Is Bitcoin Really the Next Internet?

'Is bitcoin the next Internet?' seems to be the question behind news articles and passionate debates alike.

Entrepreneur and bitcoin advocate Marc Andreessen has most visibly made comparisons between the two, while CNBC reported that many more venture capitalists thought bitcoin could be 'as big as the Internet'.

How alike are bitcoin and the Internet, and what conclusions can we draw from the comparison?

Although bitcoin and the Internet are both decentralized, they serve rather distinct purposes.

Bitcoin simply isn't designed to function as the flexible infrastructure for a wide range of applications like the Internet is.

Systems designed with the bitcoin blueprint can be extremely specific in nature, or instead provide a backbone that can support as many programs and applications as human creativity can generate - much like the Internet and web.

If implemented into the bitcoin core code by the open-source community, it would enable anyone to create a side chain that can interact with the bitcoin block chain via two-way pegging.

Thanks to side chains, bitcoin could become a frictionless global payment system, and a platform for decentralized innovation all in one.

'Bitcoin is the next Internet' has been a useful slogan to gain mainstream attention, and underscore bitcoin's potential impact on the world.

Rather than the next Internet, bitcoin can become the next killer app for the Internet, much like the web before it.