At this point, Bitcoin has been declared dead over 200 times. Along with the obituaries, some have compared the cryptocurrency to the tulip bulb crisis, the dot.com bubble and others have claimed that it was solely the tool of drug dealers and illicit transactions. I’ve had more than one barside discussion trying to illustrate that crypto and the blockchain is in fact not a Ponzi scheme and that blockchain as a technology is only in its infancy. It could be that people are resistant to change, choosing to believe that the systems we presently live in are immutable would be easier. But as Bitcoin continues to soar past the 13,000 dollar mark, I thought I’d take the liberty of sharing with you all some justifications as to why the blockchain is here to stay, and why 2018 will be its biggest year yet.

Industries Need it

It’s not just banking. A quick search will show you over 30 different industries in which the blockchain is disrupting the system. These aren’t trivial tasks, they range from everything from Identity verification, to healthcare, to security, to power, recruitment and even to how we participate in our democracies. As technology has continued to accelerate at an exponential rate many of our institutions are operating on systems that haven’t been updated for generations and the blockchain allows these institutions to find a cheaper, more transparent, infallible way to enact and protect their policies. While certainly not everything is meant to be on the blockchain, it’s safe to say we’ve only scratched the surface of its capacity to bring value to the real world.

Riding the wave

Everything has a lifecycle, and with products and platforms it generally looks like the graph shown below.

Presently according to bitinfocharts.com there are over 23,157,227 active Bitcoin wallets. This is not a precise number of the total unique wallets of all crypto users but let’s run with it. Let’s say in the future digital currencies have won and have replaced traditional currencies. There are 7.6 billion people presently alive and out of that 7.6b, 3.2b have access to the internet. Assuming that this number is the potential of crypto users, by matching this against the total number of active wallets, it’s easy to see that less than 1% of the potential is engaged in cryptocurrency. This means that we are still very much in the global 2.5% ‘innovators stage’ of the product life cycle and that despite the aggressive rise in the price of Bitcoin this train hasn’t even left the station yet.

Moby Dick(s)

Despite the claims of illegitimacy, the total cryptocurrency market cap from the beginning of 2017 to now has risen over 1500% from a whopping 20 billion up to 300 billion. What’s more is that this is only a drop in the bucket when you compare it to, say gold or some other commodities. Some experts, such as billionaire Mike Novagrats have even expressed their belief that by the end of 2018 the total market cap could be in the trillions.

At this juncture, while some accredited investors have participated in ICOs, the vast majority of the financial markets have held off from blockchain investment, until recently. Now those big kahunas are beginning to take notice. NASDAQ along with CME have both announced they intend to open futures exchanges for Bitcoin and in some circumstances Ethereum which is intended to be open as soon as spring 2018. TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington has announced that he is seeking 100 million dollars for a crytpo hedge fund under the name “Arrington XRP Capitol,” that intends to do its investing solely in the crypto market using another renowned cryptocurrency Ripple’s XRP.

Ripple is another great example of how institutions are adapting to the changing technological tides. This year alone Ripple has grown its portfolio of banks to over 150 with the intention that these large bodies use the XRP token for the fast and secure transacting of large scale funds.

Can you Ride the Bull?

Even if you’re still skeptical about the value of blockchain, it doesn’t take a hard look to see the demand for it is on the rise. Around the globe people and businesses are preparing for a major boom in blockchain adoption. Imagine if you could have gotten in on Apple before the iPhone? Or gold or Amazon? Now may be the biggest financial revolution of our lifetime and you can either climb aboard, or watch from the sidelines.