Prominent angel investor Jason Calacanis argued that the crypto industry needs to “build a better Bitcoin.” He said that all technology gets replaced over time, and BTC will be no different.
The early investor in the ridesharing app Uber sparked some backlash from the Bitcoin community after saying BTC will inevitably be replaced by something better. The industry’s prominent executives also believe that there’s still room for a dominant layer-2 protocol to emerge on top of the Bitcoin network.
Jason Calacanis urges the crypto industry to “build a better Bitcoin”
All technology gets replaced over time… and bitcoin will be no different.
For intellectually honest #bitcoin maxis, what would a new protocol look like?
How would you restart the game?
— @jason (@Jason) March 14, 2025
The first investor in Athena, Jason Calacanis, has urged Bitcoiners worldwide to “build a better Bitcoin.” He believes that layer-2s can fill any functionality gaps in the digital asset.
“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!”
~ Jason Calacanis, prominent angel investor and internet entrepreneur.
The digital currency investor argued that all technology gets replaced over time and Bitcoin will be no different. He believes that people cornering the market will think his idea is foolish “while they donate to Trump to encourage more buying.”
Prominent founders and executives of Bitcoin-related companies strongly disagreed with Calacanis’ plan to build a better Bitcoin. Atlantis Polis President Christopher David said that Bitcoin wasn’t just “technology” anybody can replicate. He argued that BTC is sound money based on a once-in-a-lifetime invention of digital scarcity no one can replicate by definition.
David believes that Calacanis’ incentive is to attract someone building something he can “hype to midwest as ‘Bitcoin 2’ as if that hasn’t been tried 1000x.” He also highlighted that Calacanis had a lot of learning and unlearning to do first.
Steward of Catholic Bitcoin Pierre Rochard maintained that many had tried to replace SQL, but all had failed. He said that although SQL was 52 years old, technology like Bitcoin was a timeless language that slowly evolved and extended over time.
Crypto industry executives oppose Calacanis’ idea to create a better BTC
Swan Bitcoin co-founder Brady Swenson iterated that winning protocols like BTC don’t get replaced; they are built upon. He believed that digital currency would never be replaced as a protocol for value transfer, but the race was still on for the winning second layer protocol.
Cory Klippsten, the other co-founder of Swan Bitcoin, argued that Bitcoin is a technological revolution changing all industries, which doesn’t follow the adoption curve of a single technology like an iPad.
Engineer at Riot Games Gaston Silva said that, like the internet, there was no technology replacing it. Silva believes that the internet is similar to BTC, where you can add new protocols to BTC but can’t build a new global internet.
Bitcoin advocate Wayne Vaughan also argued that people wrongly assume the virtual asset is easily replaceable because they view it as just an asset, application, or platform. Vaughan believes that BTC is a network, and “the larger the network gets, the less likely it is for something else to replace it.”
Strive Funds CEO Matt Cole stated that “there will not be a better Bitcoin.” He doesn’t think that the crypto community will get occasional alt seasons of ever diminishing strength that will continue to make insiders money. Cole also believes that most people will end up with less BTC “by going to that casino.” He advised the crypto community to “HODL and get rich slowly.”
Co-founder and CTO of Swan Bitcoin Yan Pritzker also mentioned that every “better Bitcoin” already existed and all have failed. He argued that “crypto isn’t tech disruption; it’s monetary network effects.” Yan noted that BCH/BSV was invented with high TPS but failed; ZCash was also built to be more private than BTC but failed, too. He also highlighted that UnitedBitcoin promised better smart contracts and big blocks but followed the same fate. BTG also offered GPUs with “fair mining”, while BitcoinPOS promised proof-of-stake that saves energy, but all have failed too.
Calacanis’ comments also caused a similar debate in 2020, when he said that nearly all of the crypto projects around the world were under the control of “unqualified idiots” or “grifters” with below-average skills.
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