When Satoshi Nakamoto released his blockchain whitepaper in 2009, he was not aware of the digital currency revolution that his endeavors would kick-start during the next decade. Litecoin followed Bitcoin, and then came Ripple and Ethereum, which were followed, by hundreds of other digital currencies that currently have a market capitalization of over $200 billion. Therefore, when we talk about the potential of bitcoin alone, we have to look at multiple factors since it is not the only digital currency anymore.
Cryptocurrencies have not experienced smooth sailing as a number of nation-states have attempted to halt the progress through the introduction of new laws, regulations, and compliance terms. A few countries have banned any type of crypto trading outright. Considering all these factors raises the question of whether the future of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies holds any promise.
Does Crypto Have A Future?
Observing and evaluating the price movement, popularity, and demand and supply dynamics of different cryptocurrencies has made it quite clear that digital currencies are here to stay. Will they experience setbacks? Yes. Maybe those setbacks will even eliminate some digital currencies that do not have a huge of market share but more established coins like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Monero, Litecoin, and more will be able to deal with these setbacks and come out stronger.
Why? Because over the last few years, popular cryptocurrencies have invested in the underlying infrastructure and technical innovation to bring versatility to their digital coins and assets. This means that crypto coins are no longer one-dimensional.
Versatility in Applications
When bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were first introduced, they were merely considered an alternative to your conventional fiat currency. That was also one of the reasons why they did not see a surge of popularity right from the word go. Apart from that, the process of acquiring, storing, and selling cryptocurrencies was quite challenging for everyday people. Using fiat money seemed much more convenient. This meant that the popularity and adoption of the currencies remained limited to technology enthusiasts.
Ten years later, everything has changed. Digital currencies have gone through a multitude of technological modifications to make digital currencies more appealing for an average person. For starters, they are not just an alternative to conventional money but can be utilized to power smart contracts, decentralized applications, and blockchains. Crypto trading has also become one of the most popular investment tools along with stocks, forex, and commodities. Digital coins do not only hold value but their prices are quite responsive to a number of factors making them an ideal trading or investment carrier.
Smart Contracts & Decentralized Apps (dApps)
Bitcoin utilized blockchain to solve the double-spending problem and saw it as an opportunity to create the first alternative digital currency. However, the cryptocurrencies that came along later explored the technology even more to identify blockchain’s immense potential. Since the technology was not controlled by any central authority such as the nation-state, government, or organization, crypto inventors like Vitalik Buterin saw the opportunity to utilize the untapped potential.
Ethereum blockchain was introduced which could run smart contracts to execute certain actions given the specified conditions are fulfilled. Today, Ethereum is used for almost all initial coin offerings (ICOs). After Ethereum demonstrated the endless possibilities, many cryptos were introduced that can be used to develop and run decentralized applications including games and social networks without having to deal with any central authority like Apple Store or Google’s Play Store. These apps cannot be censored or intercepted by anyone once they are live on the blockchain.
Market Resilience of Cryptocurrencies
Introduction of blockchain and bitcoin was met with a lot of skepticism and within a few years, many critics, especially those invested in the status quo financial system, had written it off. Despite the hostility and friction, Bitcoin was able to hit the $1,000 in 2011-2012 that was short-lived as the price crashed once again. This gave another opportunity to naysayers to downplay and underestimate the innovation and potential of blockchain technology. However, we have witnessed every now and then how bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have developed a robust market armor, which keeps them relevant.
Over the last few years, bitcoin crashed down to $3,000 mark only to bounce back and get close to the $10,000 ceiling once again. This market resilience shows that bitcoin and other digital currencies are not just a bubble, which will burst. They are backed by trust, technology, and genuine supply and demand, which dictate the prices. Yes, their prices are more volatile as compared to conventional stocks, foreign currencies, and commodities, but that is only because digital currencies are not controlled by governments and their central authorities. These fluctuations truly mirror the market sentiment and dynamics.
Adoption by Big Industry Players & State Institutions
As mentioned before, at the time bitcoin was introduced, many financial and economic pundits were not too keen in terms of realizing the true potential of bitcoin and its underlying technology. They were of the view that just like many other digital trends like the Dotcom bubble and Myspace, bitcoin will also turn out to be only a hyped-up illusion with little to no practical benefits. They were also apprehensive about the consequences of true decentralization and transparency in an established industry. Some of the concerns related to criminal activity funding and money laundering were genuine but most of the objections were simply fear, uncertainty, and doubts (FUD).
In the last ten years, one of the most impactful changes we have seen is how the attitude of the same stakeholders has completely changed. In part, this is due to the technological revolution that we are experiencing all over the globe and some part of the credit goes to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies themselves as they have evolved to become a more practical and versatile solution to real-life problems. This is why financial and tech industry giants like JP Morgan, Swissquote, IBM, and Microsoft have invested in the blockchain movement along with some nation-state banks as well including Sweden, China, and Saudi Arabia. This has given more legitimacy and credibility for the future bitcoin growth.
