Central to Draper’s worldview is the notion that Bitcoin is simply better technology than any government -issued currency.
About 20% of the global adult population is unimpeded according to the World Bank; Bitcoin allows such people to make online payments and manage their savings. It is also incredibly effective in sending money abroad. A thread transfer will usually take three to five working days (if not more) to arrive, while a Bitcoin transaction is generally sorted within 10 minutes to one hour (or a few seconds if you use Lightning Network).
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Still, Bitcoin is now a 16-year-old piece of technology and there are plenty of leaner, more effective blockchain projects out there. Still, Draper says something new in crypto will eventually return to Bitcoin.
“There is this gravitational feature against Bitcoin. All the innovation from other tokens is now being ported over Bitcoin. It’s like Microsoft with WordPerfect and Lotus 123,” Draper said, referring to how the computer company developed its own word processor (Microsoft Word) and Spreadsheet Program (Microsoft Excel) by replicating technologies from other company.
“Smart contracts, Defi, it all goes over to Bitcoin. And Bitcoin’s market share has gone from 40% in 2022 to 61% today,” Draper said. “If you’re a retailer, you put a sign that says, ‘We’ll take Bitcoin.’ You won’t say ‘we take gozo -coin’ or whatever.
The superiority of technology is one of the reasons why the federal government’s past hostility to crypto was so crazy, Draper said. How can you compete if you don’t use all innovations at the tip of your fingers?
The United States probably lost 10 years of value throughout the trial, according to Draper, and although the new Trump administration is permanent pro-innovation, the country still has to catch up. American users are still geofteted by a lot of crypto projects; Nor can they receive AirDrops or tokenize things with the same freedom as most people across the globe.
“I met with the leaders of El Salvador and I became jealous,” said Draper. “Everyone on the street knows how a smart contract works. They build Daos. They have blockchain everything. It’s crazy. El Salvador, who used to be one of the poorest places in the world, could end up being like Singapore.”
Drape’s dissertation, down the line, is that retailers (already slowly adopt Bitcoin in some parts of the world) will one day refuse to accept payments in US dollars.
“I don’t know how long it will take to get there, maybe 10 years. But there will be a moment where the dollar and other Fiat currencies will be eradicated,” he said.
