As the Bitcoin halving marked another major milestone in the crypto space, leaders in the crypto community shared different perspectives on how the event would affect the different areas of crypto.
On April 20, the Bitcoin network successfully went through the fourth halving event after the 840,000th block was mined. The occasion reduced mining rewards from 6.25 Bitcoin (BTC) per block to 3.125 BTC, worth about $200,000 at the time of writing.
At the Token2049 event in Dubai, Cointelegraph spoke with community members to get their thoughts on the Bitcoin halving and its potential impact on the crypto space.
Crypto space could grow tenfold
Avalanche founder Emin Gün Sirer shared two different perspectives regarding the halving. From a technological standpoint, Gün Sirer argued that the halving was not great. He explained:
“As a technologist at my core, I see Bitcoin halving as not a great thing. Why? Because it’s a discrete event. All of a sudden the rewards going to miners go down by half. And suddenly, the security budget of the Bitcoin system goes down by half.”
The executive believes that the halving leads to “hundreds of millions” being paid to miners going down. Gün Sirer argued that this means less money secures the network.
The Avalanche founder believes that the Bitcoin creator was still “alive,” the Bitcoin halving might change. He explained:
“I think if Satoshi were alive today, he would change the way the halvening is happening, not from a discrete function, from a sudden point function to a more continuous function, so that the rewards go down more gradually.”
While the executive thinks that the halving could improve from a tech perspective, Gün Sirer also recognized that the event has had a good effect on crypto.
“This creates a lot of speculation, a lot of buying into the space, a lot of people taking a position in Bitcoin, which in general has been great for the rest of the space as well,” he added.
Gün Sirer explained that it’s also great for renewed interest in crypto and predicted that the space is on its way to growing tenfold. “I see the crypto space growing by at least another factor of 10, if not more so. Bitcoin has a lot of growth ahead of it, in my view.”
No immediate impact
While Gün Sirer highlighted the potential long-term growth of the crypto space, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino told Cointelegraph that the halving might not immediately affect the price. Ardoino explained:
“I think the halving is something that is iconic, is something that is there, but not necessarily will affect immediately the Bitcoin price.”
Even though the executive thinks the halving might not affect the BTC price, Ardoino remains bullish on the potential impact of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
“I don’t expect it. Maybe it will happen, maybe it will not. But I think that the Bitcoin halving was priced already. What was not necessarily priced was the enormous interest in the Bitcoin ETF,” he added.
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Ardoino explained that the biggest hedge funds didn’t tap into the Bitcoin ETF yet. When pension funds and other hedge funds start investing, the executive said, “We’ll see big moves.”
Code is law in crypto
With the ETFs bringing in new players to the crypto space, the halving shows how code works as the law in crypto, according to Justin Hyun, the director of investments at The Open Network (TON) Foundation.
Hyun believes that those experiencing the Bitcoin halving for the first time will see how the crypto space works. He explained:
“It’ll be a further validation of. The way that the code is ultimately the law in crypto, as in this thing that was pre-designed from the get-go, takes place without anybody having to push a button.”
The executive hopes that when the larger community outside crypto sees this, they will become more curious about different networks and how they interact with the code and users.
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