BitMEX Founder Arthur Hayes has made a prediction that a booming sector of technology could lead to a substantial surge in Bitcoin's value. Hayes believes that artificial intelligence (AI) will be a driving force behind Bitcoin's meteoric rise in the next decade. According to him, AI will naturally gravitate towards blockchain technology due to its transparency and unalterable rules, which make it less susceptible to manipulation by a single entity.
Hayes argues that AI, being a non-human entity, faces the risk of being de-platformed and desires a digital payments system with clear and transparent rules that are applied universally. He asserts that a suitable payments system for AI must be censorship-resistant from the beginning, which can only be achieved through a public or private blockchain. Bitcoin, in his view, fits this criteria, as it is digital, censorship-resistant, potentially scarce, and its value is dependent on electricity costs.
Moreover, Hayes suggests that AI will drive economic growth in the coming years, and he presents a model that indicates AI could contribute 5% to 50% of the global GDP within the next decade. If the AI economy relies on Bitcoin as its core payments system, Hayes predicts that Bitcoin's price could skyrocket to $760,591, representing a potential increase of 2,410% from its current price of $30,301.
Hayes emphasizes that the market will be willing to pay a premium for Bitcoin network growth if there is a possibility that his assumptions about AI and Bitcoin's role are true in the future. He believes that the greatest profits are made when the market shifts from considering something as impossible to seeing it as a potential reality.