Bitcoin isn’t doing so well. The currency recently fell to $7,600 after weeks of trading in the $8,000 range, and the technical charts aren’t looking so good.
Bitcoin Still Has a Bright Future
And yet, despite all this bearish activity, many heavy hitters and analysts in the crypto community agree that bitcoin isn’t done for and is likely to improve its present status in the coming months. Among the figures standing by bitcoin’s side is Tim Draper, the venture capitalist who recently claimed that the currency could potentially hit $250,000 in the year 2023.
In a recent interview in Malta, Draper commented that the Lightning Network was likely to push bitcoin beyond any boundaries it might currently have, and he’s confident it will aid the currency in reaching new heights. He explains:
I think bitcoin payment processors are really going to open the floodgates… It’s because of Lightning Network and Open Node and many others that are allowing us to spend bitcoin very freely and quickly, so that it’s not just a store of value but it can also be used for micro payments. It can be used for retail; it can be used all over.
The Lightning Network is believed, by some, to be an object of instrumental change for bitcoin. Even though the currency is the oldest digital coin out there and is still seen as the staple product of the industry, bitcoin transactions have gotten very slow over the years given its age and its lagging technology when compared to newer rivals such as Ethereum and EOS.
While these blockchains and others can potentially push cryptocurrency transactions through within a matter of hours or even minutes, bitcoin can often require as much as a few days to complete a transaction.
However, the Lightning Network focuses on smaller cryptocurrency transactions and ensures they go through off chain, which relieves the network of congestion and allows smaller transactions to move forward quickly and with greater ease.
Who Stands with Draper?
Many agree with Draper that bitcoin still has a very bright future ahead. Changpeng Zhao – or CZ as he’s so often called – is the head of Binance, arguably the largest and most popular cryptocurrency exchange in the world. While discussing the bitcoin blockchain, he recently commented:
If you look at the fundamental technology and a longer-term view, across a five-year or ten-year horizon, we’re confident the industry will get bigger, and when the industry gets bigger, the prices will go higher… If you look at the short-term view, bitcoin and cryptocurrency is a smaller market cap instrument, so there will be higher volatility.
Tom Lee of Fundstrat fame also added his words to the mix, claiming that more institutional investors have been entering the crypto space as of late, which could potentially make the industry more mainstream.
