Ever since it started gaining mass adoption in the 90s, the internet has fundamentally transformed our daily lives – whether you’re using it for work or play, there’s a good chance you’re using the internet in some way every single day. Bitcoin is another technology that has the potential to make a massive impact. While the internet opened up access to information in a broader sense, Bitcoin is transforming the way we think about financial services and money.
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Bitcoin could be as disruptive as the internet
The Bitcoin network operates 24/7 and can be used to send value anywhere in the world, without having to ask for permission or trust someone else to take care of your funds while the transaction is being processed.
At this point in time, most people still view Bitcoin as an investment and measure its success in the BTC price as denominated in fiat currencies like the US dollar, euro, Japanese yen, and so forth. And if Bitcoin were to follow the adoption rate of the internet, it’s likely that its value would be significantly higher than it is today.
Before we continue with the Bitcoin versus internet comparison, we should mention that there are of course also other ways of making Bitcoin price predictions. With the help of platforms like CoinCodex, you can gauge the future price of Bitcoin by analyzing important technical indicators like moving averages, support and resistance levels, RSI, and more.
The Bitcoin network was launched in early 2009, with the genesis block being mined on January 3. The internet started becoming used by the public in 1993/1994 after CERN announced in 1993 that anyone could use the WWW (World Wide Web) without paying a fee, and the source code for the first web browser and editor was made available publicly.
According to data from the World Bank, around 49% of the global population was using the internet as of 2017. Willy Woo, a popular analyst that focuses on data sourced directly from the Bitcoin blockchain, estimates that there were around 135 million Bitcoin users as of January 2021, which is comparable to the number of internet users in 1997. This comparison shows that Bitcoin has still plenty of room to grow – to draw a parallel with what the internet looked like in 1997, we can point out that Amazon was still strictly an online bookstore back then.
Here’s the projected worldwide Bitcoin users expressed in Internet years:
Internet 1997 = Bitcoin 2021
Internet 2005 = Bitcoin 2025
Internet 2010 = Bitcoin 2028Here’s how the Internet changed… pic.twitter.com/CzrE83JVMJ
— Willy Woo (@woonomic) August 26, 2021
According to Woo’s projections, Bitcoin is on pace to hit 1 billion users in 2025, assuming that it continues growing at its current rate. The internet hit the 1 billion user milestone in 2005. In 2028, Bitcoin is expected to have as many users as the internet did in 2010 (for better context, that was the year when Apple released the first-ever iPad).
How can we use this data to make a Bitcoin price prediction?
According to CoinCodex, Bitcoin would now be valued at $61,480 if the BTC price followed the same growth trajectory as the growth of internet users. Given that Bitcoin is trading at $47,700 at the time of writing, Bitcoin is undervalued from this perspective. As we’ve mentioned previously, there are many ways to value Bitcoin, and some of them would suggest that Bitcoin is already overvalued – it’s up to you to decide which metrics you think are more important.
And how does Bitcoin compare to other tech trends?
CoinCodex also shows us an estimate of what Bitcoin would be worth if its price grew along at the same rate as other tech trends. If the BTC price grew as fast as Google when the company was in its growth phase, the Bitcoin price would now be at around $74,300. If it grew as fast as the adoption of mobile phones, the value of Bitcoin would be about $61,000. If you’re a Bitcoin investor, you should cross your fingers and hope that the price follows the same growth trajectory as Facebook – 1 BTC would be worth $105,600 in such a scenario!
There’s still more room for Bitcoin to grow
Even though Bitcoin has already reached a market capitalization of $1 trillion, the comparison with the adoption of the internet and the growth of leading tech companies shows that there’s still a good chance that the world’s largest cryptocurrency can reach greater highs in the future. Other cryptocurrencies that came to the market after Bitcoin could have even bigger upside but are also likely to be riskier.