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Do Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies Have a Future?
The debate continues to rage and shift and change, whether Bitcoin and the general cryptocurrency space has a future or not. Some say it is a bubble, some say that the bubble has popped, others believe it is a hobby, a plaything, a toy.
However, just as sentiment has evolved around this emerging space that has the potential to do some serious disrupting, so has its uptake, perceptions and adoption. There is enough serious evidence to suggest they indeed have a future, and some smart people and companies are trying to be part of that future.
Predicting the future of Bitcoin is as difficult as predicting its price, but, looking at the general trend of understanding and uptake, it is hard to say there is no future. However, there is still a strong point of argument to say that the future is smaller than expected, or even is a short-lived one.
A negative viewpoint
Through Bitcoin’s brief history, and even more so in its recent history and rise to prominence, it has faced a number of detractors. From economists to CEOs and Wall Street types, as well as governments and regulators, Bitcoin has been called everything from a scam to a dead asset.
The most recent attack has come in the form of a full frontal assault from renowned economist ‘Dr. Doom’ Nouriel Roubini. The man who predicted the 2008 economic crisis has again come out harshly against Bitcoin, having called it a scam that would not make anyone any money more than four years ago.
A lot of his vitriol is based around poor sentiment from regulators, the fact that it is not centralized and that the ecosystem is full of scams and scammers. However, the sentiment is changing, the ecosystem is changing, and even the regulators are making progress with their understanding of the space and how it fits into the system.
Essentially, most of the negativity is based around a perception or a viewpoint. Currently, the cryptocurrency market falls from its highs of December to now being touted as the death knell, but, again, that is merely a perception.
In fact, if one takes a step back, that perception is also flawed as the Bitcoin market is still up in a big way over the last five, even two years.
Positive evidence
On the other hand, when looking at the potential future of Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and even Blockchain, there are plenty of recent developments that are hard to argue against. These advancements are suggestive of a more mainstream level of adoption that includes people like Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Jack Dorsey, as well as companies like Amazon, Starbucks, Goldman Sachs and Fidelity.
In a Medium article titled ‘Why Bitcoin and Crypto Have No Future’ a list of 40 pieces of positive evidence are put forward and suggest the future is, in fact, quite bright for the space.
Finance
The NYSE is creating the cryptocurrency trading platform Bakkt in collaboration with Microsoft and Starbucks with physically backed Bitcoin futures contracts.
Fidelity is offering crypto to its clients and has been mining it since 2015.
Jamie Dimon tells all that it Bitcoin is a “fraud” and that if he catches any employees who own it, he would fire them, while in the background JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley bought Bitcoin ETNs on the dip.
George Soros initially bashed cryptocurrencies only to later buy a stack of Bitcoin at the $6k low.
Goldman-Sachs backed Circle launched a crypto finance company.
Square’s Cash App allowed users to buy and sell Bitcoin.
Organizations
Rockefeller-owned Venrock is investing in cryptocurrency.
Overstock.com is going full-on crypto.
Coinbase is valued at $8 bln.
The founder of YouTube and the founder of Twitch are advising Theta Token (THETA).
Bitmain is on track for $10 bln in revenue this year after around $4 bln last year.
Binance made more in profit in Q2 2018 than Deutsche Bank.
Alibaba and IBM have the most Blockchain patents in the world.
Yale’s endowment invested $400 mln in cryptoasset funds.
Blockchains, LLC bought 60,000 acres for their company that will incubate and innovate Ethereum-based Blockchain ventures.
Plastic Bank is helping those in developing countries earn cryptocurrency while also curing plastic ocean pollution — I know you’ve seen those IBM commercials.
Robinhood offers the purchase of cryptos commission-free.
Pop-culture
Katy Perry’s Instagram had her showing of cryptocurrency nail art
The MLB is launching a crypto-based game on the Blockchain using the ERC-721 standard for non-fungible tokens.
The NFL purchased a stake in Blockchain startup SportsCastr.
The NBA has gone crypto as the Sacramento Kings mine Ethereum, Bitmain sponsors the Houston Rockets, and former commissioner David Stern backs FanChain.
Powerful people
Steve Wozniak is co-founding a cryptoasset investment firm.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is utilizing Ripple’s interledger protocol to help with payment services for the financially impoverished and unbanked.
The Winklevoss twins took $11 mln of their Facebook money and put it into Bitcoin in 2013 when it was $120 each.
John McAfee bets his manhood that Bitcoin is going to the moon.
Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square, thinks Bitcoin is the currency of the future.
Richard Branson thinks Bitcoin will bring an economic revolution.
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian is betting on Bitcoin as a hedge to economic crises.
The co-founder of Wikipedia is now working on its decentralized counterpart Everipedia (IQ).
Akon is launching his own cryptocurrency Akoin to help bring security to the currency system in Africa.
Ashton Kutcher donated $4 mln in XRP to Ellen DeGeneres’ charity by transferring it to her in a matter of seconds.
Chamath Palihapitiya, co-owner of the Golden State Warriors, invested early in Bitcoin and thinks it’s going to $1 mln per coin.
Steve Bannon is betting on Bitcoin and launching his own cryptocurrency.
Bill Clinton spoke at the Swell Conference in support of Ripple and Blockchain technology.
Former Trump aide and Goldman Sachs exec Gary Cohn is joining a Blockchain startup.
Technology
Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript and Mozilla, started Brave Browser with a built-in ad-blocker and Basic Attention Token (BAT) to reward content creators.
Amazon Web Services partnered with QTUM.
IBM is partnering with Stellar Lumens (XLM) for cross-border payment solutions.
Is there a future?
It is easy to debate against sentiment and opinion, especially in the future, but a lot harder when there is groundwork being put in across the globe and across different sectors to suggest there is indeed a future.
People can bash Bitcoin because it is easy. The cryptocurrency space is very new and is still finding its feet, but its grounding seems to be getting bigger with more and more well-known people, organizations and businesses getting involved.
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