Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has predicted that the next decade will see blockchain technology undergo a similar adoption to the internet in the 1990s. In a blog post on Coinbase’s Medium account, Armstrong discussed blockchain scalability, privacy, and the rise of actual utility within the market among other aspects.
“By shifting crypto from trading and speculation to real utility, the 2020s will see a huge increase in people holding and using crypto, and start to move the needle on global economic freedom.” @brian_armstrong forecasts what the ’20s may bring. Read more https://t.co/snL8tCC1KG
— Coinbase (@coinbase) January 3, 2020
Party Like it’s 1999
Armstrong states that layer two solutions and new blockchains will see transaction throughputs increase “by several orders of magnitude”, much like the move from 56k modems to broadband in the late 1990s-early 2000s. He also believes that privacy will be a key element in the coming decade, much like the internet went from HTTP to HTTPS as standard, and a privacy coin will get “mainstream adoption” in that time.
Armstrong acknowledges that many coins right now have little or no utility and are only good for trading, but he feels this will change massively in the 2020s as projects begin “driving the utility phase”. He also believes that, following the death of the ICO craze, a craze of genuine crypto startups will emerge in the next decade, again echoing the current tech startup boom. These startups will have blockchain and cryptocurrencies at their heart, rather than simply being vehicles for raising money. One example of this is Cecil, which is likely to launch this year, and relies wholly on the utility of the token.
Emerging Markets and Institutions Will Drive Demand
Armstrong also believes that emerging markets, “where the existing financial systems are a much bigger pain point”, will see huge adoption, thanks to blockchain’s ability to make transactions, such as international remittance, faster, cheaper, and more reliable. Alongside emerging markets, Armstrong believes that institutions will continue to buy into the space, making one particularly bold claim:
Eventually just about every financial institution will have some sort of cryptocurrency operation, and most funds will keep a portion of their assets in cryptocurrencies, partially due to the uncorrelated returns.
Finally, Armstrong has faith in the maturity of the market, which will likely be driven by increased regulations rather than any desire from within the community, which will itself hasten the growth of decentralization as those still determined to evade such regulations look for other options.
The Bitcoin Question
Much of what Armstrong says makes sense, and indeed has a very good chance of coming true (at least some of it), but what everyone naturally wants to know is what will the Bitcoin price be by the end of the next decade? Armstrong’s answer – $200,000.
Strap yourselves in everyone – we’re headed to the moon. Apparently.
