IBM has been notably bullish on blockchain technology, pouring millions of dollars into it and making some high profile partnerships, but they have by and large kept their powder dry regarding price predictions, for obvious reasons. This has changed however with the news that Jesse Lund, Head of Blockchain & Digital Currencies at IBM, has gone all John McAfee and made the kind of wildly optimistic prediction that all Bitcoin maximalists love to hear – one Bitcoin will one day be worth a million dollars.
$5,000 End of Year Price
Lund’s comments came as part of an interview at IBM’s Think 2019 event which focused mainly on IBM’s blockchain work but ranged into his personal thoughts on Bitcoin, during which he said, “Let me just say this, I have a long-term outlook…and it goes back to the discussion about the utility of the network leading to a higher price, so I see bitcoin at a million dollar someday.” When questioned about a more short-term vision, Lund said he could foresee an end of year price of around $5,000, which would suggest that Bitcoin had spent the latter part of 2019 a rebuilding process, which is in line with many predictions.
End of Paper Money
Lund was also unsurprisingly as bullish on the potential of blockchain and cryptocurrency to transform many areas of commerce, industry and everyday life, stating, “I think the landscape of banking, of lending, and payments, it’s going to radically change. Fifty years from now, we’re going to look back and say ‘paper money, what was that?’” IBM themselves have poked their fingers in almost every blockchain-shaped pie imaginable, including using it to track water, cobalt, and coffee, and to make cheaper international payments, teaming up with Stellar project for the latter. They were however recently beaten by Microsoft into second place as the world’s best blockchain-as-a-service provider, not that this has seemed to phase Lund.
