Bitcoin is a digital currency that is full of questions and mysteries. The largest of them being whether Bitcoin will actually be able to survive for the long term. Avoiding ill fates such as the Tulip Mania and other fads that quickly came and disappeared.
Today after reading this article not only will you have no doubts about whether it can survive, but you will be convinced that it is the asset of the future and that Bitcoin’s journey is just beginning.
Past Difficult Experiences
The most important factor for an asset to be digital gold, but even better is gaining trust. After all, you would never invest your savings into an asset claiming to be a better way to preserve your wealth that had never been tested through countless hardships and obstacles.
That is the reason why Gold has stood the test of time up until now. Surviving through thousands of years, wars, famines, recessions, and the list goes on. Truthfully Bitcoin has a lot further it needs to go in this area before we can say it has been fully tested, yet it’s important that it was only created 15 years ago.
In those short 15 years, Bitcoin has already gone through countless hurdles and gotten back up stronger every single time.
Satoshi Leaves Bitcoin
Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto leaving Bitcoin was not only one of the first hardships that Bitcoin had to deal with it, but arguably one of the most important as well.
There was never a chance that Bitcoin would take off, become a real currency, and become fully trusted if the creator/leader was still in charge. Even to this day many people still think “What would Satoshi do? or “What was Satoshi’s intent?” In the end, the longer he stuck with the project, the more it would have handicapped Bitcoin. He had overwhelming power and persuasion that would have always been a threat. The day Satoshi walked away from Bitcoin was the day that Bitcoin finally began to become truly decentralized. A feat that very few cryptocurrency projects even to this day can claim.
Mt. Gox Hack
Mt. Gox was a Bitcoin exchange located in Japan that was responsible for a lion’s share of all Bitcoin transactions. In fact, it was handling over 70% of all buy/sell transactions for Bitcoin worldwide.
Then in 2014 the exchange was hacked and drained of the Bitcoin.
While this was not due to any fault of Bitcoin, only the fault of Mt Gox security. It still was a huge blow to the confidence of the Bitcoin market. It was such a hard hit to Bitcoin that many claimed that the death blow had finally been dealt to Bitcoin. That there was no way it would ever be able to recover from this.
Naturally, the price of Bitcoin would plummet as a result of this. Yet as time went on, once again Bitcoin was able to survive and even become stronger.
Blockchain Wars
Outside of Satoshi leaving Bitcoin, the blocksize wars were arguably when Bitcoin was in the most danger.
There were two camps split about how Bitcoin should handle scaling in the future. One camp wanted to dramatically increase the blocksize of Bitcoin, allowing everything to be handled on layer 1. Transactions on Bitcoin would become incredibly fast and cheap. These benefits would come at the cost of making Bitcoin more centralized, dramatically increasing the requirements to run full nodes on the network.
While the original camp wanted to scale by using SegWit, and building layer 2s such as the Lightning network. This would allow Bitcoin to maintain full decentralization while protecting the vitally important layer 1 Bitcoin.
Eventually, the original camp won out, and stayed with Bitcoin, while the 1st camp would fork off and create networks such as Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV.
As time goes on few people remember just how dire and heated the situation was back then. Yet Bitcoin would survive to live another day.
Bear Markets
All financial assets have bear markets, this is nothing new. However, nothing can compare to the bear markets of Bitcoin.
In the early days, it was common that Bitcoin would soar upward by thousands of percent only to drop in value by over 90%. It was this type of volatility that caused many to not be able to hand the stress and eventually exit this market. Even in the most recent bear market in 2022, we saw the price of Bitcoin drop by over 70%. There is no other financial asset that experiences bear markets like Bitcoin.
While each bear market is occurring, financial experts declared that Bitcoin had finally met its doom and that this hype bubble had come to an end. It was game over for Bitcoin.
Yet every single time, Bitcoin rose from the ashes like a phoenix and not only survived but grew even stronger. During the last cycle, Bitcoin made an all-time high of $69k in 2021, but would eventually drop down to $16k. In 2024 it came back with a vengeance soaring up to $73k, making a new record high before the BTC halving even occurred. A first in Bitcoin’s history.
No other asset could drop so significantly, yet also come back stronger even quicker like Bitcoin. Not even Gold.
Living through a Pandemic & Recession
If that wasn’t enough Bitcoin would soon have its next big challenge; surviving during a pandemic and recession.
While the situation worldwide was horrible and many people lost their lives. It still was an important part of Bitcoin’s journey. As I mentioned before; you want your preservation of wealth to be put into something that you can depend on even during the worst of times. Through wars, great depressions, times of panic and uncertainty, and also during pandemics.
Bitcoin not only being able to survive, but also thrive during this time gave much more weight to its ability to become an even better digital gold.
The Government Attacks
First, they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you, and then you win.
Bitcoiners have always been predicting that this was the path Bitcoin would be forced to take before it could go mainstream and reach its full potential. Throughout the last handful of years, it has become clearly evident that we have reached the “then they fight you” stage.
The first domino that dropped was in 2021 when China would ban Bitcoin mining and even owning Bitcoin in their country. Soon later the Biden administration in the US led by Elizabeth Warren would make their full-on assault against crypto.
They closed banks that were large partners of the crypto industry and tried to essentially exile the crypto market out of existence.
Initially, these FUD attacks would cause Bitcoin to stumble, but once again it would stand back up becoming even stronger than before. In the US alone Bitcoin has recently become one of the key topics during the US Presidential Election. Trump and the Republicans have strongly backed crypto and the popularity of it has grown to such a point that it has been a big political misfire to be against crypto at this point.
What We’ve Accomplished
Earlier I mentioned just a few of the obstacles that Bitcoin has had to go up against early in its lifecycle so far. Events that have made it stronger. But, there are also several recent key milestones that Bitcoin has achieved that should make you incredibly bullish for Bitcoin’s future.
In just the last 5 years alone it has become a much more respected asset. As before many still considered it taboo to be investing in Bitcoin.
We have seen company adoption begin to take off. Microstrategy, Square, Tesla, and several other companies around the world have begun to recognize the true value of Bitcoin and put it on their balance sheet.
Then the Spot ETFs were approved in the US and we are just beginning to see what kind of impact that will have on Bitcoin’s price. Now that Wall Street has the ability to invest in Bitcoin, the entire game has changed.
Finally, Bitcoin has begun to do something that even the most bullish Bitcoiners couldn’t have predicted happening so early. It has begun to see nation-state adoption.
The news that sent shock waves around the world was when El Salvador announced that they would be making Bitcoin Legal tender in their country in 2021. Then just a few years later in 2024, Donald Trump announced that he would make a US Bitcoin Reserve if he were elected President. No matter what your political stance is, it is amazing to see just how far Bitcoin has come, and how quickly it has done it.
It is important to always remember that nothing is guaranteed with Bitcoin. There is always a chance that its price could go to zero. However, as time goes on it appears that Bitcoin is only going to head in one direction; UP.
How about you? What’s your prediction for Bitcoin’s future?
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As always, thank you for reading!
This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial, tax, or legal advice. You should consult a financial professional before making any significant financial decisions.
