The future of Bitcoin: It may not be what you think

Before we talk about Bitcoin, let me remind you of some of the technologies that have come before. Do you remember dialing in when you first used your AOL account? Was your first email address a combination of your name and birthday? How is email different from pen and paper? Yes, both are tools for delivering messages, but email is instantaneous, while the latter is just snail mail. After the technological revolution, email is no longer so fast because of the emergence of AIM and other chat services. Online users prefer synchronous communication software to asynchronous communication, such as email. The development of mobile phones is similar, such as SnapChat and WhatsApp. In general, we are used to synchronous communication for personal chats, and asynchronous communication such as email is preferred when it comes to business or more formal communication.

It’s a slow process, but the potential behind email is slowly coming to light. At first, it was only used for personal and B2B communication, but now, email has become my number one communication method. I even schedule my appointments via email. Isn’t that great? Maybe we’re not thinking big enough.

Then, think honestly, when you first used your email account, did you think you would use it so often? It's not just email, it's the Internet. We pay bills, do taxes, make reservations, buy groceries, and everything else you can think of. Think back to when you were still using a phone line to dial up, did you foresee what it would be like today? What do you encounter when you try to convince someone?

There are two points that left a deep impression on me:

It's instantaneous -- but people say, "But no one uses it."

It's free -- they'll say, "Stamps don't cost that much, and, the bottom line is, nobody uses them."

This sounds similar to the criticism of Bitcoin as a technology, right? I'm not going to talk about Bitcoin for a minute. If we told people in the past that hey, you're going to use the Internet on a large scale in the future, you can buy groceries online, pay bills, and watch your favorite movies online... they would think we were crazy. But we are not crazy, and we are still not crazy now.

The Internet is just one example. You can look at computers, mobile phones, cars, buildings, agriculture, and every step of human development and find a point in time when someone did something revolutionary that changed the fate of the world just because they saw the blueprint.

Bitcoin technology is one of them.

Bitcoin technology is a game changer, and our imaginations are limited. In fact, we are still a little confused about where we are going. At this point, I need to distinguish between two groups of people who want Bitcoin to succeed, and these two groups view success in very different ways.

One group of people expect success when the price of Bitcoin reaches $10,000 and it is widely adopted, and then they will choose to exit. Another group of people may expect more, even if Bitcoin disappears one day, in their eyes, Bitcoin is still a success!

What is the most concerned point in the Bitcoin community nowadays? The rise and fall of Bitcoin prices. Will Bitcoin rise or fall? Will Bitcoin fall below $350 and cause a collapse? When we heard that Paypal began to test the waters to accept Bitcoin, we began to cheer, shout, and claim that the price of Bitcoin is about to soar. We said that Bitcoin will curb the power of the Federal Reserve and end the era of banks. I don't comment on whether these views can be realized, but I can say for sure that these views on Bitcoin are too narrow. Failure is also success If you say AOL is a failed brand, I have to say, yes, but because of their existence, the Internet can be widely used on a large scale, right?

Bitcoin can fail and collapse, but if it can bring changes to the world, then it is successful! What I want to point out here is the blockchain technology of Bitcoin. We seem to have forgotten that the greatest wealth that Satoshi Nakamoto brought us is the public distributed ledger (also known as blockchain technology), not a virtual currency!

Blockchain has so many uses. You can use it to implement DNS, P2P currency exchange, API, SSL verification, file storage, and even voting systems.

Once people get over the anonymity of Bitcoin (which is only pseudo-anonymity) and realize what blockchain is all about, then they will embrace its technology. It's time to think more about Bitcoin as a competitor to credit cards, like a car salesman bragging about the cup holders on the Corvette Stingray. Sure, it can hold a 64-ounce soda, but that's not what I mean by "the future." Bitcoin adoption by merchants and consumers is just a drop in the ocean, and we need to think bigger.

Right now, the Bitcoin community is its worst enemy, look at what they are saying on Reddit and Twitter! Too radical, if all we need Bitcoin for is to eliminate the Federal Reserve and the banks, then Bitcoin will be seen as a risk, a radical social conspiracy theory.

Just like AOL, Bitcoin could disappear, but if blockchain can be widely adopted, it will still be successful. If the technology behind Bitcoin can be integrated into our society, it will change the world, just like email, mobile phones, Google, and social media.

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