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OP-ED: Bitcoin Goes Mainstream

There's not a single person in the western world, in high-finance especially, that has not at least heard of this exponentially disruptive tech. We are about to exit the early 'deceptive-stage

Bitcoin, and it’s Blockchain, have officially entered the mainstream.

There’s not a single person in the western world, in high-finance especially, that has not at least heard of this exponentially disruptive tech. We are about to exit the early ‘deceptive-stage‘ (see charts below). 

We’ve been in this game since the early days here at BNC. When a local restaurant started accepting bitcoin, the news sent the crowds wild. Now it’s on the front-page of The Economist, Bloomberg, and many other mainstream publications, with headlines confirming that this technology is going to change everything.

Over the past two weeks, 100’s of thousands of business travelers, at airport lounges around the world, were exposed to several publications covering the technology from different perspectives, all very positive. 

Blockchain-Fever is catching like a wildfire at conferences like Sibos, Web-Summit, and Money 20/20, every talk you go to has people discussing Blockchain solutions. Perhaps the minimal-viable-infrastructure for the next generation of trust-less applications is now in place, and business minds everywhere finally realize ‘this is happening‘. 

Could this fresh round of mainstream interest be the reason the young currency has gained over 50% in value in the past 4 weeks? The Liquid-Index-Price at time of publication: $441.5 (up from $242, 30 days ago). 

We cover the full news break-down and analysis in this week’s Markets Report.

A look at the fundamentals
(Big thanks to our new strategic-partners, SmartBit.com.au for Blockchain Charts and Data).

Velocity:

Bitcoins are being mined at a pre-determined rate, and people are using them for remittance, as a currency, as a payment gateway, and as a technology platform. Steady as she goes – the original Blockchain tokens are increasing rapidly in their per-day transaction volumes, showing a healthy velocity. 

Network Use:

Blocks are being filled. Work is being done. Transactions are getting more sophisticated, bitcoin is the fuel to create transactions which can represent a document, asset, piece of intellectual property, or anything in-between. The number of transactions per block, and the size of each block, are also increasing at a synced and exponential rate.

Network Strength:

The Hash-Rate, a representation of people’s willingness to dedicate hardware time and money towards strengthening the Blockchain, has also been steadily increasing. The pre-programmed money-supply is being cut next year, from 25 new bitcoins per block to 12.5, and many miners are looking closely at the price, to judge hardware investment considerations today. Will the price be high-enough to support minimum mining profitability? We have seen somewhat of a tango between network size, the price of bitcoin and money supply over the past 6 years. While the industry is still young, we believe it has matured enough to prepare for known coming changes, like the next block-halving. This suggests we may see a long period of consolidation activity leading up to the next rate-cut, instead of violent price manoeuvres in the few days leading up to the pre-planned change in money mechanics. 

Just-before-exponential


Things are about to get real, as we exit the deceptive early stages.
(Feel free to steal the above image). 

Bitcoin has just celebrated it’s 7th birthday. Still a child in many ways, but growing up incredibly fast.
Reflecting back over the past 6 years, things have been incredibly deceptive. Outsiders saw little progress during the quick glances they afforded. It didn’t feel like much was being developed, compared to other technology sectors. 
Like the internet itself, bitcoin and it’s Blockchain are an Exponential class of technology. Infrastructure and platform building took place during 2010-2015.
Now faster and faster, well funded companies are coming to market with solutions which will disjoint one paradigm after another. 

Venture Capital into Bitcoin Start-Ups Breaks $1B:

There has now been over $1 Billion USD poured into start-ups working in this space. The Bitcoin/Blockchain start-up sector is the fastest growing vertical for Start-Ups and shows no signs of slowing down. The level of funding into Bitcoin & Blockchain start-ups has long surpassed the 1995 ‘.com’ investment levels (even with Inflation adjusted).

  • 1995 – Who needs email?
  • 2015 – Who needs trust?

Blockchain Technology is getting global coverage and we’re entered the mainstream.

If 2015 was the ‘year of the Blockchain’.
Than 2016 is going to be the ‘year of Applications’.
What will the next Killer-App be? (the first was the currency).

Price Rally:

There’s been plenty of speculation flying around, trying to narrow down the main cause of the recent price-rally. 

What’s really causing this price movement and what could come next?
For a full breakdown, technical analysis and market coverage, check out this week’s Markets Report or log-in if you already have an account.

 Bitcoin Markets Report


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