Bitcoin in the next decade

[Bluedrem]

To be honest, I am also worried about this because Bitcoin is becoming more centralized day by day.

With that in mind, I did a little research on Bitcoin holders three or four days ago and found that 30 to 35 percent of all Bitcoins are held by 5-6 countries like the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia and Bhutan.

This is definitely not good news.

Suppose there are a total of 20 apples in the world, you collect 15 of them and think that you will store the apples for a long time. In this case, naturally, the price of the remaining five apples will increase a lot because then the demand will be more than the supply. You will increase the price of the apples yourself, and you can easily sell your saved 15 apples at a higher price.

I think something similar is happening in the case of Bitcoin too, the majority of Bitcoins are going to certain individuals or communities, as a result of which Bitcoin is losing its decentralization.




A few days ago, I made a post about the strong holdings of Bitcoin and the individuals or institutions holding them. If you want, you can check it out.

The global economy and the strong reserves and potential of Bitcoin.


In that case, you will see that most of the individuals or groups holding Bitcoin are subordinate to the United States.

[Stalker22]

In ten years, Bitcoin will be more than just a minor player in global finance.  It will be deeply integrated into the worldwide monetary system.  Digital gold is too narrow a term - this is a basic change in how value gets stored and moved.  This will happen even as traditional government-backed currencies keep declining.   

Governments will try to regulate it, sure, but their efforts may actually hasten adoption by making it seem more valid.  There is a seismic shift underway in money and transactions, with Bitcoin positioned to be a core building block of the new financial architecture.

[Hedis]

I think a lot of people who got into Bitcoin early because of its principles are starting to feel that the original vision is slowly being watered down. The excitement over ETFs and institutional adoption is fantastic for price and exposure but it also opens the door to the very centralized structures Bitcoin was supposed to combat, Privacy is being marginalized and instead of people advocating for education on decentralization many now just want immediate gains.

The worst aspect is that it’s happening gradually, so many don’t notice or they just accept it as the cost of development. You made a solid argument about compromise being the first step toward full control, Once we start giving up parts of freedom for the sake of adoption or regulatory approval, it’s hard to draw the line again afterward and I think the community needs to stay attentive and not be hesitant to defend essential concepts like privacy and censorship resistance even if it makes us unpopular at times.

[BenCodie]

I too am worried about the direction we are taking, and I would have love to have said that "at least we have bitcointalk" however the admin won't even make a privacy and cybersecurity board, succumb to mixer bans (even though we could instead encourage decentralized privacy protocol development) and the forum remains stagnant in its evolution.

The wider outlook looks grim. People are exactly what the adversary wanted them to be, numb, dumb and enslaved by debt. Even if there was a spark of passion and care for financial sovereignty and care for human rights like privacy, there is really not much a single person can do anymore. The internet itself is hardly a tool for freedom anymore, instead serving and being used as an infinite content machine and at this stage, an unregulated tool for unproductive activity and borderline illegitimate business practices.

It is such a shame that this is where we are in 2025, and fear what 2030 and 2035 look like based on the current direction. I hope some of the things I am working on offline and online will make some form of impact.

[Orpichukwu]

Just look at how much people are buying bitcoin through ETF. Yes a lot of people first got interested in bitcoin due to the privacy it offers but now the rest are interested in making profit above all. No matter what is the cost, they want to buy hold and make profit when the right time comes.

The majority of the people who are into crypto today are there because they want to invest their money in something that will give them returns and not because they need privacy; some don't even know about Bitcoin being connected to anything called privacy. They are more focused on being able to hold and make money out of it; the highest is to use it and make international transfers without limit.

[d5000]

What I observe is that only investors on this forum still care about privacy. But through other social networks, the rest of the market cares more about profits than anything else ,  and many people are not even aware of the decentralization or privacy that bitcoin can bring.

Sorry for the delay, forgot about this thread and didn't see your answer.

The point I'm trying to make is the following: Decentralization and privacy, i.e. censorship resistance, comes with a lot of real-life advantages many investors seek actively. The big selling point here is that nobody can take the Bitcoins away from you (at least not legally). For example, many people buy Bitcoin because they distrust their governments or their country's economy, or fiat money. They hope that in the case of a crisis when all other assets implode, even if gold etc. gets confiscated, their Bitcoins will still be left for them, and that nobody can take them away.

That selling point only works if the Bitcoins can't be intervened by any state, and that nobody can be censored, at least inside of the Bitcoin network.

