BITCOIN and other cryptocurrencies should be seen as an “important generational breakthrough” in technology and crypto-sceptics should start realising its exponential potential, according to financial expert Matt Hougan.
Matt Hougan, Bitwise Asset Management Vice President, said bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies should be looked at as new developing technologies with a “massive potential” just like mobile phones and digital cameras.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Mr Hougan claimed crypto-sceptics who can’t see the massive potential of bitcoin are forgetting the exponential value of technology.
He said: “I think the challenge that people have is they forget that crypto is basically at its core a technology.
“And like any early-stage technology, we’re a long way from mainstream adoption.
“Right now, crypto’s primary use, bitcoin’s primary use is either as a store value, we’re starting to see it in money transfer, but it’s among the early adopters still.
“But that’s true of every technology, right? When digital cameras came out they weren’t very effective.
“When cell-phones came out they weren’t very useful, but it changes over time.
“So I think the people who can’t imagine bitcoin as a payment mechanism, can’t imagine it competing with gold, are just forgetting that technology increased at an exponential rate and they’re unable to look forward two, three, five years and imagine what it can do at that point.
“At the core, it is a generational important technological breakthrough with massive potential.”
He said: "Blockchain is the technology behind bitcoin and at the moment I don't see a great deal of point in bitcoin.
“But thinking about the technology itself that does have the ability to join up the way that governments link its data.”