The world is full of Bitcoin naysayers and, while some of them are more moderate and actually come up with important points about the issues and vulnerabilities of the technology, some others are quite exaggerated in their claims. A recent example could be seen in a Bitcoin and crypto panel at the World Economic Forum, which is currently happening in Davos, Switzerland.
According to Jeff Schumacher, the founder of BCG Ventures, which has spoken during a panel in Davos, cryptos will go to zero with Bitcoin. He affirms that the technology is good but Bitcoin is not a real currency and that it is not “based on anything”.
After the awful year that cryptos had in 2018, it is not a surprise that not everybody is very happy with them. Cryptos saw their market value decline over 87% in the last year. After hitting record highs, they went down hard.
Now, before you say that Schumacher is a non-believer, you should know that he invested plenty of money in blockchain companies, this guy is not someone who will profit from the fall of crypto, so he probably believes what he is saying.
Glenn Hutchins, the co-founder of Silver Lake Partners, is more enthusiastic about Bitcoin. He believes that it can be considered a store of value and that the role of Bitcoin could be, like many people believe, as a store of value. Basically, he defends the idea of Bitcoin as the new digital gold.
According to Hutchins, the role of the currency is to bring value back and hold it. Other use cases are not so popular at the moment, he believes, as he does not defend that Bitcoin is currently money, too.
The Blockchain Tech Is The Focus
According to the panelists, which included Brad Garlinghouse (CEO of Ripple) and Edith Yeung (a partner of 500 Startups), the main focus of the investors is actually the underlying blockchain technology.
Hutchins affirmed that he is far more interested in the blockchain as a technology that could be used in many industries than specifically in Bitcoin and that the protocols that make the currencies work are what they have of most value. Without the technology, Bitcoin could be nothing, he defends.
While the idea of Bitcoin is a decentralized ledger that is not specifically controlled by any group of people is very appealing, the technology is undeniably slow and transactions are deemed to have a high cost.
Schumacher defends that Bitcoin may go to zero mostly because he thinks that next generation protocols would make a considerably better job in letting cryptos become “real” money.
At the time, the next generation of the blockchain is still being developed, especially in places like Asia, which, together with some underdeveloped countries, could have some interesting use cases for the technology as not so much people have banking services in poorer countries.
Garlinghouse has also affirmed that he expects the blockchain to be adopted more soon and expects it to happen in at least five years. Hutchins believes that it will happen in only three years from now. They both agree that people will not care which technology they use, they only want it to be good, being actually useful for something will be the ultimate use case for cryptos.
Will Bitcoin really go down to zero and other currencies will take its place? That is surely an extreme prediction, so let’s keep watching the market closely.
Source: Bitcoin Exchange Guide
