Bitcoin could outperform payment networks like Visa, Mastercard or PayPal in the next 10 years. This concluded the software startup DataLight on 2 April.
In a study, the company compared growth in Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal with growth at Bitcoin. If the cryptocurrency continues to develop so rapidly, it will leave the competition behind in the next 10 years.
In the summary of the investigation, DataLight writes about how fast Bitcoin has grown in the last decade. “In just ten years, Bitcoin has managed to compete with the big players in the payments industry,” the company said.
“If Bitcoin evolves at the same pace, it will outperform its competitors in the next ten years.”
More nodes and low costs
DataLight substantiates this statement with the technical features of the cryptocurrency. For example, the digital coin has more nodes than Visa, MasterCard and PayPal. Nodes are the computers that control transfers in the network.
In addition to the Nodes, Bitcoin also has miners that combine transfers into transaction blocks. Bitcoin currently has around 10,000 active nodes, while Visa has only 119 data centers, for example.
This is understandable since Bitcoin is a decentralized payment system. In concrete terms, this means that there is no central administration that can control all transactions. The system is maintained by the consumers themselves.
Also, the cost of a transfer in Bitcoin is currently lower than Visa or Mastercard. However, it should be kept in mind that the cost of a Bitcoin transfer depends on how many transactions are to be sent at the time.
New options such as the Lightning network should help. The Lightning network puts less strain on the Bitcoin transaction network, which can keep transaction costs low.