Bitcoin Will Become World’s ‘Single Currency’: Dorsey

One of Silicon Valley's most influential entrepreneurs made a bold statement this week regarding the future of bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. The CEO of both Twitter Inc. (TWTR) and Square Inc. (SQ) expects the digital coin to overtake the dollar in importance as it becomes the leading currency of the internet within just 10 years. 

“The world ultimately will have a single currency, the internet will have a single currency. I personally believe that it will be bitcoin,” said the computer programmer turned multibillionaire in an interview with the Times of London.  

Dorsey has already been an outspoken proponent of the decentralized technology, recently joining a consortium of backers that invested $2.5 million into Lighting Labs, a startup with the goal of increasing blockchain transaction speeds and reducing costs. That's just the beginning of Dorsey's personal stake in the trajectory of the cryptocurrency space, at the helm of both social media giant Twitter and digital payments and merchant services platform Square. 

Bullish on Blockchain

On the one hand, as tech giants such as Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) and Facebook Inc. (FB) ban crypto ads to combat major fraud on their platforms, Twitter has faced heightened pressure to do the same. Yet Dorsey also has to keep in mind Square, which recently surpassed Twitter in total market value for the first time, as the company is expected to thrive on crypto payments. The Street has applauded the addition of simple bitcoin transactions into Square's Cash App, while Dorsey has promised to add more bitcoin-related functionality in the future. (See also: Bitcoin Price Climbs Amid Twitter Cryptocurrency Ban Rumors.)

“It’s slow and it’s costly, but as more and more people have it, those things go away. There are newer technologies that build off of blockchain and make it more approachable,” Dorsey said, suggesting that bitcoin “does not have the capabilities right now to become an effective currency.”

Dorsey's comments ad to the polarizing debate between some of the biggest names in the tech and finance world over the prospects for digital currencies, with bitcoin at the center of the discussion. High-profile investors such as Peter Thiel and the Winklevoss twins have offered bullish outlooks on bitcoin, expecting its price to surge as high as $320,000. Others, such as Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s (BRK.A) Warren Buffet and his long-time business partner Charlie Munger, have told investors to avoid the digital coin "like the plague" and expect it to crash to zero. (See also: Square to Soar on Crypto Potential, Says Bulls.)

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