There is a good chance that most of us who are so passionate about bitcoin and investing in it have been on a journey ourselves. Most of your friends, family or people we know have not been killed with orange yet, they have not gone down the rabbit hole like we have, and probably show little to no interest when we try to talk to them about it .
It can be a lonely experience; the feeling that you are the only one who can see the world as it is. Being one of the few who can see where the future is going and that bitcoin is the answer to many of the world's problems. Then add in the game theory qualities of bitcoin and it's enough to make anyone want to FOMO at it. Many of us are just trying to accumulate as much as possible before the mainstream realizes how valuable and scary bitcoin is. A large percentage of us believe it will create the biggest transfer of wealth we've ever seen.
Of course, that's only if bitcoin truly takes over the world, overtaking gold as the primary store of value and possibly becoming the world's reserve asset, becoming the currency of choice for many. We spend a lot of time thinking about what we need to do now to get rich with bitcoin, often thinking only about what we need to do to get rich. But we don't spend enough time thinking about what the future will look like if bitcoin does reach its full potential, as many of us hope or think it will. What would that world look like? It's a world that could be an incredibly exciting place for those of us who have seen the future and accumulated bitcoins, but it could be a very unpleasant world for those who haven't. One thing is for sure, the world would look very different than it does today.


Let's first talk about the bitcoin protocol itself. Some people are frustrated with how slow it's been to upgrade, but we tend to forget that bitcoin plays a different game than most other blockchains. Bitcoin goes after currencies and actual states, and so any update should be considered carefully and thoughtfully. The protocol has become too valuable and must be protected. With that said, we are still seeing significant improvements. SegWit was introduced a few years ago, and Taproot/Schnorr was introduced just a few months ago. Bitcoin is playing a game that will be around for hundreds of years and is still an infant in its development. Just as things looked very different ten years ago, fast forward twenty years and things will also look very different.
In the bitcoin world, you may be able to use cash for payments, but payments in bitcoins or lightning will be preferred. In fact, you will get discounts when you pay with bitcoin. Sellers prefer to be paid in BTC because they are not charged a fee like when using credit cards, and this will also be a valuable asset to them. Any complaints that bitcoin can never scale to be used for everyday payments will be a thing of the past. We're seeing a glimpse of that right now with layer 2, Lightning. It will continue to scale and improve. As the years go by, the fees for bitcoin's tier 1 network will continue to increase and therefore it will only be used for the largest transactions or transactions that require an absolute level of security. All other transactions will be done in a flash. Think of it like a savings account and a checking account at a bank. Bitcoin layer 1 will be your savings account that you add to and save for the future. Lightning will be your checking account that you use for most purchases.
As the bitcoin network continues to scale through Level 1 protocol upgrades and even more so through Level 2 and 3 upgrades, the use case or need for very "cheap" circuits will disappear and that capital will flow into bitcoin. Not only that, but smart contracts will be built on top of bitcoin. It may happen on layer 1, but it will definitely be built on top of bitcoin through other layers. Again eliminating a large amount of use cases for many coins out there. We're getting to a point where too many coins are trying to do the same and also be currencies. We can't expect retailers to accept hundreds of different cryptocurrencies, but instead it's more likely that only a few will eventually win out.
Now you may wonder why all these things would happen to bitcoin. Simply put, people and developers follow the money. As bitcoin continues to gain states by becoming legal tender, you need to increase adoption through lightning; people will start preferring to have smart contracts for bitcoin as well. Switching between different chains is cumbersome and people will prefer to have everything in one place. Fast forward thirty years and the bitcoin landscape will look very different than it does today and it will be exciting.
One of the famous phrases bitcoiners like to say is "Fix the money, fix the world". People being able to save their wealth in a currency that doesn't inflate and truly appreciates over the years will change the game and help people far more than we can imagine. In the geopolitical arena, it could have bigger implications. Unlike the US dollar, the Japanese yen, the euro, the Chinese yuan, no one controls bitcoin and therefore no one can sanction or punish other countries financially. Furthermore, no one can seize coins that are stored properly. There may be no reason to have wars in the future if wealth cannot be seized, if sanctions cannot be imposed and countries cannot be blocked by the financial world.
Because bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that is locked up with 21 million coins, it cannot be printed at will or inflated. This can cause problems during times of panic or emergency when funding or support is needed. But overall it should have a good effect. Our thinking will be forced to change from a spenders mindset to a savers mindset. We will become much less likely to use credit to buy things. Additionally, as countries will be forced to spend within their means, it will also reduce the size of governments, militaries and hopefully reduce their chances of being at war in the future.


However, things will not be all roses. While for those of us who got into bitcoin early, we're going to have the time of our lives participating in the greatest transfer of wealth the world has ever seen. But for those people who got in late or missed out entirely, it's going to be a tough world. The day the world changes to a bitcoin standard will be the day all fiat is almost zero. Millionaires could go broke overnight, and it will be much worse for people who were already poor. People will have to hide the fact that they have bitcoins, or the night might be safe for them. There's a reason people who care always preach the fact that you shouldn't talk about how many bitcoins you have. It would only take one wrench attack to give up the keys to your wallet.
And this will lead to a separation of the two groups of society, the people with bitcoin and the people without bitcoin. Bitcoiners will build their own citadels. One could argue that rich people are already doing this to some extent by living in gated communities, but it will be to a much higher degree in the future. IJ fact, I would say it is already happening. El Salvador is building its own bitcoin city and it feels a lot like the first citadel being built.
In a world where bitcoin has taken over, side efforts to get extra money will be to mine bitcoins and also lend out bitcoins. Mining will become one of the biggest industries in the world. You will be able to buy items that have BTC mining capabilities, but it will cost extra. Items such as your car, refrigerator, heater, air conditioner and much more. Borrowing BTC will become as common as putting money into your savings account. Why not lend bitcoin that you are not currently using? In the future, regulations will have reached a point where this is a much safer transaction.
In the future, bitcoin will no longer be called mainstream bitcoin. Instead, Satoshi's will be the unit of account, and bitcoin will only be used as a status symbol by the super-rich. 1 Satoshi will have more value than 1 US dollar, and we will be forced to divide bitcoin into even smaller decimal points than Satoshi. You'll hear from friends that it's incredibly likely they managed to accumulate 2000 satoshis and that they did. All the while we sit in the corner and keep quiet about how we were early to bitcoin and managed to accumulate multiple bitcoins.
The world will be a very different place than it is today. It will create some new problems, but it will fix many more and make the world a better place. Allowing man to finally save his wealth and have a chance. The only question is how difficult the transition from a fiat world to a bitcoin world will be. Time is running out to accumulate bitcoins before everyone else catches on.
What about you? What do you think a bitcoin world would look like? Would you prefer it to today's world?