Bitcoin was intended to represent a revolution in the financial environment when it was first presented to the globe over a decade ago. But such revolution is still a long way off. The rocky first decade of cryptocurrencies has been plagued by scandals, mistakes, and dramatic price swings. BTC has dropped by 24% to approximately $48,000 as of Aug. 30, 2021, after reaching a record high of more than $63,000 in April 2021.
Investors and cryptocurrency aficionados, on the other hand, have increased their confidence in the currency's future. As a result, the next ten years could be crucial for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general.
A Compromised Vision:
Bitcoin was designed to be a borderless and decentralised alternative to government- and central-bank-controlled fiat currencies, as stated by its pseudonymous inventor Satoshi Nakamoto in a foundational paper published on Oct. 31, 2008. The Bitcoin network does not rely on third-party mediators to reach consensus on a transaction. Instead, blockchain is used to verify and authenticate a transaction. Blockchain is a peer-to-peer network of systems with electronic ledgers.
"The expense of mediation raises transaction costs, restricting the minimum practicable transaction size and eliminating the possibility of small and casual transactions," Nakamoto wrote in support of ditching mediation in favour of a peer-to-peer network.
However, over 13 years later, that original idea appears to be in jeopardy. Centralization has supplanted decentralisation. Bitcoin whales, or investors with large holdings of the cryptocurrency, are considered to exert market control over its price. The democratisation of mining as a means of printing money has been compromised in favour of the efficiency of large-scale mining farms. Scaling issues plague Bitcoin's technology, resulting in a long history of forks and altcoins.
However, those disadvantages are outweighed by the development of a strong and active crypto ecosystem. The cryptocurrency market is now worth $2.02 trillion, despite the fact that it did not exist a decade ago.