Since the emergence of bitcoin in 2011, predictions have been made about blockchain’s capacity to promote widespread change. But it wasn’t until 2017 that the concept began to take root in the collective consciousness of people. The price of bitcoin shooting up to almost $20,000 might have been partially responsible for the growing hype around distributed, encrypted ledgers in the economic sector. And this is only the beginning. There is no doubt that the new decentralized economy will alter the world as we know it, and the following trends present a glimpse as to what to expect in the coming years. Let’s gaze into our crystal ball for some blockchain predictions that we believe will come true very shortly.
Cryptocurrency will become an everyday payment medium
More organizations worldwide, including Shopify, WordPress, Subway, are embracing crypto as a payment option. This trend is likely to become more common as the days go by. At the moment, accepting bitcoin gains a company positive attention from the media and presents the image of being ahead of the competition. With more firms choosing this payment gateway, consumers will not take kindly to any company that refuses bitcoin.
Crypto will be adopted by the government
Governments across the globe will either adapt or create some type of virtual currency by 2030. Why? Because compared to regular fiat options, cryptocurrency offers reduced settlement times, better traceability, and improved efficiency. Apart from that, cryptocurrency may be backed by tangible assets, and various controls can help manipulate its price artificially.
For now, government-based blockchain technology is the subject of extensive explorations and experimentation, headed by developing nations who have weak institutions and unstable economies. These efforts will probably move in a rushed manner as the government will attempt to alleviate the negative perception of its nation’s monetary challenges by developing a new cryptocurrency. Take, for example, the freshly minted but still very untested and controversial “petro” cryptocurrency in Venezuela. While the petro cryptocurrency is off to a dubious start, it has set the stage for other government cryptocurrencies that may be more successful.
Several of these fledgling projects are doomed because of the absence of in-house knowledge and the early phase of the technology, which hasn’t had enough time to mature. Successful instances will emerge, however, in the long run. The future generations will also resolve existing limitations, including privacy controls, interoperability, toolset maturity, and scalability. Moreover, governments that fail to develop successful cryptocurrency will choose stable coins as their respective virtual currencies.
Scalability of cryptocurrency
As we stated earlier, the scalability issue faced by the existing crop of decentralized networks will be resolved by different platforms attempting to position themselves within the ecosystem. These emerging platforms will face off with current networks, like bitcoin and Ethereum, for the purposes of drawing the attention of investors and developers. Once the decentralized protocols go into mass-production, they will lay the foundation for communities, companies, and startups to generate new decentralized apps, using one or more of these new protocols.
Blockchain will make a splash in the IoT sector
Attempts are being made for the smooth transition of blockchain technologies into everyday life and business processes. One of the major reasons is security — the trustless and encrypted blockchain serves as a viable choice for keeping the increasing number of home and office devices safe. In fact, blockchain might be utilized for guarding smart homes against malicious digital entities trying to break in and loot their precious data.
Cryptocurrencies developed using blockchain technology is also suitable for micro-transactions between machines. Not only do they record machine activity for analytical and record-keeping purposes, but the machines are also capable of paying each other if the smart devices operated by an organization transact and interact with those of others. Though this is still distant, breakthroughs and research in this avenue continue right now.
The rise of smart contracts
Blockchain technology will also lead to the rise of smart contracts. These contracts automatically get executed once the conditions are met, which means that deliveries are completed or payments made, or any activity specified in the business contract. The reason why smart contracts are possible due to blockchain is owing to their consensus-focused nature. The contract is fulfilled once the decided-upon conditions get met.
Impact on world trade
Sooner or later, all the trade across the globe will be conducted by leveraging the blockchain technology. Blockchain has an unprecedented impact on the worldwide supply chain. Right now, world trade is done through a fragmented and chaotic group of business relationships among parties that frankly do not trust one another. Thus, fraud, inefficiencies, and errors occur. These real-world business issues can be solved completely with blockchain technology.
Blockchain will resolve the disruptions that threaten to dismantle the current system. At the moment, the technology lacks the flexibility, maturity, performance, functional scope, and efficiency to aid world trade. But upon maturity, solutions will be discovered for the issues present in the supply chain and blockchain will play a key role in such future solutions.
New tokens enter the market
New tokens have been created, some for economic rights and others to facilitate access. This has led to the unified rise of “crypto” in both the functional and financial sense. Right now, the speed of development of this combination is accelerating. But the final pace will be decided by the available technology, which might lead to the production of new token categories that can not only be connected but are capable of interacting with one another.
Disruption of deep-rooted sectors
Disruption may be considered the building blocks of blockchain technology. It changes the age-old traditional industries, uprooting many of the institutions that were unshakeable in the past hundred years. For example, blockchain technology has already played a significant role in revamping the traditional education system. Thanks to the elimination of intermediary costs, blockchain connects teachers with students for promoting private learning that is more focused than the current systems and more cost-efficient. Other industries that blockchain technology will disrupt in the coming years include finance, logistics, media, and healthcare.
Blockchain predictions: Only a matter of time
Blockchain has enormous potential to make lasting changes in the world. But it will be a gradual process. But the rate at which things are progressing right now, it’s only a matter of time before the predictions mentioned above come true.
Featured image: Pixabay
