Uber angel investor stirs Bitcoin debate with 'build a better Bitcoin' remark

A technology investor who backed ridesharing app Uber in its early days has sparked backlash from the Bitcoin community after claiming Bitcoin will inevitably be replaced by something better.

“Bitcoin has been a wonderful game, but with a couple giant players cornering the market, the timing is right to “build a better Bitcoin” — restarting the game,” prominent angel investor and internet entrepreneur Jason Calacanis told his 981,600 X followers on March 14.

Calacanis, an early investor in Bitcoin-related companies like online trading platform Robinhood and Bitcoin startup Keza, said, “All technology gets replaced over time… and Bitcoin will be no different.”

Opportunity presents for Bitcoin layer-2 projects

Bitcoin (BTC) co-founders and executives were quick to push back, arguing that Bitcoin will not be replaced, though there’s still room for a dominant layer-2 protocol to emerge on top of the Bitcoin network.

Swan Bitcoin co-founder Brady Swenson said, “Winning protocols don’t get replaced; they are built upon.”

“Bitcoin will never be replaced as a protocol for value transfer. The race is still on for the winning second layer protocol,” Swenson said.

Swan’s other co-founder, Cory Klippsten, said, “Bitcoin is a technological revolution changing all industries, not following the adoption curve of a single technology like an iPad.”

Echoing a similar sentiment, Lightspark CEO David Markus said, “What it lacks in functionality can be built on L2s.”

“Trying to build a better Bitcoin is a fool’s errand.”

Meanwhile, ShapeShift CEO Eric Voorhees said Bitcoin’s limitations can be solved “on other chains.”

The bigger Bitcoin grows, the “less likely” it is to be replaced

Many in the industry have emphasized the importance of layer-2s for Bitcoin, as they provide use cases that the Bitcoin network cannot support, such as deploying smart contracts.

However, Muneeb Ali, co-founder of Stacks, recently told Cointelegraph that more than two-thirds of existing Bitcoin layer-2 projects will not exist within three years as their initial excitement will fade.

Bitcoin advocate Wayne Vaughan said people wrongly assume Bitcoin is easily replaceable because they see it as just an asset, application, or platform.

“I think of Bitcoin as a network. The larger the network gets, the less likely it is for something else to replace it,” Vaughan said in a March 15 X post.

Strive Funds CEO Matt Cole said, “There will not be a “better” Bitcoin. I do think we will get occasional alt seasons of ever diminishing strength that will continue to make insiders money. Most people will end up with less Bitcoin by going to that casino.”

This is not the first time that Calacanis’ comments have caused debate in the crypto industry.

In June 2020, Calacanis said that nearly all of the crypto projects around the world are under the control of “unqualified idiots” or “grifters” with below-average skills.

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