I can definitely see the logic behind smaller blocks, although storage is inexpensive now and we can prune nodes if needed. I guess I find it interesting that this was implemented in Monero, but admittedly I have not spent a huge amount of time on understanding the potential pitfalls of doing so.
I think my biggest concern is the L2s have been rather lackluster so far in terms of scaling and decentralisation. I closed down my LN channel after force closes and the general complexity of maintenance, plus the time required to keep it running. Saying that, for small amounts, Lightning is great despite it's shortcomings. But I remain open to and use alternatives for transacting rather than saving.
My other big concern presently is if they can't coopt it, they will propose crazy solutions like taxing unrealised gains so that the benefits of saving are destroyed.
Yes, the L2s need work. I believe that’s ok because we still have time. The progression is store of value —> medium of exchange —> unit of account.
We are still early in the store of value phase. Few people will want to spend bitcoin when they receive and can spend worse monies like USD.
Once a good chunk of the population is on zero and only has bitcoin, then the volume of spending will increase. People will be then forced to spend bitcoin for their day to day expenses. We’re still far away from that. Maybe a decade? Obviously hard to know.
We’ll know that we’re moving to the medium of exchange phase when those who only accept and hold bitcoin gets to a significant percentage of the population.