1.) The Rush from Fiat/Dollar To Bitcoin.
This already sparked off in a major way this December mainly after the price grew past 10,000 usd and could keep happening and gain more momentum into 2018 due to mostly news and hype driven by the ongoing chatter as Bitcoin price jumps to 20,000 usd. Many also are not enjoying having their transactions recorded and monitored in traditional systems and might possibly like crypto for it's liberating nature of personal use, and don't want to give up freedom for security. Also inflation keeps going on in fiat as crypto deflates and increases in price. There is also that monetary account holders have been getting their ability to access their funds for reasons that are out of the account owners control or knowledge. It could be a strong possibility as new investors and the investors from late 2017 catch wind of the likely headline after headline and added to this is the possibility that there could be economic problems around the globe as fiat and stocks goes through turbulence or a major war like some prominent annalists have said in many outlets in 2017.
2.) The Flight For Safety From Bitcoin.
Due to increased headlines and news surrounding BTC, it will cause a lot of scams, hackers, and fraudsters. I've personally been hacked more times than i can count on my hand. This caused me to get smart and research. There will be a lot more people getting into this and a lot of the currency going into it will land in the hands of scam artists. This will cause a lot of people to ask the government or businesses to refund their losses; or to the banks. It could start talks about regulations as more debates and legislation conference meetings. There is also the fact that bitcoin is becoming less practical compared to coins such as the top 10 alt coins, for instance. The learning curve isn't always easy or as possible for everyone getting into crypto and Bitcoin.
3.) The Demand For Customer Support
As people get frustrated with their losses from scams and accident and new comer ignorant blunders in crypto as they haven't done their research and as they are new to it, it's getting worse and worse since it's like the wild west, they will ask in all directions for better customer service and support for services to take care of them. Recently the service called Cryptonomics announced they will be addressing the needs of customer service and protection this month. Perhaps we could see reimbursements or insurance from losses and fraud.
4.) The Great Bitcoin Train-wreck of 2018
Bitcoin and the other leading alt coins, (not including Steemit and Bitshares), all rely on mining which rely on enormous amount of electricity from power plants, bitcoin's mining largely depending on China mining warehouses filled with thousands of mining units. These Chinese Mining Corporations contribute, possess and acquire a whopping 80% or newly minted Bitcoins around the globe. Transactions are becoming slower and transation fee's are getting unreasonably higher. People who have done their research and have been in crypto for a very long time say a well known catch phrase "The vision of Satoshi Nakamoto" when referring to the original design of bitcoin in its early years when it functioned very nicely. But that is not the Bitcoin of today. One possible example recently being when Bitcoin's developer's decided to implement the Segwit2X, while the majority of the crypto-sphere citizens were against this move. As Segwit2X was applied to Bitcoin, the price of Bitcoin rapidly plummeted that very day for hours, until the Segwit2X was canceled. This being back around before December. There are also other coins with which users find better than Bitcoin features they desire, such as fast transactions, privacy, larger capability in some ways , or a specific feature or reason they would rather use it over Bitcoin.
Not on this list, (As I don't have the information on it all right now: ) There will be an announcement of E.O.S. which is said to be the first blockchain operating system. This has some saying it could have some impact on the technological front and be on the scale of the likes of Amazon Google, Apple, etc. I'm curious if anyone has some information on E.O.S? If you do, please inform me in the comment section! Thanks guys, ---
Happy New Year!; keep on keeping on Steemit!