Techno-friendly business leaders who are overhauling legacy systems in the financial system, among many other industries, champion Bitcoin’s underlying tech: blockchain. According to the argument, the financial system can be optimized and overhauled through the use of permissioned blockchains – without Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies.
But for all the blockchain enthusiasts who envision a world without Bitcoin, Bitcoin advocates keep reminding the naysayers that Bitcoin is just code – that can be augmented, improved and scaled.
Just like dollar bills, the horse and buggy of modern money, once required people to count pennies, loose change and dollar bills one by one, layer-two solutions like Visa came along. They digitized dollars and cents, which generated a tidal wave of swipes and on-line purchases, powering faster transactions and easier bookkeeping. A patchwork of in-store paper receipts turned into a seamless monthly credit card statement.
Bitcoin proponents say that Bitcoin can evolve in a similar way and that daily use cases can increase with Bitcoin payments powering the internet.
Chief financial officer and co-founder of BlockTower Capital, Ari Paul, a former derivatives trader at Susquehanna and former portfolio manager for the University of Chicago’s $8 billion endowment, says he’s used to people pushing for blockchain over Bitcoin, but he believes the real turning point will be when people see that Bitcoin is bigger than the Bitcoin blockchain because it can generate a new wave of use cases.
Paul says,
“Bitcoin blockchain is first generation technology with limited throughput and features.
BTC can be used on other protocols and networks. The Lightning Network is a layer 2 protocol that allows for numerous fast and cheap BTC transfers that settle to and are secured by the Bitcoin network. People may also use sidechains, drivechains, and other L2 or L3 solutions.
This is wonderful for BTC enthusiasts, since it means that BTC is unlikely to be rendered obsolete by competing protocols that offer incremental improvements. BTC users can access those features or greater bandwidth by using BTC on other protocols like LN.
For example, if BTC users want privacy in the form of mimblewimble or ZK-starks, these ‘features’ can be utilized by BTC (eventually) by cryptographically locking on-chain BTC to a protocol that offers these features.”
As Bitcoin evolves, so will the lingo.
Bitcoiners on Twitter are already weighing in on a new word for a Bitcoin transaction on Twitter, in light of recent remarks by Jack Dorsey. The CEO of the popular social media platform believes Bitcoin is destined to become the currency of the internet.
@Bitcoinlife2012 kicked off the suggestions for a Twitter-BTC transaction. People imagine calling the transaction a ‘Bitter’, ‘Twitcoin transaction’, ‘Tweep’, ‘Twansfer’ and ‘Twansaction’. While inventing new lingo is fun, several people also opted for keeping it simple and just sticking with ‘Bitcoin’.