Emerge for Crypto in a Digital World
What Does the Future Hold for Cryptocurrency?
In the space of a year, public perception of cryptocurrency has gone in different directions. After hitting massive highs at the beginning of 2018, followers have become sceptical. Consequently, prices across the board have seen a massive drop.
It leads many, bullish or bearish, to ask what the future of cryptocurrency is going to look like. Is it a bubble that is slowly deflating? Or is it something more concrete that will stick around for the long term?
The hype may be gone, but the tech remains.
Follow Tech, Not Hype
It’s easy to forget that cryptocurrency was born as a tech revolution. The excitement over what blockchain tech and cryptocurrency offers became drowned out by the hype, and everyone trying to get in on crypto as a get rich quick scheme. But where lambos and yacht parties don’t last, the foundation of crypto remains the same.
With the hype dying down, tech is coming back to the fore. Those who were in it for the short-term exit the scene, but just as many are hard at work advancing the reach of blockchain technology.
Ripple is providing solutions for the legacy banking sector. Binance is building an alternative to banks and coins like Bitcoin, Litecoin and Monero are presenting a new option for digital cross-border payments.
Dash is even providing an alternative option for physical merchants in struggling South American economies. Over 4900 merchants worldwide have adopted Dash for everyday payments.
It’s long been predicted that institutional money will enter into cryptocurrency and spark another bull run. Thus far, the hype has held big-money investors wary. Yet, seeing real-world blockchain and crypto use could encourage the whales to come aboard. Especially with the rise in popularity of the super bitcoin, which is fast gaining momentum as competition in this area increases.
All it takes for influential players to buy into crypto is a little momentum. The most likely source will come from wider use of the tech behind cryptocurrency.
If you take trading out of the equation, the world is set up for crypto to have a real impact.
The way we live is becoming digital. More brick-and-mortar businesses are struggling to stay afloat; most are forced out by ecommerce businesses with lower overhead and higher convenience. Amazon’s incredible growth is front and centre of the changing landscape of business this century.
Streaming services like Netflix and Spotify dominate entertainment today, as well as user-generated content such as that Twitch and Youtube.
It is inevitable that finance will follow the trend of digitization. Thus cryptocurrency is positioned to play an important role for businesses. There’s a real reason to prefer digital currencies for everyday digital use cases. Examples could be micropayments on streaming platforms and payments for internationally-operating ecommerce businesses.
As more people use crypto over banks and fiat currencies, the financial sector will be faced with a choice – adopt cryptocurrency or be left behind. Institutions are already beginning to move, with J.P. Morgan Chase moving to create their own coin.
Where before traditional finance study made sense, people young and old today might consider a cryptocurrency course for career development that fits in with the world of tomorrow. At least a basic knowledge of crypto and blockchain is going to be a prerequisite for anyone in business.
Banks and Crypto Must Work Together
The future of cryptocurrency is not going to be a direct replacement for banks and legacy financial systems. There is too much invested in the financial systems of today. Likewise, crypto technology has too much to offer banks for the sector to treat cryptocurrency as a threat.
Instead of direct competition between crypto and banks, it is likely to be a combination of the two. Banks will come on board and institutional investors will come on board. When this happens, crypto is sure to be an integral part of the financial landscape.
2019 is a pivotal year for crypto. If the tech continues to move forward, and organizations such as Binance, Ripple and Dash continue to push crypto as a superior digital solution, expect significant mainstream traction. Traction will come from the underlying codebase, not from shills and bulls.