Today we are going to look through some of the majorly impactful social media and major tech moves towards blockchain and why I believe blockchain is here to stay and will flourish.

In this I go over the adoption of crypto-enabled ATMs, understanding BTC & LTC halvings, PewDiePie endorsing DLive, Facebook’s Libra blockchain, Ethereum 2.0, The IMF Learning Coin, and the increased adoption we are seeing among major tech companies.

The article doesn’t fit into the description so you can find the article here: https://www.minds.com/scottcbusiness/blog/blockchain-is-here-to-stay-and-flourish-994074102446415872

I previously wrote about blockchain entering a major growth period and since then we have seen even more progression for blockchain technologies as they continue to expand and innovate which you can read here:

https://www.minds.com/scottcbusiness/blog/blockchain-is-about-to-hit-a-major-growth-period-974794178197975040

I will bring up some of the major points from the previous blog and build on it as well.

The Adoption Of Crypto-enabled ATMS

You can use this awesome website to see where the nearest crypto ATM is and specify if you want to sell or buy. https://coinatmradar.com/bitcoin-atm-near-me/

The cryptocurrencies they have are Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Dash, Litecoin, Zcash, Monero, and Dogecoin. These are widely available, but many people are still completely unaware of them or don’t trust them, so, Coinsquare set out to fix this.

The article below explains how Coinsquare is working with Just Cash to revolutionize all ATMs with a simple routine software update that requires no extra hardware or applications from the user or the currency issuer. This will be game-changing for adoption and allowing everyone to easily and securely trade and access their coins.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/52008456/en?fbclid=IwAR3Him2SNUxIwM1h6yoA5ssUdFsgZ4-fT0dhTMoFNY6Hbj_UObhVna1-Fmc

Why You Need To Understand Bitcoin And Litecoin Halvings

Bitcoin rewards are halved every 210,000 blocks mined. Litecoin rewards are halved every 840,000 blocks. Why does this matter? It affects the price. This isn’t really an innovation but rather it’s an indicator where the market will likely go.

The current reward for miners mining blocks for bitcoin is 12.5 and it will decrease soon to 6.25. Litecoin is one halving behind Bitcoin so it's currently at 25 and will go to 12.5. This means there will be a much lower incentive for miners and traditionally many miners have stopped mining when this happens which lead to the supply to be lower while the demand stayed the same. This is meant to deal with inflation and allows the value to go way up as fewer coins are produced. Don't listen to me for financial advice, but do take note of this and realize that previous crypto value booms have happened after halvings and though it could be speculation one might conclude that it directly affected the value.

The two websites that I refer to in the video and that you can use to keep track of halvings for LTC and BTC are:

https://www.litecoinblockhalf.com/

https://www.bitcoinblockhalf.com/

I talk about this here: https://www.minds.com/scottcbusiness/blog/why-you-need-to-understand-bitcoin-and-litecoin-halvings-991606170926301184

DLive And PewDiePie’s Exclusive Live Streaming

PewDiePie announced he would exclusively live stream on DLive which is a blockchain based live streaming platform

Unfortunately, DLive relies on the Lino network which is hardly a blockchain. I cover that here: https://www.minds.com/scottcbusiness/blog/why-dlive-isn-t-what-you-thought-976274417411973120

Facebook’s Libra Blockchain

Let's talk about Facebook's new cryptocurrency Libra and what it really is versus what they're marketing is as. I previously wrote an article titled "Taking A Look At Facebook’s New Blockchain Called Libra" and I wanted to do a video version of that and address a few extra things so I basically share the same information just in a video format for this as well as a couple of updates. Simply put, it’s a bad project for the people, but an amazing undertaking for the blockchain industry’s awareness. The major drawback will be its development of proprietary protocols and buying up blockchain companies which will slow down blockchain growth and innovation.

You can find that article here: https://www.minds.com/scottcbusiness/blog/taking-a-look-at-facebook-s-new-blockchain-called-libra-988634141476786176

The IMF And World Bank's "Learning Coin"

As I wrote about in the previous article about approaching a growth period, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as well as the World Bank, has launched a “quasi-cryptocurrency” called the “Learning Coin” so they can explore how they could utilize crypto assets in their organization. They even say in their report “To stay informed, central banks and monetary institutions need to become better equipped to follow financial trends, and blockchains and cryptocurrencies are very popular at the moment.”

The article below talks a bit more about this:

https://www.coindesk.com/imf-and-world-bank-launch-educational-blockchain-token

The Upcoming Ethereum Proof Of Stake Upgrade

They are upgrading from a hybrid model to a full proof of stake model launching Ethereum 2.0 in 2020.

You can go to their Github here: https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-specs/projects/1 and see that they have noted the June 30 freeze and you can see where they are in the Phase 0 state transition to know when they will be done. By the time this is posted, it may be complete.

You can see everything about Ethereum’s blockchain in real time here: https://amberdata.io/dashboards/infrastructure

If you want to learn more about Ethereum in general check out their website: https://ethereum.org/

You can also read the article I wrote on this recently: https://www.minds.com/scottcbusiness/blog/looking-at-the-upcoming-ethereum-proof-of-stake-upgrade-992548875167694848

Massive Technology Companies & Enterprise Corporations Are Adopting Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Technologies

Microsoft built a decentralized identity network on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. IBM launched a blockchain payments networks on Stellar recently as well. Large companies like Forbes, Starbucks, Game Stop, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Whole Foods have been adopting cryptocurrency and allowing for point of sale transactions using crypto.

Final Speculations

Blockchain is on the rise and we can see major players joining the game now as big tech backs Facebook’s Libra, IBM & Microsoft developing blockchain applications, and the rate of adoption and use in our everyday lives vamping up rapidly. I believe it will continue to do so and we will see massive disruptions and paradigm shifts occurring in the next few years to come. I will always remain focused on the value behind blockchain and what it enables rather than the dollar value. That being said, let’s hope for a serious bull run sooner than later!