August 27th, 2018
Is the Thaw Beginning?
There are a lot of people starting to whisper about the bulls returning to cryptocurrency. On this day a year ago, Bitcoin was at $4,320 USD. Bitcoin peaked at $20,000 USD on December 16th, 2018, depending on what exchange you are looking at. That is an almost 500% gain in only roughly 110 days.
Today, Bitcoin sits at $6,750 USD. Do I think we'll see a similar uptrend as last year. Absolutely not. But I can see Bitcoin climbing somewhere between $10,000 and $12,000 USD. If we were to hit that range with Bitcoin by the end of the year, I would be much more confident in the health of the market. Last year's boom was destined to end badly. This year, if the investors keep their heads, we could see some sustainable and long term growth.
My Problem with PoW
Everyone has an opinion on what the best blockchain validation system is best. Some swear by PoW. Some only want PoS (with a dusting of masternodes). Me personally? I think PoS is the future of cryptocurrency. We've seen story after story about how much energy is being used to mine cryptocurrencies. And the hunt for cheap electricity continues.
At the end of the day, PoW is not a sustainable option, especially if we want mass adoption to occur. According to the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, the current energy use for mining Bitcoin is equivalent to the energy used by the entire country of Austria. Keeping things in perspective, cryptocurrency is still in it's infancy. What happens when the demand doubles, quadruples, 10x, 20x? The amount of energy that will be required if developers stick with PoW will be unsustainable.
Iran National Cryptocurrency
Iran is not taking the US sanctions laying down. Announced today, they are very close to announcing their own national cryptocurrency. Despite the reasons for this being created, more nations making blockchain technology a priority is great news for everyone involved. With the news about Malta last week, every new country that commits to and embraces cryptocurrency, we will take another step towards mass adoption.
However, how a country will run a cryptocurrency and how it will be accepted by the people is another matter entirely. A lot of people within crypto hold a strong disdain for Ripple because of it's many connections to the big banks. Only time will tell how a centralized cryptocurrency will play out, but integration into traditional systems can't hurt when it comes to mass adoption.