It’s almost the end of the year, and this end would also mean that Bitcoin would successfully be stepping into its 11th year of existence. Over the decade, the largest cryptocurrency has gone through the phase of being a digital currency that’s used by criminals to a currency that has been viewed as a store of value by many.
This year alone, the cryptocurrency made several appearances in mainstream media and was also one of the main topics discussed by regulators and governments, some of which can be contributed to the rise of Libra and China’s interest in creating a digital currency. The topic of Bitcoin’s growth over the year was discussed by Meltem Demirors, CSO of Coinshares, during an interview for Unchained Podcast.
Demirors stated that that one of the prominent things that has come through this year, in terms of the global macro level, was the concerns “about how unsustainable the world” currently was from a social, economic, political, and technology shift perspective. She further stated that they had been a result of “a lot of things that have culminated over the last decades since the financial crisis in 2019.” She went on to state,
“It’s been really interesting to watch how the narrative around Bitcoin has really shifted to account for some of those broader macro shifts and I think the narrative is starting to really coalesce around that broader macro narrative which makes it […] much more approachable, it makes it much more interesting for people who think of the world more through a macro lens.”
Demirors also highlighted that the cryptocurrency market saw the inclusion of a “larger audience” than just drawing the attention of technologists and crypto-enthusiasts, quoting the example of Christine Lagarde speaking about central bank-issued digital currency, Xi Jinping promoting the benefits of Bitcoin’s underlying technology.
“I think, again, it’s just been fascinating to see how the narrative has shifted and how the global awareness of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies on what can be enabled has also shifted as a result.”
She further elaborated on three main narratives, the technology narrative, economic narrative, and the social narrative. Under the technology narrative, Demirors focus surrounded on the rise of privacy concerns around the world, particularly digital privacy, with her stating that “the privacy narrative is really driven by the fact that technology is now an omnipresent part of our lives but there are no rules there.”
She said,
“I think that’s been interesting to see how building systems from these protocols and primitives upward that make it difficult or impossible for people’s privacy to be infringed upon is part of the technology shift we’ve seen.”
Under the economic narrative, the CSO of Coinshares spoke about the “erosion of the monetary base and debasement of currency” across the globe over the last decade. She added that “trembling of global debt” has, in turn, a narrative adding to the value of Bitcoin and other assets with a fixed supply.
Demirors went on to elaborate on the third narrative, the social narrative. She said,
“I think the last component is really a social component […] we are in the midst of this global mind shift […] I think it’s been really interesting to see how the political climate, political instability, political uncertainty, has contributed to the appeal of crypto currencies and the idea of these open-source sort of open communities that develop online.”
