I anticipate there will never be more than 100K nodes, probably less. It will reach an equilibrium where it’s not worth it for more nodes to join in. The rest will be lightweight clients, which could be millions.
At equilibrium size, many nodes will be server farms with one or two network nodes that feed the rest of the farm over a LAN.
Could you, or anyone else, speculate about the numbers of transaction per second limit for the current system?
What could be the maximum transaction throughput (in the number of transactions, not in the volume)? What could it depend on?
What is the future limits on that number, in the case the system will grow?
Just consider Bitcoin as a system for micro- or even nano-payments? Like paying 0.000001 (or less) for posting in a forum? Or paying even less for just reading the forum (with advertising stripped)? That would generate far more than a million transactions per day. That would create unprecedented transaction flow. Will it hurt the other participants, which are not nano-payers?
We could test the “system” speed if we start sending small amounts in a circle between wallets and thus flooding the system. Or we couldn’t? If we do that, what effect will it cause?
Would you mind against such an experiment? If you veto that, then how could you stop it?