In an interview with Altcoin Daily, Binance founder, and CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ) answered true to Bitcoin reaching a $1 million valuation one day.
However, considering that the price prediction came from a quickfire, true, or false segment at the end of the interview, it would be wise to take this valuation with skepticism.
Of more significant concern was CZ’s view on the long term outlook for the market leader. Contrary to his million-dollar price prediction, he believes a bigger and better alternative will replace Bitcoin at some point.
CZ’s Thoughts on Bitcoin Continuing to Dominate the Cryptocurrency Market
The interview covered a wide range of topics, including cryptocurrency as a hedge against traditional finance, Bitcoin maximalism, and the role of DeFi in taking the space forward.
But of interest was CZ’s opinion on the long term future of Bitcoin, especially when taking into account the antiquated nature of its core technology, and the limitations of updating it as a live blockchain.
“To be honest, I think Bitcoin’s dominance over time will decrease, not increase. It may increase in the short term… there’s a lot of innovations people do that people can bring back to Bitcoin, like second layer solutions etc. But when the technology is out already and adopted for ten years, there’s relatively limited scope that you can update it.”
CZ expanded on this by saying sooner or later, every technology eventually gets replaced by something better. He drew on examples such as dated programming languages, and once-dominant hardware and software firms losing ground to more innovative rivals.
“nothing lasts forever… so things change… if we look at 10, 15, 20 years later, I think it’s totally conceiveable that something new will replace Bitcoin, and something better than Bitcoin.”
However, he was keen to state that Bitcoin will still be around, simply because going back to fiat is an unlikely alternative. But he remains adamant that another, more current product will usurp the market leader down the line.
“But if you ask 20 years from now is it still going to be king? A hundred years from now, a thousand years from now, and the answer is obviously we’re not sure, things just change over time.”
The Market Affect of BTC Will Wane in the Future
Bitcoin has considerable influence on the rest of the other markets. If CZ’s prediction plays out, what then for the future of cryptocurrency as a whole?
Zhao dealt with this by saying a decoupling of this effect will occur, but this will happen over a long period.
“within the next six months, if Bitcoin went to zero that would be true, everything else will be hit really really bad. But if you look at a five year, ten year horizon… I don’t think cryptocurrencies will be gone.
However, as the most decentralized and censorship-resistant, Bitcoin will retain its place in the short to medium term.
But CZ was keen to stress that other projects are already making big waves in the area of decentralization.
The last month has seen limited price movement for BTC, with it ranging between $9.8k to $8.8k.
Yesterday saw a 3% gain that peaked at $9.4k, the first significant move for several weeks.
BTCUSDT daily chart YTD. (Source: tradingview.com)
In contrast, over the same period, many alts have exploded with notable performances from Chromia and Elrond.
But for now, no other project can match Bitcoin’s market cap dominance. However, considering CZ’s points, for how much longer?
