It all started with Bitcoin in 2009 when Satoshi Nakamoto released it as an open-source project.

Now, almost 9 years later, we are looking at the leading digital coin and that’s not changing…yet!

Why am I saying “yet”? Because it will eventually fall below other alt-coins and the main reason for that is lack of improvement within its technology. Sure, a lot of people took the source-code, tweaked it and even made it better in some ways.That’s why we see so many younger alt-coins that are actually a lot faster than Bitcoin, have cheaper transaction fees and they are actually even safer and more stable.

But at the end of the day, for a coin to take the 1st place as the leading coin in the cryptocurrency world, it has to do more than just being a Bitcoin on steroids. It has to be that, and…more!

You see, when it comes to staying competitive, whether we are talking about a business or a product, unless it brings something new in the game, it will eventually fall behind other products which did exactly that.

So, why did Bitcoin remain the main player in the field for so long?

Well, look at this scenario…if you’re opening a store, and sell a product of high demand, targeting a niche where there’s no real competition, it doesn’t really matter how much your product or the shipping fees cost, people will pay for it as long as they need it ! Sure, after that others might come with similar products at a more reasonable price, but by that time, you’re already an established entity in the market, your clients will still choose to buy the product from you because throughout the time, you haven’t just sold a product but you sold TRUST !

Now, let’s take what I said above and adapt it to Bitcoin:

Bitcoin appeared as a solution to a high demand. People wanted a coin that can’t be traced and that’s not influenced by political events, and they got one ! And throughout the years it remained on the top because it gained people’s trust.

Therefore, it’s safe to say that all these years people bought TRUST along with the coin.

Sure, other alt-coins appeared along the way, with better features but none of them got the notoriety of Bitcoin, because we, as people, are creatures of habit. We hate change right?

So, even if there are better alt-coins out-there, none of them managed to steal Bitcoin’s clients…yet.

Well, this is where NEM comes-into play. You can call it “the new kid from the block”, or “the sleeping giant”, NEM is everything Bitcoin can’t be. It’s so much more than Bitcoin, it’s an entire financial ecosystem, with better technology (it’s actually the best out-there in the crypto-world in terms of block-chain technology).

Here are some key-features that will make NEM (XEM) to surpass Bitcoin in the next 3-5 years:

It has insignificant transaction fees and way faster transaction times.

It has way better scalabillity and it’s more secure.

An entire financial ecosystem is being developed around it (look at DimCoin, Comsa,Bankera and more to come)

It’s being widely adopted in East by people and institutions, as it’s already being widely adopted in Japan and Malaysia, and the team is working on expanding their operations across USA and Europe also.

It has an amazing team of developers and a CEO with a vision of doing “things by the book”, instead on investing their money in marketing like most altcoins (all show but no go), they invest into development and physical presence in the market, because their philosophy is that as long as the product has a real utility in the real world, the increase in market cap will only be a consequence of the value of the product. And that’s very true on the long-run. On the short-run, o course, weaker alt-coins might get better market cap, but it will not be sustainable unless the product delivers. As far as I’m concerned, NEM delivers where other products fail to do that regardless of their aggressive marketing, that’s why I think NEM will surpass them in market cap in the near future. Investors will notice that and will switch to XEM.

Catapult is on the way, a re-writing of the Java software in C++, making it 10X better than now, considering that even without it, NEM already has an amazing technology behind.

Dimcoin, Bankera and Comsa , they all have NEM implemented in a way or another, which means TRACTION and VOLUME, at unimaginable levels for the XEM coin. It indirectly leads to a huge price increase which…we all love it, right?

Comsa will allow not only ICO’s to be launched but to also trade XEM for fiat currency very cheap and back, therefore, no more need to lose a ton of money by exchanging fiat into Bitcoin and then lose further when changing Bitcoin into XEM.

Bankera the first dedicated bank for cryptocurency which will be launched soon, developed by Spectrocoin, a well established Bitcoin exchange (and not only) and will allow buying BNK tokens with XEM during ICO sale (maybe even during pre-ICO, they are working on that). There’s no secret that Lon Wong, CEO of NEM and Tony G (member of EU Parliament) are both involved in Bankera as legal advisors. Also, Tony G is a big supporter and promoter of NEM. And let’s not forget, that Bankera as a bank, will offer interest for deposits in currencies and cryptocurrencies.

