Unless you’ve been living under a rock, most of the world is aware of Bitcoin’s recent record surge to more than $14,000 per coin—a somewhat surprisingly immediate increase after its long anticipated hard fork, which was essentially a “break-up” amongst its developers over differences in the platforms ability and plans to scale.
At the same time, Ethereum has rebounded nicely from its major mid-summer dip, where its coin, Ether, dropped to as low as 10 cents USD. Ether appears stable at its new floor of around $300, and is currently valued $370 at the time this post was written.
Thanks to Bitcoin and Ether activity/trading volumes, the Crypto market is currently a $150 billion industry, and growing…
While Bitcoin and Ether are breaking records and creating millionaires overnight, companies like Microsoft are unveiling plans to jump on the Blockchain bandwagon with the launch of its Confidential Consortium Framework, otherwise known as CoCo, designed to make Blockchain systems faster and more secure. A few weeks back, Fidelity Investments announced that it will be adding Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin prices and trade information via Coinbase to its customer’s online portfolios in Q3.
So, what does all this mean? It’s clear that Blockchain and Cryptos are maturing and gaining more mainstream attention. However, we’re still a long ways off from seeing Bitcoin, Ether, or Litecoin replace USD, or any other physical currency for that matter.
Regulation and security still pose the biggest questions among skeptics, optimists, and industry analysts. Up until recently, the SEC had been pretty mum on Cryptocurrencies. But with the explosion of the Initial Coin Offering (ICOs), the SEC has become a bit more vocal about taming the “wild west” that is Cryptocurrency investing.
As for security, each week we hear about new ICO being hacked, or coins being stolen from an exchange. Just a few days ago, Enigma—a project born out if MIT—was pilfered for $500,000 USD in Ether. While the project itself did not lose half a million dollars, the hackers we’re able to gain access into the unsecured accounts of members of the Enigma community via Slack, many of whom we’re planning to invest said Ether into Enigma’s ICO planned for September 11.
Needless to say, the next 6-18 months will be crucial for the development and mainstream adoption of Blockchain and Cryptos. Stay tuned for more from 10Fold on this topic.
In the meantime, we encourage our readers to share their thoughts. You can also check out a recent, related blog from our CEO: Cryptocurrency and the Digital Economy.
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