PANews reported on November 1 that as the Bitcoin white paper reached its 16th anniversary, Rena Shah of Trust Machines pointed out that Bitcoin is now not just "digital gold", but a core component of the global financial infrastructure. In 2024, the Bitcoin ecosystem will usher in a key turning point, including Layer 2 expansion, the popularity of Ordinals, and the accelerated entry of institutions. The Bitcoin ETF promoted by financial giants such as BlackRock has attracted more than $1.5 billion in capital inflows, marking the widespread recognition of Bitcoin by the traditional financial system.
At the same time, Layer 2 networks such as Lightning and Stacks' sBTC protocol have brought decentralized liquidity and stronger scalability, further integrating Bitcoin into DeFi and traditional financial systems. Innovations such as BitVM and OP_Cat's programmable functions are also enhancing Bitcoin's application potential and expanding its use cases in smart contracts and digital identities. Shah believes that the future development direction of Bitcoin lies in its core underlying structure as decentralized finance. In the face of the influx of institutional capital, Bitcoin's decentralized principles still need to be upheld.