DimCoin serves as a platform to punch the world of stockmarket between the eyes by eliminating the abusive fees of brokers, and provide the same services and more, at way cheaper costs. It allows investors to trade stocks, fiat, crypto at insignificant costs compared to traditional online brokers. And let’s not forget that DimCoin is a mosaic of NEM, leading to an indirect XEM price rise on the long-run.

Behind DimCoin, Bankera and Comsa, there is Lon Wong, the CEO of NEM , whether as an advisor or as a member on the committee board.

ACX, the biggest exchange in Australia partnered with NEM foundation, giving it the white-labelled software for NEM to have its own dedicated exchange. It will be the second digital coin to have that aside from Bitcoin. What does that mean? It means TRACTION and VOLUME again for XEM.

Uquid , a digital bank in Gibraltar offering financial solutions for alt-coins, announced the launch of a dedicated NEM debit card. Make no mistake, we’ll see more NEM dedicated debit cards in the near future coming from both Bankera and Comsa, and probably more and more financial institutions as NEM continues to grow its portfolio of partners.

NEM blockchain, passed all the security benchmarks almost flawlessly, surpassing competitors like Ripple and other similar altcoins , which serves as a brick and mortar evidence that the NEM blockchain is about to become the best around in terms of security and utility. And don’t forget, the software is being upgraded constantly as there is always room for improvement. The NEM team is a perfectionist one.

The NEM blockchain is so adaptable, that people without much coding knowledge to none, can build their own token using Mosaics, can build applications (including games). I don’t really know many competitors being able to do that.

The XEM market cap almost doubles-up every year ! Just take a look at the historical charts on the online platforms to see it for yourself. Honestly, I think from this year on, the growth will be a lot faster than before due to the amazing projects NEM foundation has on the roll. So, the million dollar question is: is this enough for XEM to surpass Bitcoin in terms of market cap?

This is my personal opinion, but I think it is, but on the long-run only.

You see, if a coin can perform better than the “old player” (in this case, Bitcoin), and even go the extra-mile to do a lot more things than Bitcoin does, it will eventually be a matter of time until XEM surpasses Bitcoin in terms of market cap. Yes, when I started this article, I said hat when people buy a digital coin, they actually buy trust, and we all know how trust works, it needs to be gained.

NEM foundation slowly but surely does exactly that, and it doesn’t do it by aggressive marketing like most alt-coins do. That’s only artificial trust pumped with money which is not sustainable on the long-run. If a product doesn’t deliver the claims, investors eventually lose trust and go with the coin that actually delivers what’s written in the white-papers.

In case of Bitcoin, it’s still the 1st digital coin in top 10 because its price growth is fuelled by people’s trust but there will come a time not long from now, when all the advantages of NEM will generate enough crowd awareness to steal Bitcoin’s crown from right under its nose and it will do it almost exclusively indirectly.

How will that happen? Bitcoin techchnology is slowly becoming outdated while NEM is the better technology here. Its popularity will only increase due to its achievements, utility and features it provides. Serious investors, financial institutions and not only, will realise that and the rest of the crowd will follow the trend (the price increase).

This is something that Bitcoin will not see coming, it’s the best coordinated attack strategy to overcome a coin, and the funny thing is, that the NEM foundation does it without actually targeting Bitcoin but to be the best blockchain solution out there. But with that achievement, also comes Bitcoin losing its crown to NEM.

NEM is lacking the popularity it deserves because the development team and the CEO chose to do so until they deliver the perfect product. And when they will, I suggest you put on your helmet and buckle-up your seat-belts, because we will embark on the ride of our lives, and I’m telling you, it will be a blast !

Make no mistake, XEM will surpass Bitcoin in terms of market cap in around 5 years an that doesn’t mean that Bitcoin will exponentially grow along with XEM, but it will actually shrink gradually as XEM slowly takes small slices from it.

I think Bitcoin is a remarkable coin but its years as the king of digital coins are counted as better technologies are rising due to the growing interest of the crowd in blockchain technology. Bitcoin already lost a fair share of the total market cap and now is below 50% because of that.

XEM is by far the best competitor out there with the best chances to steal the crown from Bitcoin in the next couple of years. It’s not a matter of “if” but a matter of “when”. And it’s not about getting to the top as much as what you’re going to do when you get there. It takes effort to stay competitive and I truly hope the NEM foundation will keep playing their A-game once they conquer Bitcoin’s market cap. So far, they are doing great and I can’t wait to see what’s coming !