Thus I expect that a less censorship-resistant Bitcoin can also address only a smaller market. If it bubbles up to a million USD for example, it could crash hard quite soon if the investor group I mentioned above sells, and people discover that it has no advantages anymore versus other assets.

You mentioned the success of ETFs in another post as a counter-argument. But the ETFs are proving that point at least a little bit, too. Because they are not only an IOU, but actually legally transfer the Bitcoin ownership to the ETF investor. This wouldn't help you if you're a criminal and it's discovered that you deposited "dirty" funds to buy ETFs -- then you could get censored by the authorities and the ETF firm would have to abide. But in all "legal" contexts the Bitcoins are yours and nobody can take them away from you. That's why Bitcoin financial products before the ETFs were much less attractive to investors. Okay, in an extreme crisis where gold gets confiscated ETFs may see the same fate, but it's still better than a stock ETF which crashes to almost zero in such a collapse. And there are many intermediate scenarios where Bitcoin ETFs are still a quite good option.

[Taskford]

Just look at how much people are buying bitcoin through ETF. Yes a lot of people first got interested in bitcoin due to the privacy it offers but now the rest are interested in making profit above all. No matter what is the cost, they want to buy hold and make profit when the right time comes.

The majority of the people who are into crypto today are there because they want to invest their money in something that will give them returns and not because they need privacy; some don't even know about Bitcoin being connected to anything called privacy. They are more focused on being able to hold and make money out of it; the highest is to use it and make international transfers without limit.

For sure it since for now this is what better thing to do with our Bitcoin. But people also need to know that Bitcoin is not only used for investment because they could use it for paying something since there are merchants that accept Bitcoin as one of their mode of payments.

But somehow I'm enjoying reading those running prediction on Bitcoin and so far there are articles write good projection about what's going to happen in future sample is here https://www.geekmetaverse.com/the-future-of-bitcoin-expert-predictions-for-the-next-decade/

And I really believe that Bitcoin would grow more and its fix volume nature would make it became more valuable.

[fikrett]

For sure it since for now this is what better thing to do with our Bitcoin. But people also need to know that Bitcoin is not only used for investment because they could use it for paying something since there are merchants that accept Bitcoin as one of their mode of payments.

But somehow I'm enjoying reading those running prediction on Bitcoin and so far there are articles write good projection about what's going to happen in future sample is here https://www.geekmetaverse.com/the-future-of-bitcoin-expert-predictions-for-the-next-decade/

And I really believe that Bitcoin would grow more and its fix volume nature would make it became more valuable.

Bitcoin is the future, that's basically the premise.

For now it's the store of value, but what comes next is uncertain - though we can clearly say that it would be beneficial for BTC one way or another.

[Abiky]

In ten years, Bitcoin will be more than just a minor player in global finance.  It will be deeply integrated into the worldwide monetary system.  Digital gold is too narrow a term - this is a basic change in how value gets stored and moved.  This will happen even as traditional government-backed currencies keep declining.   

Governments will try to regulate it, sure, but their efforts may actually hasten adoption by making it seem more valid.  There is a seismic shift underway in money and transactions, with Bitcoin positioned to be a core building block of the new financial architecture.

Bitcoin will indeed get bigger and stronger in the future. But it won't be as decentralized as it once was. Especially when the path towards "institutionalization" open the doors to centralization. Governments and institutional firms will amass a large portion of the circulating supply. They might even "own" nodes and miners, too. Developers would be "bribed" to lead the project the way these entities want to.

It's a good thing we have Bitcoin-based forks and truly-decentralized privacy coins. Otherwise, we would've been doomed. That's what the future of BTC will look like 10 years from now. I know most people don't care about the rising threat of centralization. As long as market prices keep going up, nothing else matters. We'll see what happens in the long-term.

[BitGoba]

You can read all sorts of things here. Most people haven’t even taken a couple of hours to study and understand the basic technical and economic aspects of Bitcoin.

 Bitcoin is money based on consensus  and that's the key point many people still fail to understand.

There is no institution that decides what Bitcoin is. There is no CEO, no bank, no government, and no central point of control. Instead, ordinary people around the world run their own nodes, follow the rules they choose, and collectively protect the network from any form of centralization.

Bitcoin is not imposed from above. People adopt it voluntarily . as a store of value, protection against inflation, or as a form of permissionless money.

