The media often fixates on the USD exchange price of Bitcoin, writing obituaries every other week and foaming at the mouth whenever any major fluctuation occurs. It’s like someone who goes on a journey, and only sees everything through a magnifying glass. They are constantly startled when any change occurs, instead of stepping back and taking in the whole picture.

Contrary to the constant shrieking, the actual outlook is very bright:

- The price still seems to be trending up and to the right [https://i.imgur.com/ztPRb7v.png]
- Large, established companies like Virgin, Microsoft, Dell, NYSE, Paypal, Stripe, T-Mobile and more are actively involved in Bitcoin, with the likelihood of more on the horizon.
- The narrative is changing from ‘bitcoin is for drugs and crime’, to 'bitcoin is a technological breakthrough’, as leaders like Bill Gates, Al Gore, Peter Thiel, Richard Branson and Eric Schmitt dollop on the praise.
- Bitcoin is poised to start trading in Wall Street, allowing non-technical folks to easily invest.
- You cannot inflate the Bitcoin supply at will, so as the number of users increases, each satoshi becomes more valuable due to increased demand.

Combine those things and there are legitimate reasons to believe the price will almost certainly increase over the mid to long term. The price isn’t the only thing that’s important about the technology, but it is a crucial piece of the puzzle and if the price rises, there are other interesting implications.

A VERY DIFFERENT WEALTHY ELITE

If the price climbs to stratospheric heights that many predict (over tens of thousands of $ per BTC), there will be a lot of newly rich people in the world. “So what?” I hear you ask. Well, this group is quite different from all previous wealthy elites…

It’s hard to know for sure, but being involved in the space for a few years, here’s what I’ve gleaned about the users, especially the earlier adopters:

- They are not born into rich families
- They have no ties to politics
- They aren’t CEOs of giant corporations
- They are critical and distrusting of many current societal systems
- They’re technically proficient
- They have an understanding of economics

According to this list [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=321265.0], there are handful of bitcoiners who own BTC in the 6 digits. Satoshi himself reportedly has around 1-1.5million mined from the early days.

If the price per Bitcoin goes over 5 digits, there will be many new billionaires. If it goes into the 6 digits then Satoshi will be the richest person in the world. Can you imagine that?

MONEY TALKS

With this new money comes a new opportunity for real change. Think of all the cool world changing projects that Elon Musk is currently doing with electric cars, battery technology, rocket ships and interplanetary space travel. Now imagine 100s more of these technically gifted individuals who actually have the means to make their ideas happen. It could revolutionize every area of our lives. New technologies, colonizing planets, cities built in the sea, new countries formed, new forms of governance, medical breakthroughs, and so much more. The fact that they may be some of the richest people on earth also means that a lot of the bureaucratic hoop jumping could be side-stepped allowing for actual, tangible, fast change.

Whatever happens, the next 5-10 years is going to be very interesting. It might be worth picking up some BTC just in case ;)

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BY CHRIS ROBINSON