bitcoin‘s (btc) value proposition remains a source of confidence for investors and advocates amid the depressed market conditions prevailing in the broader cryptocurrency space.
This was a key takeaway from in-depth interviews with bitcoin developers, advocates, analysts and influential figures during the bitcoin Amsterdam 2023 conference.
Jameson Lopp, CEO of bitcoin custody company Casa, offers food for thought with less than a year to go until the next bitcoin mining reward halving. In a conversation with Cointelegraph, the bitcoin advocate and software engineer said that btc‘s value proposition has been a stronghold during months of tough market conditions:
“During the bear market, a lot of people lost money on all these other tokens. Once again, bitcoin shines as the safest asset.”
Dylan LeClair is another prominent voice in the bitcoin space who continues to defend the fundamentals of the asset amid an unprecedented economic landscape in the United States. bitcoin analyst tells Cointelegraph that the average investor continues to “passively invest” in a basket of U.S. corporate and government bonds in hopes of making money over the long term.
Related: bitcoin Amsterdam: Focus on btc fundamentals, says Edward Snowden
LeClair admits that while no analyst can guarantee the performance of investments in any asset or vehicle, there is an increasingly strong argument for bitcoin‘s long-term potential:
“Nothing is guaranteed, but its fundamentals suggest that over a very long period of time, you will be securing a very good store of value. For example, how people used to buy property or buy gold, although it has digital characteristics.”
The analyst adds that bitcoin remains a means for citizens of countries facing hyperinflation to safeguard and control their wealth:
“The people who use bitcoin (the true adopters) have more conviction than ever and it is more widespread than ever. People in third world countries use bitcoin not because it is trendy or promoted. It is because they are using it to avoid losing everything.”
Meanwhile, bitcoin developer and educator Jimmy Song tells Cointelegraph that altcoins have detracted from bitcoin‘s transformative potential by “muddying the waters between centralization and decentralization”:
“We’re seeing a lot of people think that Sam Bankman-Fried is somehow the CEO of bitcoin; he’s just tarnishing bitcoin‘s good name.”
Song also suggests that several cryptocurrency projects have hijacked bitcoin‘s reputation for their own benefit, leaving unsuspecting investors as the ultimate losers:
“People get confused, go broke, and then give up on cryptocurrencies forever or something, without ever understanding anything about it.”
Prince Filip Karađorđević of Serbia spoke to Cointelegraph just before meeting with President Miguel Albuquerque of Madeira. The autonomous Portuguese archipelago is set to launch a bitcoin business center as a means to boost adoption of the cryptocurrency.
Karađorđević has become a bitcoin advocate in recent years and now works for Jan3, a bitcoin company founded by Samson Mow that seeks to boost the use of btc in nation states. Conversations focused on the potential of bitcoin highlighted how the digital asset has different value propositions for developed, developing and first world economies.
“In developing countries, we’ll see a lot more adoption there – countries that really have double- and triple-digit inflation, like Lebanon, Nigeria and Argentina.”
Meanwhile, developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland will see varying degrees of adoption depending on regulation and education.
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden highlighted the importance of bitcoin in fighting tyranny and government overreach, while providing individual sovereignty over wealth, during a virtual speech at the conference.
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Magazine: ‘Elegant and backwards’: Jameson Lopp’s first impression of bitcoin