It’s a system where rules aren’t changed by majority vote, but only through the technical and economic consensus of the users who actually run the network.

[betswift]

You can read all sorts of things here. Most people haven’t even taken a couple of hours to study and understand the basic technical and economic aspects of Bitcoin.

 Bitcoin is money based on consensus  and that's the key point many people still fail to understand.

There is no institution that decides what Bitcoin is. There is no CEO, no bank, no government, and no central point of control. Instead, ordinary people around the world run their own nodes, follow the rules they choose, and collectively protect the network from any form of centralization.

Bitcoin is not imposed from above. People adopt it voluntarily . as a store of value, protection against inflation, or as a form of permissionless money.

It’s a system where rules aren’t changed by majority vote, but only through the technical and economic consensus of the users who actually run the network.

I would go as far as to say that BTC is the bank where you are the boss, basically.

And nobody besides you decides what to do with your funds.

[qurbanshah02]

You can read all sorts of things here. Most people haven’t even taken a couple of hours to study and understand the basic technical and economic aspects of Bitcoin.

 Bitcoin is money based on consensus  and that's the key point many people still fail to understand.

There is no institution that decides what Bitcoin is. There is no CEO, no bank, no government, and no central point of control. Instead, ordinary people around the world run their own nodes, follow the rules they choose, and collectively protect the network from any form of centralization.

If we have knowledge about Bitcoin, we won't have to think about it for so long. So we have to first learn about it, only then will we be able to do something better and analyze its good and bad results.

They don't pay attention to Bitcoin money, they don't like the way it's earned, which is why they're at a huge disadvantage, just like they were with Bitcoin in the beginning.

Yes, this is a business and a decentralized Blockchain that no one can tamper with, due to which these things are not even around it and nothing can harm them. And they also grow because of Bitcoin because those who withdraw money from Bitcoin keep most of it in the bank and this will be of great benefit to their bank account and their growth.

[henry_of_skalitz]

You can read all sorts of things here. Most people haven’t even taken a couple of hours to study and understand the basic technical and economic aspects of Bitcoin.

 Bitcoin is money based on consensus  and that's the key point many people still fail to understand.

There is no institution that decides what Bitcoin is. There is no CEO, no bank, no government, and no central point of control. Instead, ordinary people around the world run their own nodes, follow the rules they choose, and collectively protect the network from any form of centralization.

If we have knowledge about Bitcoin, we won't have to think about it for so long. So we have to first learn about it, only then will we be able to do something better and analyze its good and bad results.

They don't pay attention to Bitcoin money, they don't like the way it's earned, which is why they're at a huge disadvantage, just like they were with Bitcoin in the beginning.

Yes, this is a business and a decentralized Blockchain that no one can tamper with, due to which these things are not even around it and nothing can harm them. And they also grow because of Bitcoin because those who withdraw money from Bitcoin keep most of it in the bank and this will be of great benefit to their bank account and their growth.

Hm. Would you keep in the bank, though, not just in cash?

I know the topic is different and we talk mostly about BTC and it's potential / usability there going into the future, but still, cash is safer than getting most of the funds and still keep them directly in bank, or I didn't get you.

[Septex]

I think that whenever the government intervenes in Bitcoin, it means that they are gradually trying to centralize the government's control here, otherwise how did the price of Bitcoin increase so quickly? I think that it may be a long-term process that the government is trying to control. And Bitcoin is a decentralized currency that works on its own system, so if it continues like this in the future, it may have a big impact on Bitcoin. If the purpose for which Bitcoin started its journey continues like this, it will become purposeless. Through this, Bitcoin can disrupt its own independence or its main system. However, we, the common people, will invest in Bitcoin with the main purpose of investing here and thinking about how to profit from it. I don't think they have much thought about it.

[Abiky]

You can read all sorts of things here. Most people haven’t even taken a couple of hours to study and understand the basic technical and economic aspects of Bitcoin.

 Bitcoin is money based on consensus  and that's the key point many people still fail to understand.

There is no institution that decides what Bitcoin is. There is no CEO, no bank, no government, and no central point of control. Instead, ordinary people around the world run their own nodes, follow the rules they choose, and collectively protect the network from any form of centralization.

Bitcoin is not imposed from above. People adopt it voluntarily . as a store of value, protection against inflation, or as a form of permissionless money.

It’s a system where rules aren’t changed by majority vote, but only through the technical and economic consensus of the users who actually run the network.

