Alyse Killeen: Bitcoin is Becoming Much More Mainstream

Is bitcoin – the world’s number one digital currency by market cap – finally gaining mainstream traction and attention? According to two crypto analysts (Alex Mann of Time Chain and Alyse Killeen at Still Mark), the answer is a resounding “yes.”

Mann and Killeen: BTC is Getting More Known

In a recent interview, Mann said he thinks bitcoin is no different from any other product or service, and it’s only a matter of time before the world realizes this. He stated:

Fundamentally, all bitcoin companies are doing is providing goods and services to customers that their customers [need] to pay for as they would with any other supplier. Bitcoin is a technology layer, just like the internet, and bitcoin companies use bitcoin the way Amazon uses the internet.

Killeen also threw her two cents into the mix, saying:

Bitcoin has been adopted in both developed and emerging economies, but with different drivers and ‘killer apps.’ In developed markets, many engage with bitcoin as an investment… In emerging markets, and for families split between developed and emerging markets, remittance is the killer app.

However, Killeen went on to say that one of the biggest problems is that the technology behind bitcoin and the Lightning Network isn’t always understood by the public or even by the people trying to develop and/or implement it. She said:

Development of apps or business models that incorporate the Lightning Network previously required a deep set of technical skills, and only recently have the infrastructure, development tools, and user services been available for anyone to take advantage of the Lightning Network within their app or business model.

However, she was quick to say that the necessary talent for crypto companies is finally coming to fruition. She stated:

Next, we have talent in the field that understands how to translate the technology into use cases for their user base[s]. When you see that sort of entrepreneurial activity develop and flourish, what trails that tends to be an adoption of the technology itself because these founders can make it valuable and tangible.

Some Remaining Issues to Work Out

Still, Mann thinks there are several issues with the Lightning Network, and that there are a lot of changes required if Lightning is to handle excessive bitcoin transactions. He said:

If the use case is payments, are there still scaling bottlenecks? Yes, and particularly for retail payments. The need is more obvious in emerging markets where payments infrastructure does not exist at all, such as the townships of South Africa, but even here, there are still challenges to doing it cost-efficiently. With that in mind, the ecosystem is developing layers on top of Lightning like Fedi… For B2B payments, Lightning looks to be highly desirable as it enables real-time settlement. Companies like Synota or Vida that apply Lightning payments to the energy and telco sector could be game changing.