When it comes to crypto currency adoption, it’s all about hitting that critical mass tipping point. That is a point where the number of users becomes large enough that the true utility of the currency becomes apparent since you can now trade with a large number of users and no longer need to trade out to fiat. Take e-mail for instance. If only a few hundred people have e-mail, it’s not very useful. But as more and more people get access to email, eventually it reaches a tipping point where steady user growth suddenly goes parabolic. I believe we may see that parabolic growth as soon as 2018 with crypto currency.

Recently it was reported that eBay was very seriously considering accepting Bitcoin on their website for auctions. The reason this struck a chord with me is because it feels a little like history repeating itself. In 2002 eBay bought Paypal and made it their default payment method. This instantly grew the Paypal user base, and soon you could leave money in your Paypal account and spend it with other sellers and people without really needing to convert to fiat. Although you could get fiat, the number of goods and users which you buy or transact with Paypal was large enough that it wasn’t always necessary. You could simply stay in the Paypal ecosystem and spend and receive money. Now once again, we have eBay looking to do the same with Bitcoin. History could very well be repeating itself here.

I do feel that looking at the Paypal rate of adoption is very similar to how crypto adoption might look. For the younger readers out there, you may not know there was a time when if you asked someone if they had Paypal, they would say no. And often they said they didn’t trust it or know much about it. But quickly within about 2 years it was almost a household name and the adoption started going parabolic not long after that. Now virtually everyone has or has had a Paypal account.

I think the adoption of crypto may actually be even faster than Paypal simply because during the early days of Paypal, most people were still not even comfortable with on-line transactions. But today, people are very comfortable sending money via the internet. So that concern is removed which I believe will lead to faster adoption rates than what Paypal had. Not to mention, cryptos are going up in value for the most part, which makes them even more attractive. On top of all of that, cryptos like Bitcoin are already household names an are being talked about on TV and news shows all the time. Paypal did not have all this free publicity when they were launching.







Next is the recent announcement that Bitcoin Cash has partnered with Visa to put out a debit card that allows you to spend Bitcoin Cash. This is a native solution, which would immediately allow people to spend their Bitcoin Cash just like any other debit card. This is another huge step in ramping up adoption as anyone with crypto could simply exchange a portion of whatever coin they are holding for Bitcoin Cash, transfer it to their debit card and spend it just like fiat. Once again, you can stay in the crypto ecosystem without needing to cash out to fiat all the time.

I think all of these signs point to crypto currency adoption reaching a critical tipping point much faster than we may have imagined even just a year ago. It is very possible that with a few big merchants accepting crypto and a few solutions such as the Bitcoin Cash Visa card, it could all happen sometime in 2018.

Get ready.