That's true. But if institutional firms and governments keep accumulating BTC, there won't be any decentralization left. Even if nodes and miners determine network consensus. With their large BTC holdings, they can influence developers and even node operators to steer the network in their direction.

Like I've said before, BTC will grow larger within the next decade. But it will be less-decentralized. I know many will disagree, especially when they're not seeing the "big picture". Just because everything is "reds and roses" with governments and "Wall Street", doesn't mean things will be better for Bitcoin in the long run. Market prices will rise, but BTC will be left in the hands of a few. If you don't care about the money, you'll be as concerned as I am. Time will prove me right as powerful entities end up buying all (or most) of the BTC. Just my two sats.

[Antotena]

Would government fold their hands and not try to make devs push a protocol that would favour them? I doubt, I understand we have miners and full nodes for checks and the open source process and peer review make covert protocol changes difficult. But we can't deny that Dev still have some influence (I used them as example since they are smaller in numbers).


I know we survived without government support and can survive without it but What are your thoughts on the direction we heading?

Whats the assurance that they aren't doing that right now, I mean Bitcoin is big you know, there is no any institution from any country that will see one coin worth $100k and not be tempted to be involved in it, they will be tasty to have it. However, pushing protocol is one thing but Bitcoin is decentralized, it's not like they are group of people in what place that run Bitcoin. If the government push for any protocol, most miners and nodes runners wouldn't accept it.

Who do you think controls the Bitcoin, they are majorly miners. There hasn't been any group of people that has been supportive like miners from different part of the world. If government push any Bitcoin and ask,people to update it, nobody will accept it because anyone who knows the true meaning of Bitcoin and the value will know for a certain that Bitcoin is a freedom, it was created to help one fight censorship resistance, if the government decides to show who they are, Bitcoin is going to be that guy they will reject they accepted.

[kotajikikox]

The majority of the people who are into crypto today are there because they want to invest their money in something that will give them returns and not because they need privacy; some don't even know about Bitcoin being connected to anything called privacy. They are more focused on being able to hold and make money out of it; the highest is to use it and make international transfers without limit.

This is the reality. I am sure there are still a few whose interest for bitcoin  originated from genuine interest for privacy it offers and its technology. But most of us, like it or not, heard of bitcoin because of profit making reasons. This will continue in the future. Everyone coming in now would want to be making profit.

[famososMuertos]

In ten years, Bitcoin will be more than just a minor player in global finance.  It will be deeply integrated into the worldwide monetary system.  Digital gold is too narrow a term - this is a basic change in how value gets stored and moved.  This will happen even as traditional government-backed currencies keep declining.   

Governments will try to regulate it, sure, but their efforts may actually hasten adoption by making it seem more valid.  There is a seismic shift underway in money and transactions, with Bitcoin positioned to be a core building block of the new financial architecture.

I think 10 years is a long time, and since it's a technological asset, in fact, related to such a particular characteristic that includes volatility, it will be very difficult to predict its financial status. However, the regulatory process will certainly have well-defined and conclusive phases in the legal aspect, and the truth is, I hope it's one of those paths that is defined globally at future.

[Orpichukwu]

The majority of the people who are into crypto today are there because they want to invest their money in something that will give them returns and not because they need privacy; some don't even know about Bitcoin being connected to anything called privacy. They are more focused on being able to hold and make money out of it; the highest is to use it and make international transfers without limit.

This is the reality. I am sure there are still a few whose interest for bitcoin  originated from genuine interest for privacy it offers and its technology. But most of us, like it or not, heard of bitcoin because of profit making reasons. This will continue in the future. Everyone coming in now would want to be making profit.

Everyone coming in now is most likely coming for the profit aspect of Bitcoin. The institutional investors who are actively buying governments that are creating reserves for it and creating mining opportunities are all doing that not because they want privacy or because they want to support the network but because they want to gain whatever they can with the money they are investing in it as it gains more popularity and price increases, so the possible profit they expect will increase.

[nelson4lov]

I knew this would happen the moment we got that ETF approval because it was like the stamp of approval that institutional investors with big bags and extremely deep pockets. iirc, a lot of people on the forum wanted mass adoption in the users and for Bitcoin price numbers to go up which was why the ETF news waa well received after it was approved. A bit of centralized holding is the price we hsve to pay. Institutions like Microstrategy will going buying bitcoin until they can't thus they're likely to become the biggest bitcoin holders.