Bitcoin was launched over a decade earlier as a financial revolution. This revolution has yet to happen. The first decade of cryptocurrency has been filled with controversies, mistakes, and price swings. After reaching a record high of around $65,000 in April 2021, BTC is now worth roughly $19,600.

What Does The Future Hold For Bitcoin?

The following ten years may be pivotal in Bitcoin’s development. Therefore, investors should pay attention to a handful of areas in Bitcoin’s network and the revolutions occurring in the banking sector.

Currently, cryptocurrency is in a transitional phase between serving as a value store and a means of payment. However, governments worldwide, including Japan, have recognized cryptocurrencies as a viable mode of payment for products. Institutional investors are keen to participate in the activity and capitalize on the unpredictability of its pricing.

However, issues with scalability and security have halted these developments. According to Chakib Bouda, CTO of Rambus, a payment firm, Bitcoin and other digital currencies have had “perhaps the largest failings with security” throughout the past years. Bouda is alluding to the fact that hackers have stolen Bitcoin and other digital currencies with a combined value of  billions in Dollars from cryptocurrency exchanges. Nevertheless, he thinks Bitcoin’s mainstream acceptance may be accelerated by making the ecosystem safer for users. He predicted that Bitcoin would have a completely new reputation in ten years and become widely used.

David Schwartz, CTO of Ripple, compared BTC to Ford’s car T in 2019, a year in which both companies saw significant advancements in their respective blockchains. The introduction of the vehicle signaled a sea change in travel, and a whole infrastructure sprung up around it; from roads to petrol stations, everything was designed around it. Thanks to widespread media attention, a new ecology has begun taking shape over the past few years.

The ecosystem will grow as regulations are updated to be abreast with technological advances. For example, Schwartz claims that “minimal, high-speed payments” will “explode” in the next decade, changing the exchange process in “the manner that the Internet changed information sharing.”

According to Citi, Bitcoin may soon replace traditional currencies as the medium of exchange worldwide. Earlier in 2021, both PayPal and Tesla acquired bitcoin stakes. While PayPal proposed to acquire crypto depository Curv, Tesla spent $1.6 billion on Bitcoin. Even if Bitcoin’s future remains cloudy, Citi says the cryptocurrency is on the verge of becoming mainstream. Overall enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies is stoked by the attention they’re getting from institutional investors. However, Citi points out that there are still challenges the digital asset must overcome, including concerns about safekeeping, safety, and asset utilization.

What Are Bitcoin’s Use Cases?

It may be debatable what crypto assets like bitcoins are primarily used for, but it’s not up for the argument that digital currencies may be used for more than just making purchases. To illustrate the scope of the current fintech revolution, we identify four use cases of crypto assets.

Digital Cash

If Satoshi’s whitepaper’s subtitle is to be believed, Bitcoin delivered on its promise as a decentralized electronic cash system over its first five years of operation. Before Bitcoin’s acceptance by the general public, it was used to facilitate a fledgling online economy that included things like the black market (Silk Road) and gambling. However, hundreds of tech-savvy retailers and early adopters also accepted it so that you could buy anything from graphics processors to tees.

Programmable Money

Building on Bitcoin instead of less autonomous alternatives like Tron and EOS has gained popularity this year as BTC’s supremacy over altcoins has increased. Therefore, programmers who may have formerly gravitated toward so “second-gen” blockchain systems are now giving Bitcoin a second look. For example, on the Bitcoin Cash system, sub-tokens have been issued with the help of the Simple Ledger Protocol. These tokens were generated using opcodes Satoshi included in the original Bitcoin code.

Governance

Indeed, governance isn’t exactly the most riveting use case for bitcoin. However, on-chain voting is a great way to guarantee verifiable voter turnout. In addition, since the beginning of Bitcoin, miners have used their signatures on new blocks to indicate their approval of proposed protocol modifications. In June 2017, for example, 80% of the Bitcoin platform’s hash rate was signing partnerships with the initials “NYA” to show their approval of the New York City Agreement.

Asset Tokenization

Tokens like Bitcoin have made it feasible to connect real-world assets to digital representations of those assets. Tokens can be created to represent assets such as copyrights, real estate, artwork, equities, and commodities. Asset-backed tokens’ value is derived from and directly proportional to the value of the underlying asset.

In addition to improving the marketability of physical assets like real estate, asset tokenization also makes them more accessible to investors. Assets’ digitalization also paves the way for new types of investors to enter the market. To illustrate, a crypto bank in Zurich turned Picasso’s 1964 masterwork Fillette au béret into 5,000 tokens, which they then sold to more than 50 investors.

How Does Bitcoin Impact The World?

Some people in undeveloped countries are using Bitcoin as a means of economic independence from poverty. That’s because cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin helps consumers get around problems like low transaction limits imposed by banks and a general lack of trust among peers. Even more, addressing the issues of the conventional financial system is made possible for developing nations by expanding access to financial services and improving the traceability of funds.

Bitcoin’s potential to expand access to financial services is among the currency’s most significant effects on poorer countries. Bitcoin has made it possible for even those without bank accounts or other traditional sources of finance to invest in the cryptocurrency with a very tiny amount of fiat currency and yet earn substantial profits. However, this calls for a careful examination of the cryptocurrency market before any action is taken.

People in third-world countries use Bitcoin to save money on fees and speed up money transfers. All of these things help those with lower and middle incomes in emerging countries, raising their living level. In addition, small enterprises in these nations can now accept Bitcoin payments and participate in international trade without dealing with the red tape of conventional banking.

Conclusion

As a result of the shortcomings of their national financial infrastructures, developing countries have a suitable environment for the spread of Bitcoin. Moreover, due to its advantages, Bitcoin is now widely accepted by individuals and businesses in these areas. This development has several effects on the people of these nations, including facilitating international trade and generating income via Bitcoin trading.

The Bitcoin Introduction, Bitcoin Part 2 and Bitcoin Part 3 can be found here!

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