The lead developer of the blockchain search and analytics platform Blockchair says an altcoin will likely replace Bitcoin (BTC) as the leading cryptocurrency within the next five years.
In a series of tweets, Nikita Zhavoronkov explains why he believes BTC’s lack of smart contracts, new privacy features, and scaling technologies will eventually spell trouble for the king coin.
He says Ethereum, currently the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, will most likely topple BTC, although other digital assets may also rise to the top position in the crypto market.
Zhavoronkov points to Ethereum 2.0, which is designed to dramatically improve Ethereum’s transaction speed and volume through a proof-of-stake system, as the potential turning point.
“Now, where does Bitcoin stand today? It’s been 5 (five!) years since the scaling debate has started (an eternity!). And instead of having another round of the debate, we can now draw some conclusions on what happens if there’s no on-chain scaling…
If Bitcoin further stagnates while other cryptos flourish, the dominance will continue to drop. And now comes the biggest potential disaster for Bitcoin. Imagine, PoS on Ethereum is finally ready and everyone will rush to buy 32 ETH to stake (quite a probable scenario).”
The long-awaited ETH 2.0 upgrade will launch in a series of steps. The initial release, dubbed phase 0, could happen at the end of this year or early next year, according to testnet coordinator Afri Schoedon.
Zhavoronkov says anyone who doubts Ethereum’s ability to flip Bitcoin should look at the history of the internet and realize just how volatile and wild the crypto market really is.
“General media will start talking about Ethereum, they will report Ethereum price instead of Bitcoin. Bitcoin will instantly become fool’s gold taking its place near Litecoin and Dogecoin. A historical relic like ARPANET, Myspace, or AltaVista…
In order to overthrow Bitcoin, Ethereum needs to grow just 6x compared to Bitcoin. Not at all an impossible scenario (we’re in crypto, remember?).”