It's interesting to apply these findings and conclusions to other areas. For example, Bitcoin is a lot like the interstate highway system in that it's prone to

It's interesting to apply these findings and conclusions to other areas. For example, Bitcoin is a lot like the interstate highway system in that it's prone to traffic jams. The Great Bitcoin Scaling Debate of 2016 and 2017 attempted to address this problem One camp argued strongly like the old-school urban planners in the linked article: more capacity = less congestion. Another group argued that variable-rate fees (a feature built into Bitcoin from the beginning) would take care of the problem. When transaction volume spikes, so do fees. This discourages use during spikes and incentivizes off-peak use. Bitcoin ended up adding a small increase to capacity in the form of segwit. The result followed the prediction in the article. After a massive spike in usage during the later part of 2017, fees spiked to $50 or more per transaction. This was followed by a marked decrease in on-chain transaction volume to the point that blocks aren't full today. Fees have likewise decreased by more than two orders of magnitude. Two other developments during 2018 may be relevant: 1. The BTC/USD exchange rate collapsed. 2. The Lightning Network (a way to route more transaction volume with fewer on-chain transactions) was deployed on mainnet.