bitcoin scales beyond the base layer. Topics include the Lightning Network, transaction batching models, channel-based and UTXO-sharing approaches, and newer Layer 2 proposals. Panelists will compare trust models (custodial vs. non-custodial, preconfirmation vs. finality), discuss operational challenges such as liquidity provision and mass exits, and explore how user experience and reliability shape real-world adoption.
The discussion aims to move beyond slogans and clarify the design space of Bitcoin L2s: what problems different approaches actually solve, what risks they introduce, and how these systems may evolve together rather than compete. The panel is intended for a technically curious audience seeking a clearer mental model of Bitcoin scaling tradeoffs.
Ricki Allardice, is a scientist, entrepreneur and Bitcoin evangelist from Cape Town, South Africa. He has a diverse professional history, including the biological sciences where he conducted research and development on soil and plant health products; asset and wealth management and the fin-tech startup space.
For the past 4 years he has been focussed on Bitcoin only startups, primarily building products and solutions which make self custody simpler and more attainable for the average user.
Ricki is the CEO and co-founder of Orange, a Lightning services company which connects african currencies to the Lightning network to facilitate cross border payments at the speed of light.
He also runs his own consulting service called Bitcoin Only, which assists individuals, businesses and trusts in their respective Bitcoin strategies, distributes sovereignty promoting hardware and Bitcoin key management for the long term.
Twitter: @BitcoinOnlyZA
Nostr: npub1aj9k43cmuqdh23un8f25nzdudpep9vaeumte5v7ran7f697y7dgswjw6h3
Website: www.bitcoinonly.io
Veronika Kütt is a researcher and strategist with a long-term focus on Bitcoin. With a background in mathematics and a strong analytical approach, she studies and designs Bitcoin-native Layer 2 protocols and their implications for the future of digital economies. She takes a holistic approach to exploring new ways of living together and alternative governance models, thinking about the future of human systems through the lens of technology and longevity. Veronika currently contributes to Ark Labs, where she researches Arkade, an execution layer built on Ark, to advance Bitcoin toward programmable money.
Mathematician working on Fedimint
Gareth Grobler is a South African Bitcoin advocate with over a decade in the space. He co-founded one of Africa's earliest cryptocurrency platforms in 2012 and is now building Layerz Wallet - a beginner-friendly self-custodial wallet supporting Lightning, Liquid, Ark, Spark and emerging Bitcoin layers. Passionate about grassroots adoption and intuitive onboarding in emerging markets, Gareth is a husband, father, and dedicated kitesurfer committed to making Bitcoin accessible for everyday users across Africa.