Bitcoin [BTC] ETF will be sped up by Blockstream sidechain project, says Samson Mow

The CSO of Blockstream, Samson Mow, appeared in an interview earlier this week to speak about the state of Bitcoin [BTC]. He also provided predictions on the price and gave a potential timeline for the approval of a Bitcoin ETF.

He began by saying that investors look at Bitcoin from the perspective of a consumer, as an asset to buy and sell. However, Mow thinks that Bitcoin is like a “communication protocol”, similar to TCP/IP as used by the Internet today. He added that he thought there were a lot of possibilities for the protocol.

He spoke about the Lightning Network as a layer-2 solution for Bitcoin. Mow began by saying the first layer or the “main blockchain” has limitations, which are circumvented by layer-2 solutions. He stated:

“I am paying the most attention to a technique that uses an external source of Bitcoin blocks to operate on two layers. We are developing using ‘Lightning Network’ and ‘Side Chain’ technology. Investors tend to think of Bitcoin as a means of payment… I think we should focus on how much value to send per second rather than how many we can pay per second.”

Mow stated that Bitcoin is the only blockchain that can deliver the “most value in the fastest time”. Moreover, he stated:

“Bitcoin is the only blockchain that can deliver the most value in the fastest time. Other blockchains cannot transmit that much value. In terms of liquidity and universality, Bitcoin is still more useful than other blockchains. That’s why I’m not really worried about the technical aspect of Bitcoin.”

On the future price of Bitcoin, he stated that it will not be between $100000 and $200000 within the next 5 years, saying that it will depend on adoption by the general public. However, he went on to say:

“If Bitcoin is really adopted as a means of value transfer, more than that would be possible. People have started to realize that Bitcoin is a scarce asset.”

Speaking more about the digital scarcity that came along after the invention of Bitcoin, he stated:

“Until the invention of Bitcoin, whatever you have on digital, there was no concept of scarcity. Bitcoin has created a new concept of ‘scarcity of digital assets’. Bitcoin is still the safest asset among the existing coins.”

Moreover, he stated that numerous developers are developing technologies related to Bitcoin, thus making the future of Bitcoin “really bright”.

The United States Securities and Exchanges Commission [SEC] has been dicey on the approval for an exchange-traded fund based on Bitcoin. Mow gave his opinion on this, stating that more liquidity is required for the fund. He went on to say:

“We will soon launch a Bitcoin sidechain project. I think it will give some help to the Bitcoin’s liquidity supply. It will speed up the trading of Bitcoins between exchanges. These efforts will indirectly help deliver the Bitcoin’s liquidity, and as a result we will be able to speed up the launch of Bitcoin ETF.”

On the effect that the ETF will have on the price of Bitcoin, he said that it would be a “booster” as consumers can easily trade assets through an ETF. He said:

“The introduction of ETF will play a big role in the price increase of Bitcoin. I do not think the Bitcoin ETF approval is a matter of ‘if’. It’s just a matter of when. “