© Financial Express Image by Freepik (34).Written by Muhammad Roshan
When the value of Bitcoin falls in the market, there are always cries that the cryptocurrency is doomed and will soon disappear. Interestingly, the website 99Bitcoins has tracked the supposed death of Bitcoin more than 460 times. Amazingly, even with bitcoin's price fluctuations, it has already been announced twice this year.
This page closely follows the Bitcoin ecosystem, mainly because of its satirical value. Every Bitcoin "death" is counted when Bitcoin is considered dead by a high-traffic site or platform or by someone with a large following.
However, the understanding of this page is very simple. Whatever the year or cause of Bitcoin's "death", it is not the end. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Bitcoin has come back time and time again to prove these claims, even reaching all-time highs.
Aside from the claims of Bitcoin's death and its price volatility, this is a very interesting thought experiment; Will there ever be a time when Bitcoin ceases to exist? How resilient is Bitcoin to social and technological development black swan events?
What Andreas Antonopoulos predicted will probably come true in my opinion. Of course, anything that replaces or surpasses Bitcoin will still be called Bitcoin. Ultimately, it will still do what Bitcoin does to provide a secure, decentralized and inexpensive way to transfer value around the world.
So whatever comes our way, Bitcoin is unlikely to go away anytime soon. It has invaded the digital landscape and its revolutionary features have made it a force to be reckoned with. The simplest reason I can give you for Bitcoin's persistence is that it was built to be unstoppable.
No "central server"
In many ways, it's a bit like the sophisticated file sharing systems people use to pirate movies and music. There is no central Bitcoin server that can be shut down. The Bitcoin network is in its nodes, but not in any of them.
Unlike other cryptocurrencies, the Bitcoin network is secure and has yet to be hacked or hacked. Bitcoin is mathematically pure, and its fundamental integrity and flexibility have been maintained over the years by a balance of rewards and interests.
The motivation for me is that millions of people are using their computing power to securely manage the blockchain. That's more processing power than any network management organization.
Economic incentives are due to the fact that miners are rewarded for solving a complex mathematical problem. So the more miners there are in the network, the harder it is for the 51% to attack and bypass the network. This currently does not happen because peers receive a corresponding reward, and the stronger the network of peers, the stronger the Bitcoin network.
At what point will Bitcoin be considered "dead"?
The Bitcoin network cannot die until we reach a point where miners are no longer interested in mining Bitcoins and all network partners stop working. When no new transactions are written to the network, it technically means that Bitcoin is dead.
Once all 21 million bitcoins have been mined, dynamic market forces will determine what the transaction fee should be to incentivize mining as it is today.
Looking to the near future, the fundamental characteristics that the Bitcoin network has demonstrated in just 14 years give Bitcoin customers like me great confidence that Bitcoin will survive into the future.
First, the Bitcoin community is unique despite the fact that it does not have a central authority responsible for the trading, mining, or distribution of Bitcoins. Meanwhile, there are developers and other people working tirelessly to develop Bitcoin. Second, it is transparent and secure.
Third, Bitcoin is gaining more recognition among the general public and traders, highlighting the fact that it is not the only cryptocurrency that is showing real use and value.
Finally, the development of supporting technologies (such as the Lightning Network) and the rise of many businesses built around Bitcoin only help Bitcoin become more efficient and popular over time.
Whether Bitcoin is worth billions or thousands, it will likely continue even if we don't see the creation of a Bitcoin standard and Bitcoin finds value as a single, intangible application of distributed computing.
Even in the worst case scenario, I can see bitcoin going down to a few hundred or thousands of coins.
Essentially, Bitcoin is a decentralized financial asset that does not require a central government or entity to support, respect, or authorize its use. It only requires ubiquitous and widespread communication networks like the Internet.
But what if the internet goes down?
Even if the Internet were to shut down after a global disaster, it is likely that independent Bitcoin stakeholders would emerge from the shutdown when any future global communication network was formed.
All that is required is for people to store their private keys or passwords or receive them from their ancestors.
And as long as we have at least a few people left, bitcoin should survive.
The author is the co-founder and CEO of GoSats.
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