I know people who see the price of bitcoin and think to themselves, “Damn, I missed that. I’m late.” Because of this, they are drawn to currencies with lower prices, altcoins, which will ultimately have no value in the long run. They believe that coins trading at less than a dollar will somehow become the “next bitcoin”. The problem here is that there is no “Bitcoin Next”. Bitcoin was, and remains, a historical accident, somewhat similar to our ancestors’ discovery of the fire. For context, let’s discuss the early internet.
In the early 1990s, only a few people had access to things like email and forums. At the time, the Internet was an anomaly. Many people had no idea where it was going. Few have envisioned social networking, social media, iPhone, web conferencing, and the shift to online business, especially Amazon, which will be founded in 1994 as a bookstore. I think that’s where we are with Bitcoin. We are still too early. Especially because a lot of people are not aware of all the developments that are happening and what is being built on top of Bitcoin as we speak.
One of the projects being built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain is a so-called Layer 2 solution – the Lightning Network, which now has over 14,000 nodes, and 68,300 payment channels spanning all six continents (sorry, Antarctica). Then come Layer 3 solutions, decentralized applications that are built on top of the Lightning Network. The goal is to create a new peer-to-peer Internet. One that is not under the control and oversight of the big tech companies. In this way, it realizes the original spirit of the Internet.
With the infrastructure being built by companies like Impervious, we’re seeing our first glimpse of projects that will enable people to make calls to a Lightning nodes and monetize any service without a bank account with Lightning.
We are witnessing the early stages of development. We don’t know where he’s going yet. Bitcoin’s first layer, the settlement layer, has proven to be the best store of value with nation states adopting it as legal tender and relinquishing the global dominance of the US dollar. The Lightning Network has proven itself to be The best way to exchange. And now we have the advent of the third layer, decentralized applications. The companies of the future will be built here. This makes bitcoin seem even scarcer for the functions it provides.
In terms of adoption, Bitcoin has roughly the same number of users as it had on the Internet in 1997. However, Bitcoin is growing at a faster rate. If this continues, we could have over a billion users over the next four years.
The daily price action of one bitcoin is just noise. It doesn’t matter what price you buy it at. You don’t have to take my words seriously. There are deviations between individuals and groups smarter and richer than me who see current prices as just a picture. Use PlanBThe “Stock-to-Flow” model, we’re steadily on our way to $1,000,000 per coin. Worrying about where we’re trading now is like worrying about the stock price of Amazon or Apple in the late 2000s. We have just started. The Lightning Network is still going strong.
These are very exciting times. I am honored to have lived and seen the dawn of the modern Internet and its development to this day. With Bitcoin, it is never too late, and we still have the opportunity to participate in its development.
This is a guest post by Paul Opoku. The opinions expressed are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC, Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.