A couple of days ago, bitcoin has managed to reach its highest value in 2016, and surpass the $800 mark that it had been trying to break for the last couple of weeks. As we’re approaching the end of the year, we can’t help but wonder what 2017 will bring to the world of digital currencies, blockchain networks, and to Bitcoin itself.
In this article, we will attempt to cover some of the main predictions for bitcoin in 2017.
The digital currency will break out
2016 has been more of a Proof of Concept year, whereas in 2017, we’ll likely see bitcoin breaking out of the lab and quickly going into production environments of all kinds
Smart Contracts
We’ve covered smart contracts before- in 2016, they first managed to gain popularity thanks to Ethereum, but the market hasn’t seen any huge implementations so far. This will likely change in 2017, as smart contacts will become a legally binding software code for banks, but also for other institutions. This will probably not happen in early-2017 though, according to economic analysts.
On par with Gold
During the last couple of months, bitcoin has continuously increased in value, and is now at its three-year-high. It is likely that during 2017, it will reach parity with gold, and will continue to increase, whereas the Yuan will likely decrease unless China changes its economic procedures and gets itself out of this issue.
A safe haven
Bitcoin has proven itself as a safe haven multiple times until now. This can mostly be noticed in areas of conflict, where financial stability is nothing but a concept, but also where peace is rudimentary. Bitcoin will likely see a huge growth in such regions, especially for the percentage of the population that can be considered as unbanked.
The Government Control
While so far, most governments were pretty supportive of bitcoin, during 2016, we’ve been the witness to numerous attempts of the government to gain some more control over the currency (The IRS vs. Coinbase Battle for Personal Information, for example).
Investors
While investment in bitcoin start-ups and in the digital currency itself were a bit lower in the second half of 2016, this will likely increase in 2017, when VCs and investors will likely look towards FinTech and blockchain-based businesses.
The possible strongest adopters
Economic predictions indicate that the supply chain, reinsurance and insurance markets will attempt to adopt bitcoin, and will succeed in doing so. Reports also indicate that baking, government and healthcare institutions are interested in the digital currency as well, but will likely face regulatory issues and beaurocracy upon initiating bitcoin-based and bitcoin-related projects.
Based on everything that has been outlined so far, what do you personally think about these predictions? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.