If you take Michael Saylor's view on bitcoin, Bitcoin is about to become all of the ASSET.
There is nothing out there that is as good as bitcoin as collateral.
There is nothing you could buy that is in the same league as bitcoin.
Not real estate, where property taxes and depreciation eat your holding over time.
Not the stock market which, if you put your money in the S&P500, you would barely make as much as inflation.
Not a savings account, where you would be losing about 4% per year as it does not keep up with inflation.
Not gold, as it can be seized and confiscated.
With bitcoin, you own a portion of the 21 million. Permanently, forever. You do not have to pay to maintain it. When you are holding it, it just stays there. No other asset has this property. No other asset has a provable scarcity. (except other cryptos :-p )
Bitcoin started off as digital money. Well, the idea of that.
But, when other cryptos came along, the first thing they worked on is more throughput, and more coins.
Because, 21 million divided over 8 billion people, means very few people have a whole bitcoin. And most would have what we consider today, dust.
And 10 minute blocks are WAY too slow to handle transactions for a million people, let alone billions of people.
So, in order to be money, bitcoin really needs to have more coins and more transactions per second. Like, orders of magnitude more.
And strangely, none of the faster chains get much love (compared to bitcoin), so i guess speed isn't really as important as we all thought it should be.
What bitcoin seems to becoming is the worlds greatest asset to be used as collateral.
And as such, its slowness is actually a boon.
People who want to use it as collateral, would like bitcoin to stay very stable. Slowness makes it look stable.
If bitcoin becomes known as the asset of all assets, and so starts becoming the thing against which all things are borrowed or created, does that mean that bitcoin will become the world's reserve currency?
Well, that is really a difficult question, because bitcoin is not fast enough to be the world's currency. But it could easily become like the gold in the central vaults of the Fed in New York. The gold that settled national trade and such.
The gold in these vaults, never really moved (from the building in NY) but it changed hands many times. (and the Fed was supposed to move bars from one cell to another)
Bitcoin can easily become the gold behind world transactions.
Similarly, bitcoin can easily settle large payments between corporations. There are actually not that many billion dollar net worth entities. Bitcoin can easily handle all of those transactions.
So, bitcoin can't become the world's reserve currency, but it may become the backing of the currency/currencies used around the world.
What is the lightning network? So called level 2 solution built on top of bitcoin.
Well, it is a way to send bitcoin without doing it on the chain (so you can send tiny amounts) and, to really boil it down, someone puts up some bitcoin as collateral, and then runs a small exchange.
The lightning network can be very convenient. Especially when dealing with small purchases and tips. It both is, and isn't very secure. It is not a block-chain living on 1000s of computers around the world, but it does have an amount of bitcoin placed up as collateral, if things go wrong.
Many bitcoin maxis are all talking about level 2, and even level 3 solutions. About creating an eco-system directly on top of bitcoin. (and so, there will be nothing else needed besides bitcoin, in the future, they say)
Other things in the works are cross-chain crypto platforms.
So someone can send litecoin, and the receiver receive bitcoin.
And if someone can do that, then an exchange rate is built between bitcoin and other cryptos.
So, many people could start using litecoin, like they would use a checking account, and doge as they would use the cash in their pockets. (as an example) Using the correct sized network for the right amount of protection and convenience.
In this way, or these ways, bitcoin could become the world's reserve collateral.
Not the the world's reserve currency, but the thing that backs it all.
Unless something comes along that is much better, i am fairly sure that we will see bitcoin as the world's reserve collateral.
Especially as real estate prices collapse. Commercial real estate is already toast. The only thing is when it hits, and how massive the damage is. So, real estate will no longer be considered as good collateral.
The stock market is going to crash, and then found to be corrupt. So, stocks will no longer be considered as good collateral.
And fiat, around the world, is in big trouble. Soon, it will no longer be considered as good collateral.
"Safe as money in the bank" will be considered a stupid thing to say soon. How did anyone believe that?
The way things are going, there will be only gold and bitcoin considered as assets in the near future. And we all know how hard gold is to move around. So, as long as we do not descend back to cave men, bitcoin will be the king, and maybe, only asset accepted as collateral around the world.