Which Cryptocurrency Will Be the Best Future Investment?
We all know how unpredictable and volatile bitcoin and other digital assets can be. This is why it is not easy to predict the future of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Ethereum with guaranteed success. However, there are certain factors you can look at including enhanced adoption rate, technological upgrades, and the increasing interest of financial and tech institutions, which can positively affect the prices in the future.
- Bitcoin
Starting from May of this year, bitcoin blockchain will reduce the mining reward by 50% with miners getting 6.25 BTC for their computational investment instead of 12.5 BTC. Having said that, the saturation of bitcoin will also contribute towards establishing the currency as the clearly dominant player with 70-75% of the market share. With such a huge capitalization rate in terms of sheer value, this will drive the price growth not only in 2020 but beyond as well. Bitcoin is also introducing Lightning Network which will make its blockchain a more efficient and robust tool for micropayments, decentralized apps, and e-commerce stores.
- Ethereum
With ETH 2.0 update to be rolled out in the coming months, Ethereum is set to move to a proof of stake method of verifying transactions, which will be more efficient and environment-friendly, compared to the more resource-intensive proof of work procedure. Ethereum has already become the de facto standard for creating and executing smart contracts, especially for ICOs and this move is only going to pace up the adoption rate. This is most likely going to have a positive impact on the price.
- Ripple
Ripple has been one of the standouts in the crypto sphere with its unique approach of working with the established financial system to bring the change. This blockchain has been designed to empower banking infrastructure for more affordable and quick international payments. Ripple has seen exceptional success in terms of striking partnership deals with numerous financial institutions including Western Union. They are planning to replace the currently prevalent SWIFT system to slash the cost and time of large and international transactions. That being said, Ripple may not be the best bet for quick profits as the price is likely to stay under $0.8 mark in 2020. However, for long-term returns, it is one of the safest bets around.
- EOS
EOS has been successful in addressing the scalability issues that Ethereum blockchain has been dealing with for years. This makes the particular blockchain a viable alternative of Ethereum, especially if it fails to deliver with the ETH 2.0 update. In the event of tech giants like Uber, Twitter, and Amazon making a decision to move to a blockchain, EOS is going to be on top of their priority list since it uses a consensus algorithm based on delegated proof of ownership (DPoS). It is not only technologically more advanced but provides the scalability and efficiency the workload of technology giants will need.
- NEO
NEO is often a part of every potential crypto investment list. It is the first open-source blockchain to come out of China and one of the primary objectives of the coin is to revolutionize the conventional financial system by combining both real and digital assets. It offers a distinct trading method called Superconduct, which enables users to send and receive their funds through a decentralized channel. It offers a genuine application, which has kept the cryptocurrency relevant in the last few years. Keep an eye out for NEO as it may be holding an ICO soon.
What Will Bitcoin Be Worth In 2030?
The recent edition of Crypto Research Report (CRR) has revealed a comprehensive analysis of the price performance of different cryptocurrencies in the next ten years. This includes bitcoin as well for which, the report has used the equation of exchange model to make predictions. The model employs the ratio of the total addressable market or TAM, which provides an estimation about the future price of a crypto asset.
CRR researchers evaluated and assessed all the potential addressable markets as well as variables to conclude that bitcoin price will rise to $19,000 by the end of 2020. Moreover, the price of the first cryptocurrency is expected to hit the $340,000 mark by 2025. Then the growth will slow down to an average of $10,000 per annum, as the bitcoin price will close in on $400,000 ceiling by the end of 2030.
According to CRR researchers, the TAM consists of a variety of factors including the unit of account, consumer loans, medium of exchange, funds reserved, offshore accounts, micropayments, online transactions, value storage, remittances, crypto trading, STO funding, ICO funding, and more. According to the CRR research team:
“We believe that bitcoin is still at the very start of its adoption curve. The price of $7,200 at the end of 2019 suggests that bitcoin has penetrated less than 0.44% of its total addressable markets. If this penetration manages to reach 10%, its non-discounted utility price should reach nearly $400,000.”
Final Word
Whether you are just a cryptocurrency newbie or a seasoned professional, it is evident from the available evidence that bitcoin along with some other alt coins are only just starting to push forward. Their true potential is still untapped and once the reducing technological limitations are out of the way, we are going to witness hockey stick growth charts for bitcoin and probably many other cryptocurrencies. Many enthusiasts see the price today and think this is too high to buy in but the fact is, even with some downward fluctuations, bitcoin is going to bounce back and we do not know when it is going to aim for the stratosphere.
As a savvy bitcoin aficionado, you need to be careful to not miss out on the investment opportunity of a lifetime when it is still up for grabs. The best time to invest in bitcoin was 10 years ago; the second-best time is now!
Content Source: https://icoda.io/blog/the-future-of-crypto/
Disclaimer: This content is distributed by ICODA. No Today New Spot journalist/editors is involved in the creation of this content.
