Bitcoin's unique blend of qualities — being finite, a currency, a store of value, and a groundbreaking technology — has led it to outperform gold by a factor of four over the last year.
Roundtable anchor, Rob Nelson, chatted with BTC Inc. David Bailey to expand on bitcoin's transformative potential as a digital asset that has led it to surpass its traditional counterparts like gold.
Nelson began by highlighting bitcoin's singular qualities. "Bitcoin is the only finite asset," he noted. "It's both a currency, a store of value, and an actual technology all built into one." He underscored its potential for growth, especially as the blockchain technology underpinning bitcoin becomes more widely utilized for purposes beyond simple transactions. Nelson's remarks framed bitcoin as not just a financial asset but a cornerstone for technological development.
Bailey expanded on this, pointing to bitcoin's advantages over traditional assets like gold. "Bitcoin is all the things gold is, but as a technology," he explained. He argued that its total addressable market far exceeds that of its physical counterparts, drawing comparisons to other digital analogs that have significantly outpaced their traditional equivalents. Bailey's perspective painted a future where bitcoin becomes the foundation for an entirely new financial paradigm.
The conversation also delved into the potential applications of bitcoin technology, such as microtransactions and machine-to-machine payments. Bailey illustrated the magnitude of this shift, predicting that the frequency of financial transactions could increase exponentially. "Maybe under a bitcoin standard with microtransactions, consumers are doing 70,000 transactions a day," he speculated, demonstrating the scalability and versatility of the technology.
Ultimately, both Nelson and Bailey agreed that bitcoin's impact would be profound. As Bailey concluded, "It’s very hard to quantify how big of an impact and impression this technology will have on human civilization, but it’s going to be immense."