Optimistic outlook for BTC amid shaky economic times

by · October 14, 2022

It may not have been tulip season in the Netherlands, but there was a palpable buzz at the picturesque Westerpark, which hosted the Bitcoin Amsterdam 2022 conference.

Prominent speakers from all corners of the Bitcoin (BTC) ecosystem drew a healthy number of attendees over the two days of the program, exploring wide-ranging topics amid the challenges and successes as the space approaches its fourteenth year.

With global economic woes continuing across conventional markets and global monetary inflation concerns rising, Bitcoin’s role as a potential hedge was a big topic of discussion, kicking things off in the Westerunie dome on Day 1 of the conference.

Bitcoin as an inflation hedge

Former hedge fund manager Greg Foss and Prince Philip of Serbia Gave provided some interesting food for thought, highlighting the potential for Bitcoin as a safe haven, given its engineered scarcity compared to a debt-driven economic system that has struggled to combat inflation.

Cointelegraph spoke to Foss in Amsterdam, who highlighted his view that Bitcoin will play an important role in tackling monetary inflation. After cutting his teeth at the Royal Bank of Canada and spending nearly 30 years trading credit, Foss’s introduction to Bitcoin fundamentally changed his view of the current economic challenges facing the world:

“I found Bitcoin in 2016. I’ve been researching it ever since, and in my opinion, it’s the most important technological and financial solution to our looming debt crisis that we’re seeing unfold in real time right now. What is happening in the UK is extraordinary. I haven’t been this nervous about the financial system since 2009.”

Prince Philip used an anecdotal example of rising inflation in Serbia both in the past and in 2022 as cause for concern for the local population despite assurances from the government that inflation figures would return to single digits by 2023:

“This is how Bitcoin is really going to help people in Serbia and around the world. It’s key that we educate people to understand the scarcity of Bitcoin and how it’s going to solve the inflation problem we’re all experiencing right now.”

Former EU Member of Parliament Nigel Farage also weighed in on the issue from a British context in a conversation with Cointelegraph. While he admitted he had first heard of the concept of Bitcoin back in 2012, Farage recently reflected on its importance as he began to question the nature of fiat currencies in the modern age.

Farage highlighted a break from the gold standard in various countries many decades ago as a primary cause of inflationary environments that often take years to correct. Bitcoin, in his view, could become a more attractive means of trading and fighting inflation in Europe in the near future:

“There is going to be a very, very big change here in the next two or three years and it will become a reliable medium of exchange. And if I look now at doing bank transactions, they are inefficient, they are expensive and often quite slow. So [Bitcoin] becomes more and more attractive.”

While there was much optimism for Bitcoin as a hedge in an individual’s investment portfolio by a number of speakers, Foss highlighted the importance of having a clear strategy in place when it comes to a percentage allocation to BTC in a portfolio.

Energy issues in Europe

Energy issues were another hot topic of debate, given that Europe is experiencing an energy crisis of sorts, which has been exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Andy Long, CEO of mining company White Rock Management, summarized the state of affairs on the continent.

“Really, the only affordable sources of energy for mining in Europe are in places where the energy is stranded. When you transport energy you have losses in the grid, but you also need enough capacity in the distribution grid.”

Long also noted that gas pipelines that were curtailed and nuclear plants that were shut down added to further constraints, while renewable generation did not keep pace. This means mining operators have trouble finding sites with affordable, stable power.

Jelmer ten Wold, CEO of Greentech Technologies AG, highlighted the fact that the EU is investing 300 billion euros ($292.38 billion) for renewable energy production in the coming years, while the plans for consumption are somewhat lacking.

“It will result in much more need and demand for stable load and load balancing applications. The moment the heat user is vertically integrated with a mining farm, producing heat and BTC at the same time, there is no way an electronic boiler will ever be cheaper. »

Long also told how the firm’s energy infrastructure investments in Sweden had led to a pervasive effect of infrastructure development and further investments in mining ventures from other companies. This provides an example of how Bitcoin mining can be a stimulating force for further development of electricity utilities.

Considering side chains

Paul Sztorc, independent Bitcoiner and inventor of BIP 300 and renowned cryptographer, Hashcash inventor and Blockstream CEO Adam Back, thought of other future uses of sidechains to improve the Bitcoin network in the future.

OpCodes, Simplicity and zero-knowledge SNARKS were presented by both speakers during their panel on the topic. Back suggested that opcodes, which push data or perform functions in a pubkey script or signature script, may be the easiest to implement in the near future:

“I think the opcodes are probably the fastest way. I think there is new energy in Bitcoin layer two with Fedimint and Statechains, there are more companies working on these things. They are also interested in new opcodes, so it is a good time to have that conversation.”

Sztorc, who created BIP 300, which proposes to compress three to six months of transaction data into a fixed 32-byte, also agreed that sidechains could help scale Bitcoin’s network through the implementation of his BIP and other sidechain proposals:

“The idea that I have for BIP 300 and just the sidechain idea more generally could have a huge impact. Not only does it allow for extensibility, but it can be used to achieve massive scale very quickly.”

Upgrades or improvements to Bitcoin’s protocol have always been a contentious issue, but the two highly respected cryptographers have certainly given measured impressions of how the protocol can continue to evolve in a multi-cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem.

Julian Assange’s Bitcoin Story

Renowned activist and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is currently incarcerated in London’s Belmarsh Prison, was represented by his wife Stella, who gave a rousing address in Amsterdam addressing Bitcoin’s role in the fight against censorship around the world:

“Bitcoin and the technology are trying to fight censorship in a similar way that Wikileaks has fought censorship using cryptography. Julian started Wikileaks with incredible innovation, he is a pioneer who has changed the way journalism is done.”

Assange’s work with cryptography was primarily focused on helping journalists and newsrooms rethink how they protect sources and information in the Internet age. When Wikileaks began publishing information, the media company found itself shut out from major payment networks.

“That led to Wikileaks becoming an early adopter of Bitcoin. It’s important to understand the attacks on Wikileaks and the different attacks. The extraterritorial bank blockades, the political and legal attacks.”

General conversations with speakers and attendees painted a picture of optimism about Bitcoin’s ongoing role in increasingly uncertain times around the world. As the COVI-19 pandemic begins to fade, inflation concerns and the ever-present threat of an escalating situation in Ukraine have also sent energy costs soaring in Europe.

Despite the gloomy outlook, Bitcoin continues to attract longtime users and potential new entrants to explore the many avenues of the prominent cryptocurrency. As an anonymous long-term Bitcoin holder told Cointelegraph, “I flew here from America because I like to follow what’s happening in space.”

The attendee was one of many who had traveled from different parts of the world to find out how the Bitcoin ecosystem continues to evolve in the ever-growing cryptocurrency ecosystem.