Just how high can the value of Bitcoin go? That’s a matter of debate, but if your name happens to be Chris Dixon, then your most optimistic answer would be “really, really high”.

As far as the Andreessen Horowitz venture capitalist is concerned, the cryptocurrency is only in its infancy, and it’s value should sky-rocket as it steadily goes mainstream. For the last few weeks its been hovering just around the $1,000 mark, but Dixon is one of many who’re optimistic that Bitcoin’s fate is on an upward trajectory that could see it’s value shoot far north of where it’s currently at.

Speaking to Wired.com earlier today, Dixon said that a single Bitcoin could one day climb to a dizzying $100,000 – although that would only happen if the digital money was to become as popular as something like PayPal is now. That’s not to say it’s going to happen anytime soon. Rather, Bitcoin’s evolution will be a slow one, as its economy is extremely underdeveloped at this moment, especially when compared to the economies of nation states.

Dixon draws a comparison between Bitcoin and web domains back in the 1990s. In the early years of the web, few people saw any value in a domain name, yet these days some domains are worth millions of dollars.

“It would have been absurd to say in 1993 that domain names were worth $10m each,” said Dixon to Wired.

Back in the day, it was possible to pick up just about any domain name you wanted for a couple of bucks, but nowadays its very common for startups to shell out thousands for the domain they want. Of course, the analogy with domain names doesn’t quite fit with Bitcoin. There are millions of domain names which are practically worthless – only the catchy ones or those matching famous brands tend to rake in the millions. Bitcoins meanwhile, are exactly the same and will always have the same value.

Still, there’s plenty that needs to happen before Bitcoin can really hit the mainstream and threaten to make all those early adopters into billionaires. The cryptocurrency will need to become as widely accepted as credit cards or PayPal, and we’re going to have to hope the governments don’t throw any hurdles in the way. As we’ve seen in China recently, not all governments are so keen on the idea of having an unregulated currency suddenly becoming extremely popular with their citizens.

Even so, Dixon argues that governments won’t have much of a say if consumers and the business community really wants to use Bitcoin. Once its popularity reaches a certain point, politicians and regulators will simply have to find a way to live with it.

Dixon isn’t just sold on Bitcoin just as an investment, he’s also putting Andreessen Horowitz’s money where his mouth is. Recently, he led the firm’s $25 million investment in Coinbase, the first Silicon Valley Bitcoin-related firm to receive a large VC round, and he’s been meeting with Bitcoin companies almost since the day he joined Andreessen Horowitz about a year ago.

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