You Are Missing the Point if You Think Bitcoin Technology Is Outdated and Will Be Replaced | by Sylvain Saurel | Feb, 2022

Bitcoin is the undisputed king of digital currencies. Even Altcoiners who dream of seeing their favorite Altcoin overtake Bitcoin in the future cannot say otherwise as I write this. Bitcoin is the natural gateway for anyone who wants to discover the world of digital currency.

Despite this, Altcoiners keep saying that Bitcoin’s technology is outdated and will be replaced in the future. This technology is the famous Proof-of-Work, which I have explained in the past is a prerequisite for the future success of Bitcoin. Bitcoin will retain the Proof-of-Work in the future because it is this consensus algorithm that helps Bitcoin to achieve true decentralization.

After reading this, some people are thinking that it would be enough to copy the source code of the Bitcoin protocol and then eventually replace Bitcoin. After all, the source code of Bitcoin is freely available, and anyone is free to fork it if they wish.

This has already been done many, many times. More than 400 direct or indirect forks of Bitcoin were counted at the end of 2017. This is when Bitcoin Cash was born following the Bitcoin block size war. Those who chose to support Bitcoin Cash to take control of “their version of the Bitcoin network” were hoping to take over Bitcoin (BTC).

And yet, that never happened. Bitcoin Cash is nothing today, and will eventually join the ranks of all other Bitcoin forks.

Bitcoin’s superiority is no longer in its technology, but elsewhere in its monetary attributes and network. Bitcoin’s technology serves only to give credibility to its monetary attributes:

• A hard-capped supply of 21 million units.
• A programmatic monetary policy with reduced inflation in new Bitcoin issued every 210,000 blocks or roughly every 4 years.

Bitcoin is P2P hard money and encrypted. But of course, any fork can copy that as I said. The secret of Bitcoin’s success and the fact that it cannot be replaced is that these characteristics are now linked to a decentralized network that is the most secure in the world and has the most users with 130 million at the last estimate. A network that aims to have one billion users by 2030.

Bitcoin’s utility is at its highest, and no fork can claim to do better than Bitcoin in terms of monetary attributes and decentralization. In fact, why would users leave Bitcoin for an ersatz that does not add anything?

There is no reason to go to an inferior version in terms of security. Because to reach the same level of security as the Bitcoin network today, while maintaining the same level of decentralization, would take years and years. But no one has any interest in doing that from an economic point of view when Bitcoin already meets emerging needs for the future: to have hard money available to the greatest number of people, which allows them to protect themselves from inflation in a way that is resistant to censorship.

Two arguments could be made. The first is the problem of the carbon footprint of the Bitcoin network when most of the electricity used comes from fossil fuels. However, this problem is already being addressed by Bitcoin miners who have every interest in moving towards the use of renewable energy as much as possible.

The second problem is the use of the Bitcoin network for all everyday transactions. And here again, the community has already addressed the problem with the Lightning Network, whose adoption continues to grow block by block. The Lightning Network is the solution for everyday payments that will allow Bitcoin to be adopted en masse by the general public in the future.

On all of these issues, Bitcoin is already ahead of the curve and will continue to be so because of the strength of its community and network. As Bitcoin recently passed 13 years of existence, its infrastructure advantage will allow it to continue to dominate in the future in ever greater ways.

Time is clearly on Bitcoin’s side, while its would-be competitors have only a short time before they too are replaced by other presumptuous competitors who will also end up in oblivion. Slowly, but surely.