Bitcoin’s main role is as a virtual replacement for gold, a safe haven where you can hold your savings in a situation of political or financial instability.
Bitcoin has always been regarded as the virtual currency of the Internet, especially by the media. A currency that will one day become widely used within society. Statistics show year after year that its use is increasing at a high speed. I’m not denying Bitcoin’s evident growth in terms of adoption and use, but rather the type of use.
Let me be clear, overall, Bitcoin transactions have increased since its creation. However, let’s analyze a chart showing the historical number of unique daily Bitcoin transactions. Included in this chart is the purchase and sale transactions of Bitcoin in dollars or other currencies, the movements between wallets from the same user, Altcoin trading, faucets and games and the purchases of goods through Bitcoin.
It is the later use where we must turn our focus in order to consider the future of the cryptocurrency as a coin, or as I think, “virtual gold.”
- Coindesk
How many people use Bitcoins to purchase goods? Or, who dares to use Bitcoins to buy goods at this point in time?
Changing dynamics
From the time in which an individual used 10,000 BTC to purchase the most expensive pizza ever bought, users are becoming more reticent in getting rid of their coins. The price of Bitcoin is constantly growing and the daily events occurring in our society do not show a change in this dynamic - Brexit, the election of Donald Trump, the Italian referendum, the monetary restrictions in India, Greece, Cyprus, Australia, China, Spain, Portugal, Venezuela, etc.
As a result, if the value of Bitcoin is still far from reaching its peak, it would not make any sense to spend Bitcoins on goods because, as time passes, Bitcoin will be revalued, but not “your purchases.” For the price of one t-shirt in Bitcoins in January 2016, you could buy four in December of the same year.
Prospects of Altcoin
This is the reason why my predictions are focused on Bitcoin as a virtual replacement for gold, a haven (much more steady in the long term) where you can hold your savings in a situation of political or financial instability. Even though its initial role was to act as a decentralized virtual currency, in an indirect way it was also caused by the emergence of hundreds of similar currencies. As such, the Bitcoin community has given a different use to it.
So, the question now turns to which of the remaining Altcoins will become “the” global currency? Does it already exist or is it still yet to be created?