Michael Novogratz, the founder and CEO of Galaxy Digital, a full-service crypto merchant bank, has argued that Bitcoin (BTC) cannot change the world as it is just a currency, which only serves as a medium-of-exchange (MoE) and store-of-value (SoV).
Novogratz, whose comments during the ConsenSys’ Ethereal Summit on May 11, 2019, pointed out that Bitcoin has “established itself as a SoV” and that it is “kind of finished” in terms of having more use cases.
Bitcoin And Gold Are Social Constructs
The former partner at Goldman Sachs compared the pseudonymous cryptocurrency to other asset classes, including the gold bullion. According to Novogratz, both Bitcoin and gold can be considered social constructs.
Although the Princeton University graduate considers BTC to be “digital gold,” he believes that it’s limited to being used as means to exchange value. Because of this, Novogratz thinks the world’s most dominant cryptocurrency is “not going to change the world.”
Web 3.0, Not Bitcoin, Will Change The World
Web 3.0, an evolving set of protocols and standards for the new and more technologically advanced world wide web, does have the potential to transform how business is conducted and it may also drastically improve how people interact. This, according to Novogratz, who also noted that Web 3.0 is “a decentralized platform [for] processing information.”
He added that Web 3.0 protocols would be able to separate data storage and retrieval from information processing and that public blockchains such as Ethereum may play an important role in the future economy. However, Novogratz mentioned that there are a lot of other smart contract platforms that are providing solutions which are similar to what Ethereum offers.
Altcoins Need To “Prove Themselves”
Comparing the thousands of digital assets to the periodic table of elements (in Chemistry), Novogratz argued that altcoins have not yet established their market value as they still need to “prove themselves.”
The crypto entrepreneur also stated that “there’s no one building anything on the Litecoin blockchain”, however there are many different applications being built on the Ethereum (ETH) network.
Bitcoin To Return To Its $20,000 All-Time High
During the SALT Conference held in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 9th, 2019, Novogratz said that the bitcoin price would most likely return to its previous all-time high of nearly $20,000. However, the billionaire investor cautioned that more damaging events such as the large-scale security breach suffered recently by crypto exchange Binance, could potentially cause the bitcoin price to plummet.
