Billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper has always been one of Bitcoin’s biggest fans. In a recent interview, Draper stuck to his earlier prediction that Bitcoin will eventually strike the $250,000 mark in the year 2022, and that it could potentially change how governments do business.
Bitcoin – It’s a Revolutionary Thing
At the recent Crypto Invest Summit in Los Angeles, Draper said that Bitcoin “lacks the political nature” of government-backed paper money, and is less susceptible to the rules of traditional finance:
So right now, there’s $86 trillion of political currency. They call it ‘fiat’ currency, but it’s political, and I believe that the currency will slowly be eaten up by a better currency which is global, decentralized and frictionless. It’s just better currency. Bitcoin’s a better currency, and I think bitcoin will be one of five [cryptocurrencies].
He was also adamant that cryptocurrencies could potentially transform how global government systems operate, explaining:
I think that government can be transformed in this big, huge way, which is you put all those technologies together. You have a token that’s global and decentralized. The token is now on a perfect ledger called the blockchain, so you don’t require all this special accounting because the accounting is already done, and then you can build smart contracts so that all these contracts are built into the cloud so that whatever is supposed to happen in a contract happens, and then you have all that big data. You can take that data, add artificial intelligence to it, and make decisions. Think about what a bureaucrat does. You can replace the entire bureaucrat with artificial intelligence, a smart contract and the blockchain.
Draper’s Not the Only One…
Eric Voorhees – CEO of global exchange platform ShapeShift – echoed Draper’s bullish sentiment regarding Bitcoin in an online statement on October 28, saying:
Bitcoin’s inflation schedule is set for the next 100 years: transparent, unwavering and known to all parties. U.S. dollar’s inflation schedule is unknown even one year out: opaque and manipulated quarterly. One model is mathematical and civilized; the other is political and antiquated.
How Should Crypto Be Regulated?
Draper also discussed the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) regulatory approach to the crypto industry, saying that the body’s decisions will be amongst the most important ever made and that the last thing they’ll want to do is follow in the footsteps of a country like China:
I think the SEC is torn, and I think it’s okay because they’re torn between going after the fraudsters who are taking advantage of the elderly and making sure that all that technology stays in the U.S. They know it’s a competitive world out there.
Bullish on Bitcoin
For the most part, Draper’s sentiments are shared by a large portion of cryptocurrency and Bitcoin experts, though most do not go as far as 2022 in their predictions.
Fundstrat’s Tom Lee, for example, remains adamant that Bitcoin could potentially end the year at $25,000, while McAfee Associates’ John McAfee claims that Bitcoin will reach $1 million by the year 2020 and that he would allegedly “eat his d!ck” if he’s wrong.
Others, like Joe DiPasquale of BitBull Capital, offer broader ideas regarding Bitcoin price, and say it could be anywhere between $10,000 and $100,000 within the next 5 years, while Fred Schebesta, co-founder and CEO of Finder, offers the least bullish sentiment and says that bitcoin is likely to remain under $10,000 over the next 2 years.
