Back to the future: Why Bitcoin is still a game-changer

Word on the Block | Forkast.News

Bitcoin may have taken a back seat in the collective consciousness of the crypto community this year as the non-fungible token scene took off and decentralized finance enjoyed an Indian summer, but the coin that started it all has been back in the headlines lately. Bitcoin has returned to valuations last seen during the heady peaks of spring, a BTC futures fund began trading on Wall Street earlier this month, and a Central American nation has adopted it as a parallel currency.

The world’s original cryptocurrency remains the subject of debate, concern and criticism, but for a number of crypto watchers, 2021 marked the beginning of the end of traditional finance, with Bitcoin poised finally to transform the space.

“A few hundred years ago, we were still in a world that was ruled by emperors — shahs, sultans, kings, czars... Within a span of 80 years that all disappeared,” Ben Caselin, the head of research at crypto exchange AAX, told Forkast.News in a video interview. “Things change.”

As things have changed, Bitcoin has also changed. The peer-to-peer payment network described in mysterious Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakomoto’s original white paper has evolved into an asset class held by a wide range of investors — from retail traders to traditional finance sector businesses to governments. Caselin insists that in order to navigate a crypto space that has grown well beyond Bitcoin, it is critical to recognize Bitcoin’s core principles, which extend beyond its technology.

“Bitcoin is not just a technology. It’s not just an asset,” Caselin said. “It’s also a set of principles, and it is also a very unique entity now in this world, just like the internet … Bitcoin is the awakening of humanity to its own sovereign capacities.”

Amid the rise of new blockchains with more powerful functions and faster transactions, concerns have grown that Bitcoin is being outmoded. With thousands of cryptocurrencies and blockchain applications appearing, many investors have diversified their crypto portfolios.

“There's a lot of experimentation going on,” Caselin said. “If you really want to stick to the Bitcoin network, you could almost say that things that really succeed in the altcoin space perhaps will eventually graduate to Bitcoin.”

Bitcoin broke its own price record this month to trade at US$66,930, and Caselin believes that institutional adoption will be the deciding factor in whether it rises further.

“For Bitcoin to keep rising, more capital needs to come in, and that cannot just be small money,” Caselin said. “It makes sense in the bigger scheme of things that now it's the time for institutions. But they also have to kind of go through … cultural transformations.”

Watch Caselin’s full interview with

Forkast.News

Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau to learn more about why Bitcoin is still the next big thing.