"It’s difficult to predict what will happen to Bitcoin in the future, but I can say with full confidence that Bitcoin is more than just super profits. It has introduced to the world a new technology which is as revolutionary as the Internet," Bogdan Shelygin, an analyst with DeCenter, Russia’s largest blockchain and cryptocurrency-related community, told Sputnik.
Bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, has shown a meteoric rise in the outgoing year. Its value grew from below $1,000 in the beginning of the year and hit the historic milestone of $20,000 earlier in December. For some financial experts and economists, however, Bitcoin is a reason for concern as another possible bubble.
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According to Shelygin, despite the fact that there are those predicting an imminent collapse of Bitcoin, it is impossible to say whether it is a bubble or not.
Shelygin also said that the phenomenon of Bitcoin is that it is the first cryptocurrency the global community has believed in for already 10 years.
"This means that the most interesting things are yet to come. A similar situation was with the Internet. Google was founded in 1998, but today the company is a pioneer in web and other technologies," he said.
Commenting further, Shelygin also suggested that even if Bitcoin collapses the entire cryptocurrencies market will not fall.
"Bitcoin is only the most popular example of the use of the blockchain technology, but it’s not the most outstanding one. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will contribute to the future improvement of blockchain. Today, the industry is still too young," the analyst said, adding that there a number of other interesting blockchain-based projects to watch in 2018, including Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Ripple.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the analyst and do not necessarily reflect the position of Sputnik.
