Jeff Booth, author of The Price of Tomorrow, doesn't know what the world looks like in 2036. He said so directly to Bitcoin Magazine. The more useful observation he offered was this: the benefits of a Bitcoin-based system don't require waiting for a distant future. "It can exist for them right this second," Booth said. "The question is 'Do people move their time and energy to this new system?'"
That framing matters because Booth sees a spectrum of Bitcoin engagement, and the level at which someone operates determines what Bitcoin actually does for them. At one end are traders chasing quick gains. Few win long-term. Most lose.
A step up are those who treat Bitcoin as a store of value, a digital safe within existing financial structures. Booth sees a problem here: the asset stays trapped inside the broken monetary system instead of replacing it. "If bitcoin only remains a store of value, its ownership will continue to centralize over time," he told the publication. Ownership concentrates. A Bitcoin elite emerges. Custodians hold the coins, and custodians get liquidated. Celsius and BlockFi were just rehearsals.
If bitcoin only remains a store of value, its ownership will continue to centralize over time,
Protocol or spectator
At the top of Booth's spectrum are those who see Bitcoin as a protocol. This view assumes Bitcoin exists in layers, each enabling easier and more private use as money. It requires accepting that you, not some future arbiter, create the conditions for systemic change through how you transact and build.
"It's only if you view Bitcoin through the protocol lens that the world will change for you," Booth said. "Every single other perspective relies on 'It's somebody else, not me.' But the last one says 'I create the future from my intention.'"
The catch is staying focused. Booth noted that quantum-computing FUD, hero worship of Bitcoin figures, and tribal debates like Core vs. Knots all serve as distractions. People hand over their agency to fear narratives or to personalities who frame Bitcoin as just another asset class or a way to rebuild debt-based finance on top of the protocol.
Building debt structures over Bitcoin mirrors the system Booth believes Bitcoin was designed to escape. His argument: eventually, if Bitcoin adoption spreads, prices will compress as the economic base of the network demands real value creation. Debt-holders who played financial games rather than building utility won't be able to service their loans. They'll be forced to distribute their coins or exit.
"If you talk about digital capital and digital assets or building a debt-based system on top of Bitcoin, you aren't viewing Bitcoin as a protocol," Booth explained. The protocol punishes zero-sum behavior at scale, not by design decree but by math. The question for 2036 isn't what the world looks like. It's whether enough people understand they have the power to shape it.