[TekMol]

    I'm hoping someone more knowledgeable
    about bitcoin can comment

I did and was quickly voted to the bottom.

    bitcoin can be competitive with
    centralized competitors like credit cards

In it's current form it can't. It's already running at max capacity. No further increase in transactions per day is possible.

If there will be a cryptocurrency that can handle as many transactions as Visa, it will be something else then what we currently call Bitcoin.

[spiorf]

Lightning network allows trustless instant and low fee payments. It is at the embrional stage yet, and the whole structure has yet to be defined, but the point to point protocol for trustless off-chain instant transactions is ready.

[etatoby]

Iota?

[WikipediasBad]

Correct. Glad someone has heard of it at least on hacker news.