Is Bitcoin on its last legs?

Optimism. It’s a trait that Bitcoin enthusiasts are known for. If exciting new applications, technologies and markets weren’t enough to excite Bitcoin users around the world, then nothing has been this decade. Yet at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco on Monday, a panel of Bitcoin’s biggest players were asked some difficult questions about “the future of money.”

Unveiling the future of money

Joining TechCrunch’s John Biggs on the panel were Bobby Lee, CEO of China’s largest bitcoin exchange BTCC; Wences Casares, CEO of bitcoin debit card provider Xapo; and Nathaniel Popper, author of the bitcoin book Digital Gold.

Commentators have spent the past five years focusing on Bitcoin’s economic stability, but with the price of Bitcoin persistently below $200, the focus has now shifted to growth, or lack thereof. Casares’ comments were tinged with frustration:

“As an industry, we are paying the price for the hype we had two years ago,” he said, while noting that the industry had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the new technology. “Everyone was expecting Bitcoin to change (the world’s monetary system) in six months, and it hasn’t happened.”

Casares has seen that if Bitcoin cannot get out of the "crash" situation, the potential dark side of Bitcoin's development cannot be eliminated. Investment may begin to dry up, which may help those potentially more profitable businesses in the next few years, but companies will begin to want a return on their investment, and it is questionable how long it will take them to get such a return. He said:

“Honestly, I think I’m the most pro-Bitcoin person, but despite that, I always tell people that if they can’t afford to lose their Bitcoin accounts, they shouldn’t open them because there is a very real possibility that those accounts could go to zero.”

Lee noted that since the collapse of Mt. Gox, Bitcoin has lost relative value from around $1,200 to $230 today. Some financial analysts have speculated that Bitcoin could collapse to zero, which is highly unlikely but not impossible. The BTCC CEO backed Bitcoin, comparing its innovative value to the early Internet: "Bitcoin will definitely become more and more important, just as the Internet never left, Bitcoin will never leave."

Meanwhile, the crowd was more positive about the future of blockchain technology, the foundation of the bitcoin currency and protocol. Banks and even national governments have begun to see the value of this advanced bookkeeping system, with the latest development being that the U.S. state of Vermont has begun examining whether the system can be used to keep state records.

The three panelists also pointed out that Bitcoin could be the first version of a “more successful currency” that could be reshaped and gain mainstream acceptance.

Is Bitcoin becoming obsolete?