Quick take:
Earlier this week, the team at Citi Group released a report explaining that Bitcoin was at a tipping point and could in the next seven years, ‘become the currency of choice for international trade’. The report went on to describe Bitcoin as the ‘evolving North Star in the digital space’ functioning as a compass for ‘the evolution of the broader ecosystem of crypto commerce’.
In the final sections of the report, the team at Citi explored the role played by Chainlink in the smart contract arena of blockchain technology by first pointing out that Chainlink was recognized by the World Economic Forum in its 100 most promising Technology Pioneers of 2020.
Furthermore, Chainlink has gone on to expand beyond the original Ethereum network by gaining adoption on other blockchains such as Tezos and Polkadot
. As a result, the use of Chainlink technology could ultimately lead to the LINK token gaining prominence over Bitcoin as explained below.Developers that utilize the Chainlink network pay with the protocol’s native token, LINK. Thus, a token that helps to facilitate the growth of the on-chain ecosystem may also gain prominence over Bitcoin in time as it becomes increasingly critical to the operation of the blockchain infrastructure.
It is thus already possible to envision a commerce-linked or infrastructure-linked coin that may eventually eclipse Bitcoin. More such possibilities may emerge. Innovation in the chain-based ecosystem is continuing apace and today’s offerings may yet give way to a new invention that garners more attention and assets than Bitcoin.