Despite this year’s bear market affecting the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency space, leading thinkers remain optimistic about the long-term outlook.
Many are looking to the launch of the Bakkt platform in November as a major catalyst for price rises before the end of the year.
Will Bitcoin’s Impact be Greater Than That of the Internet?
The price of Bitcoin and other digital assets have taken a huge hit so far in 2018.
Although there have been occasional bounces, the general trend has clearly been downwards. However, those close to the industry have not given up hope on the transformative power of blockchain-based digital currencies.
Many believe that the technology’s impact on society will be massive and that it will completely revolutionise the way humans perceive money and value.
The founder and CEO of blockchain startup Svandis is one such believer. Hermann Finnbjörnsson explained to The Street why he remains bullish on bitcoin:
“[There’s] less than a 1% chance in my mind that bitcoin won’t succeed… I think that there are a lot of reasons to be bullish on bitcoin. Banks are getting into bitcoin.”
He goes on to state that he thinks the leading digital currency will see large price moves this November.
The reasoning behind his bullishness is that the ICE, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, is hoping to launch their new platform. Finnbjörnsson claims that Bakkt will be the driving factor behind a return to Bitcoin prices above the $10,000 level.
The ICE is working with multiple high profile companies on Bakkt. These include Starbucks, Microsoft, and Boston Consulting Group.
The new platform is scheduled to go live on November 5, 2018. It is thought by many in the industry that such a trading venue launched by reputable companies will allow more people than ever to buy in and get exposure to Bitcoin.
Meanwhile, the CEO of digital asset trading platform EZ Exchange, Russell Korus, believes that the underlying properties of Bitcoin make it something unlike anything the world has seen before:
“It allows for direct, peer-to-peer transfer of value in completely trustless transactions… It is fully decentralised, autonomous, writes all of its records to a public ledger, and its record-keeping is completely immutable. These characteristics contribute to creating a brand new paradigm which represents a shift from the free exchange of information to the free exchange of value.”
Korus goes on to state that the impact of such a system on society will be far more profound than many realise at the moment.
According to him, it has the potential to shift society and disrupt just about every industry on the planet. He goes as far as to state that the impact of cryptocurrencies on our world over the next 20 years will be more pronounced than the impact the internet has had over the previous 20:
“Cryptocurrencies, and the distributed ledger technology that they are built on, will do nothing less than change the world in the most fundamental ways.”
Featured image from Shutterstock.
