Chief executive of blockchain explorer Blockchair, Nikita Zhavoronkov, predicts that Bitcoin is poised to lose its status as the top crypto asset.
In a new Twitter thread, the Blockchair head explains why he believes Bitcoin’s market dominance is about to fall off the cliff.
I have a strong feeling that this is the last time we see Bitcoin’s dominance level above 66%. From this point on it will fall, probably resulting in Bitcoin losing its first place within the next 5 years (long thread, 1/20) pic.twitter.com/cu4hXcEhLg
— Nikita Zhavoronkov (@nikzh) June 8, 2020
Zhavoronkov highlights a number of technical factors that he says will hold BTC back in the long run.
The executive points out that privacy is not the top cryptocurrency’s strongest suit as its network allows blockchain analysis firms to track user activity. Users who wish to keep their transactions private can turn to a number of altcoins including Monero, Dash and Zcash.
Zhavoronkov also says Bitcoin’s scalability is another nail in the coffin. He says the Lightning Network, which is a second-layer solution designed to make it faster and more cost-effective to send BTC, is fundamentally flawed. He points to Ethereum, with its proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol, as one coin that could topple BTC.
But over the years the mantra has always been “if there are any really cool features they’d be incorporated into Bitcoin”. That didn’t turn out to be true. (3/20)
— Nikita Zhavoronkov (@nikzh) June 8, 2020
But not all crypto investors are buying Zhavoronkov’s arguments.
Ted Rogers, president of BTC custodial firm Xapo, says Bitcoin’s status as a store-of-value and digital form of gold along with its current speed of about seven transactions per second is all it needs.
“Bitcoin is the hardest money available to human beings. It has won the store of value use case, it will take time for awareness of this.
This is most important point and has nothing to do with on-chain scaling. In fact, on-chain scaling could adversely affect [the] store of value use case.”
