On Bitcoin's 14th anniversary, multiple OGs reflect on its history and future
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On Bitcoin's 14th anniversary, multiple OGs reflect on its history and future
On January 3, Bitcoin celebrated its 14th anniversary. Bitmain co-hosted a Twitter Space with Jinse Finance on the theme "Bitcoin's 14th Anniversary: Why Our Belief Remains Unshaken."
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsJanuary 3 marked the fourteenth anniversary of Bitcoin's creation. Bitmain co-hosted a Twitter Space with Jinse Finance on the theme "Fourteen Years Since BTC’s Birth: Why Our Belief Remains Unshaken."
Lucien, Director of Bitmain's PoW Research Institute; Xmei Lin, Marketing Director at Bitmain; Zeng Mi, contributor to BTCStudy; Li Peicai, founder of Woyi; Jiang Zhuole, founder of Litecoin Pool; Qi Zhou, founder of ETHStorage; Mo Buyi, co-founder of Antalpha Labs; Kevin Ren, co-founder of Consensus Lab; and Wang Yukun, CEO of Jinse Finance shared their personal stories with Bitcoin and explained how their faith in Bitcoin originated.
These OGs of the crypto space entered the industry early, earning their first fortunes through buying and selling Bitcoin, mining, and reselling mining machines. Their deep involvement over the years has given them profound insights into Bitcoin and strong convictions about its value.
They discussed Bitcoin’s history, achievements, and offered analysis and expectations for its future development. On widely watched topics such as the Lightning Network, these veterans shared unique observations and perspectives.
Bitcoin’s original purpose is value storage; the Lightning Network is the direction for the future
Since its inception, Bitcoin has grown into a trillion-dollar market. Mo Buyi, co-founder of Antalpha Labs, analyzed this phenomenon from the perspective of human nature, noting that Bitcoin's philosophy resonates deeply with people. When individuals accumulate wealth beyond daily consumption needs, they seek ways to preserve it. Traditional assets like real estate and art are highly uncertain, but Bitcoin offers resistance against both human frailty and uncertainty. This gives Bitcoin an irreplaceable role in value preservation, turning many into loyal supporters.
Kevin Ren, co-founder of Consensus Lab, believes the core reason behind Bitcoin’s growth lies in its consistently improving fundamentals regardless of external macroeconomic shifts. First, Bitcoin has a fixed supply. Second, it is decentralized and censorship-resistant. Third, active addresses continue to rise, and the number of Lightning Network nodes has doubled—highlighting growing utility alongside value storage. Fourth, Bitcoin has established a new economic system, fundamentally changing how people use money.
Jiang Zhuole, founder of Litecoin Pool, sees Bitcoin’s expansion as a self-reinforcing logical loop. Its decentralization and censorship resistance represent a real innovation over traditional monetary systems by enabling instant cross-border transfers, achieving monetary freedom. On this foundation, new trade emerges, creating new wealth.
During the last bull market, DeFi exploded, and Ethereum outperformed Bitcoin. Many view Bitcoin as "digital gold," valuing its store-of-value function. However, some insiders worry this highlights Bitcoin’s lack of applicability compared to Ethereum.
On this point, Kevin emphasized that Bitcoin and Ethereum were built with different goals. Bitcoin was designed for value storage and as hard currency. Yet, in terms of application, various protocols based on the Lightning Network and even AMM solutions are already operational. While Bitcoin maintains its core mission of value storage, it is also exploring usability—but functionality should not be the sole metric for judging its worth.
Lucien, Director of Bitmain's PoW Research Institute, acknowledged Bitcoin may appear limited in functionality. Everyone knows Ethereum supports smart contracts, but complex smart contracts introduce potential vulnerabilities and risks of hard forks. The simpler Bitcoin remains, the more stable and reliable it becomes as a form of digital money.
In reality, however, stablecoins have captured much of the market for value storage, leading some to question whether Bitcoin can ever become a practical payment tool.
Li Peicai, founder of Woyi, argued this view only reflects current conditions, not Bitcoin’s future potential. The Lightning Network is already a working technology—settlement times now rival Visa, and transaction fees are less than 5 satoshis per transfer. A thriving ecosystem is emerging within both the Bitcoin and Lightning communities. As a payment solution, the Lightning Network shows immense promise, potentially surpassing traditional networks like Visa—with transaction costs one-tenth as high.
Once the Lightning Network matures into a powerful payment infrastructure, it will reinforce Bitcoin’s value-storage properties. Bitcoin will address its functional limitations via the Lightning Network. Currently used widely for blog tips and donations, broader adoption may come from identifying similar micropayment scenarios.
The price of freedom is the price of Bitcoin
Over the years, Bitcoin’s position as the leading cryptocurrency has never been truly challenged. Still, critics complain it appears less innovative, even stagnant.
On this issue, Qi Zhou, founder of ETHStorage, noted that the longer a blockchain exists and the higher its market cap grows, the more cautious it becomes about adopting new technologies or applications. For example, adding features was easier during Ethereum’s early days. But as Ethereum’s market value rose and its ecosystem matured, integrating major upgrades like Layer 2 solutions required far more time and coordination.
In terms of decentralization, Bitcoin still holds significant dominance. In contrast, Ethereum has undergone frequent forks. Ethereum secretly patched numerous bugs in the past, drawing criticism from the Bitcoin community for lacking full decentralization. Signals such as Satoshi Nakamoto’s departure indicate Bitcoin is entirely driven by decentralized forces—not just in node operation, but across the entire development process. This makes adopting new technologies difficult, but once innovations like Layer 2 become mature and proven, Bitcoin will likely adopt them to solve more complex problems, unlocking substantial upside potential.
Technologically, Bitcoin continues evolving. Zeng Mi, content contributor at BTCStudy, cited Miniscript—an advanced Bitcoin scripting language—that lowers the barrier for ordinary users to write complex scripts and enhances interoperability between wallets. Several core Bitcoin wallets are actively working toward supporting Miniscript.
When discussing Bitcoin’s potential role in human civilization, Li Peicai said it could bring meaningful change in regions with weak financial sovereignty, helping hedge against systemic monetary crises. More importantly, like other major cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin transforms how people think about and use money, allowing individuals to allocate assets across alternative financial systems. He believes Bitcoin must continue building a parallel financial system independent of traditional frameworks.
Jiang Zhuole stated Bitcoin cannot replace fiat as a general-purpose currency—governments will never relinquish seigniorage rights, and Bitcoin’s volatility prevents it from serving as a unit of account. However, Bitcoin could become one component of a hybrid monetary system, alongside gold, other digital currencies, and fiat, acting as a long-term “ballast” of value. “The price of freedom is the price of Bitcoin.”
Xmei Lin, Bitmain’s Marketing Director and a sci-fi enthusiast, took a broader, cosmic view of Bitcoin’s significance for human civilization. She suggested that if interstellar civilizations ever emerge, they would inherently be decentralized multi-planetary societies that do not require centralized currencies. Bitcoin could provide the complete economic framework needed for interplanetary trade.
On the topic everyone cares about—the market outlook—Jiang Zhuole predicted the bear market will end within months. His reasoning? Current market patterns closely resemble the sideways movements seen from January to October 2015 and January to April 2019—clear signs of late-stage bear markets. Even if negative news arises, prices are unlikely to fall significantly further. He remains optimistic about the 2023 market trajectory.
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