Atlas Outlook 2022

Web3 Chapter Author: Atlas Research Team

1. In essence, BTC is a distributed computing network which can support more applications beyond only“asset transfer” purposes

BTC is often considered to be a highly liquid asset or a “currency”, but essentially it is a distributed computing network. As technology evolves, the underlying network of bitcoin can provide more than just computing services of “asset transfer”. Its gigantic scale of computing power, robustness, and decentralized nature allow it to provide secure verification services for a wider range of applications. For example, there are many start-ups, working on establishing decentralized internet browsers, data storage applications on top of the computing network.

2. BTC is a prototype for the future distributed computing network and it is the basis of Web 3.0 infrastructure.

In addition to supporting a wider range of applications, BTC computing, more importantly, shall be seen as a viable prototype of future distributed computing networks. For example, future applications of the Metaverse are unlikely to be built on current cloud computing networks - which are more vulnerable to cyber-attacks and by their very centralized nature are controlled by a select group of companies. Distributed computing networks are an extension of distributed ledger technology, which enables a multi-vs-multi economic relationship. The security robustness and stability of the BTC network has been proven sound over the past few years. Atlas believes such a network is an important building block of Web 3.0 and moreover will inspire more distributed computing networks to be built.

3. The BTC network is in fact a highly energy efficient network, far exceeding the energy efficiency of traditional financial networks

BTC has often been criticised for consuming too much energy, but this assessment is often misguided. When compared with traditional finance payment networks which are still operating on legacy infrastructure. We can see that that traditional finance remains insecure and extraordinarily inefficient. For instance, to process the same number of transactions, the BTC network can retain more copies of transaction records, hold a longer transaction history, and complete the transactions in a fraction of the time, all the while consuming less energy in the process.

4. BTC is an accelerator of innovation and emerging technologies, stimulating new chip design, and renewable energy technology

BTC computing, as a dedicated computing application for fixed algorithms, has all participants committed to a common goal – to seek for extreme efficiency – due to its incentive mechanism and business model. The direct consequence of extreme efficiency has been to drive the development of chip technology. In fact, BTC computing has been the first large-scale adopter of advanced semi-conductor processors, whether from 16nm to 7nm, 7nm to 5nm and possibly in the future to 3nm or even more advanced processes.

In addition to this, as BTC computing's computing is continuously running, it is not only in great demand for energy companies but is also able to use energy consistently. This means miners are valuable customers for energy companies. An interesting fact is that BTC computing, because of its flexibility, has the option to briefly turn off some of its servers during peak grid hours, thus releasing a large supply of electricity back to the grid. This enhances stability of the electricity system and increases BTC miners’ profitability.

As visionary as these outlooks may appear, they are in fact very current in their potential. Atlas is working in-house and with external partners to better understand the value add that we can provide the BTC network. 2022 will be the year that we tackle these purpose and conviction to grow the market and our market share at the same time.