PANews, November 1st news: As Bitcoin marks its 16th anniversary of the white paper release, Rena Shah of Trust Machines pointed out that Bitcoin is now not just 'digital gold,' but a core component of the global financial infrastructure. The Bitcoin ecosystem is approaching a critical turning point in 2024, including Layer 2 expansion, the popularity of Ordinals, and the accelerated entry of institutions. Bitcoin ETFs pushed by financial giants like BlackRock have attracted over $1.5 billion in inflows, marking Bitcoin's broad recognition by the traditional financial system.
Meanwhile, Layer 2 networks such as Lightning and the sBTC protocol of Stacks have brought decentralized liquidity and stronger scalability, further integrating Bitcoin into DeFi and traditional financial systems. Innovations like BitVM and the programmable features of OP_Cat are also enhancing Bitcoin's application potential, expanding its use cases in smart contracts and digital identity. Shah believes that the future development direction of Bitcoin lies in its role as the core underlying structure of decentralized finance, and in the face of institutional capital influx, the principle of Bitcoin's decentralization must still be upheld.
