Is Bitcoin capable of mass adoption?
This is one of the questions many within the crypto community have been asking bases on some postulations that it could become the future currency of the internet.
The Economist published a post that listed some limiting factors why Bitcoin may never achieve mass adoption. The publication implied that Bitcoin may not be the crypto king nor have perpetual relevance.
According to the unnamed author:
“The bust has been correspondingly brutal. Those who bought near the top were left with one of the world’s worst-performing assets. Cryptocurrency startups fired employees; banks shelved their products. On March 14th the CBOE said it would soon stop offering Bitcoin futures.”
Two Sides Of One Coin?
However, this unidentified speculator has either neglected or refused to admit that bitcoin has in recent times been the most outstanding asset within the crypto sphere and beyond.
Even though it is also clear that Bitcoin may be a coin with two sides, being the best and worst asset to hold at the same time. This has left many investors undecided about the digital asset.
Investors that followed the trend of the coin and understood its high are known to have become super rich while there are many others that are kicking themselves at the opportunity lost.
There was an argument that Bitcoin’s transaction volume has been bloated with “change” implying that excess funds returned to originating wallets should have been excluded while calculating transaction volume of the cryptocurrency.
With a volume of $3.3 billion, the enthusiasm of the most ardent supported of the asset may be dampened by the fact that just $2.5 billion of that fund was used to buy anything.
Considering the author’s (economist) understanding of the Blockchain ecosystem, some of their arguments may be discountenanced such as where they wrote:
“Moreover, Bitcoin is designed such that only 21m Bitcoins will ever be created, making it inherently deflationary. Mining, essentially a self-adjusting lottery in which participants compete to buy tickets, is energy-hungry. At the height of the boom it was thought to consume as much electricity as Ireland (these days, it merely consumes as much as Romania).”
Questioned Immutability
The immutable nature of bitcoin transactions was also questioned. The writer stated that the unchangeable block transaction records are only good for criminal and fraudulent activities.
They maintained that proper security measures are necessary to stay in control of your financial future instead of entrusting them into the hands of some unknown bankers.
A Not So Practicable Coin?
As bitcoin still stands head and shoulder above other assets, it is believed (according to the publication) to lack a vital feature – usefulness. According to them:
“But boosters are trying their best. They have taken to referring to the post-bust period as a “crypto winter”. The intended analogy is with artificial intelligence: the “AI winters” were funding crunches in the 1970s and 1980s after hype outstripped reality. The implication is that, one day, summer will return.”
The author’s expressed that Bitcoin’s most probable usefulness within the ecosystem is its liquidity and store of value. In their words:
“Let fees get higher and higher on Bitcoin – it would improve its usefulness in this regard, as spending it on trivial things would become less and less attractive, while its proposition as a “store of value” would get a boost.”
Good Times Ahead
Generally speaking, speculating on prices and hodling bitcoin has proven a better alternative in that the low times considered crypto winter shall pass – always does.
However, there are no guarantees that the winners will always win, neither are the losers stuck on losing in an ecosystem that has beaten all odds and predictions.
