Crypto pioneer Nick Szabo made a series of predictions on Tuesday (Jan 8th) at the Israel Bitcoin Summit in Tel Aviv.

In his talk, the ‘BitGold’ creator speculated how central banks across the world could turn to crypto to shore up existing gold reserves Szabo referenced the physical vulnerability of gold, and the scenario where “…a central bank can’t trust a foreign central bank with their bonds,” to substantiate his claim, according to Finance Magnates.

Crypto Will Grow In Countries With Conflict

The well-known cryptographer asserted that cryptocurrency use should keep growing in nations undergoing conflict, along with those who see government officials mismanage the fiat currency.

CryptoGlobe reported in October on growing crypto use in Ukraine, a country suffering from the effects of extended political unrest. Interest has grown in part due to struggling economic conditions, cheap electricity and rent, and due to the large number of skilled engineers and workers looking for opportunities.

Massive hyperinflation in Venezuela has turned growing amounts of citizens towards crypto as a store of value. CryptoGlobe wrote in November on the rising LocalBitcoins volume in the latter months of 2018.

In his talk, Szabo also predicted 2019 would see an uptick in crypto use by those looking to get around political blacklists.

More Adoption Of Lightning Network Incoming

Along with his political predictions, Szabo anticipated that the new year would bring further adoption of second tier solutions such as the Lightning Network (LN).

The LN, a solution designed to enable faster bitcoin transactions, has received a great deal of attention recently.

In the fall, news emerged that the World Wide Web Consortium was working on an API to support bitcoin payments through the LN. The entity eventually intends to enable support for payments through popular browsers like Google Chrome and Firefox.

Widespread adoption of the LN has also raised questions about the mining requirements of the network, as an expansion of the network would most likely entail much greater use of the bitcoin network.