The Cryptocurrency Revolution
Yes, everyone is talking about it.
One in a thousand has heard about it.
But only one in a million adults has invested in it.
That’s cryptocurrency!
Let us start by watching a recent video about the cryptocurrency revolution from YouTube:
The futures of both blockchain technology and of crytocurrencies are clear. They are here to stay. They will have tremendous effects on our lives within our lifetime, some put it as quickly as within the next five to ten years.
Stefan Thomas, in an article dated December 26th 2017 in www.coindesk.com, predicted the five phenomenons in the coming year concerning cryptocurrencies. The first four are of most significance to us common people and these are described below:
(1) Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) of hybrid blockchains will fizzle out. I can understand this phenomenon for one and only one reason - once you have a board a directors in any concern, there will be conflicts of interests that have to be resolved, many times to the detriment of the investors.
(2) Financial institutions will adopt digital assets. Already there are many over-the-counter trading of digital assets in exchanges such as the Chicago Board Options Exchange. Japan and Phillipines have let the way in the recognition of crytocurrencies or ‘virtual money’ as Japanese authority prefers to call it.
(3) Blockchains will start to inter-operate. Bitcoin’s share of the cryptocurrency market has dropped from 87 percent to under 50 percent with new additions of cryptocurrencies like ethereum, ripple and litecoin. A day will come when all recognised cryptocurrencies will be inter-changeable and inter-operationable.
(4) There will be the birth of hybrid blockchains spanning both the public blockchains like bitcoin and the private blockchains like Hyberledger Fabirc. In fact, we may even find some specialised blockchains for specialised industries as one size or one type does not fit all purposes.
Now come to another important issue to be addressed, here and now.
With so many hard cash buying up such ‘virtual currencies’ and with the common people slowly moving towards a cashless environment in trading or, dare we ponder this, in getting their monthly salaries (in bitcoins say), where will the Government of the day find enough hard cash to build the infrastructures we need? How would incomes be taxed? How would ACC (Accident Compensation Commission) be financed?
Shouldn’t the current Government of the day, be thinking seriously about such issues before it is too late?
Finally, there are readers who may want to do their own investigations on cryptocurrencies before plunging into investing or (more appropriately speculating) on them. The following five most popular cryptocurrencies in the market are briefly described hereunder. Try googling these names before plunging into the cryptocurrency game.
Bitcoin (BTC): This is the first and largest cryptocurrency that paved the way for hundred of similar currencies that follow. This was created by an unknown group of inventors using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. There is a limit to the number of bitcoins available in total as the algorithm releases bitcoins into the market from year to year. This limit is believed to be 21 million US$.
Ethereum (ETH): This is the world’s second largest currency created by Russian programmer Vitalik Buterin. This has been labeled as the “next bitcoin” and it has additional features incorported in its algorithm, meant to offset and to improve on bitcoin, a safer hack-free environment being one of such features. Ethereum has received international recognition as giant organisations such as Microsoft and Intel are said to render support to it.
Litecoin (LTC): This cryptocurrency designed by former Google engineer Charles Lee is said to have improved upon bitcoin’s technology. It is the first cryptocurrency to implement SegWit, a method of speeding up tranaction times without compromising the underlying blockchain technology.
Dash (DASH): This cryptocurrency is focussed on instant transactions and on its owner’s privacy. It is developed by software programmer Evan Duffield. As Dash has infrastructures that enables much faster transaction time than other currencies, it can display a much higher liquidity than its counterparts.
Ripples (XRP): This is perhaps the most widely adopted cryptocurrency created by American programmer Jed McCaleb to enable financial institutions to exchange different virtual currencies such as frequent flyer miles. It is used by many well-known brands including the Bank of America and the Swiss global financial company UBS AG. It is therefore highly liquid and is in constant demand.
https://medium.com/the-naked-founder/2020-predictions-from-2017-617893fffdda
Read Prediction # 3 in the above twitter entry from Simone Brunozzi