An Insight Into the Cryptocurrency Revolution

The Cryptocurrency Revolution

Cryptocurrencies’ market value has risen rapidly since the beginning of 2016 due to the increased interest of investors and developers. As of mid-June, the value of all currencies in circulation was around $15bn.

Investor Attraction

• According to a study published by PriceWaterhouseCoopers in 2015, investors speculating on the future possibilities of this new technology have driven most of the current market capitalization. Those investments appear to be relying on a perceived “inherent value” of cryptocurrency, which includes the technology and network itself, the integrity of the cryptographic code and the decentralized network.

Complementary Services

• The main technology underlying each cryptocurrency, the blockchain, has the potential to disrupt a wide variety of transactions, in addition to the traditional payments system. These include stocks, bonds and other financial assets, for which records are stored digitally and for which there is a potential need for additional security. The blockchain technology holds a large potential in terms of security improvement for digitally stored assets.

• Many tech developers have devoted their efforts to cryptocurrency mining, while others have focused on more entrepreneurial pursuits such as developing exchanges platforms, wallet services and alternative cryptocurrencies (such as Ethereum or Ripple).

Future Outlook

• The cryptocurrency market has only started to attract talent with the depth, breadth and market focus needed to take the industry to the next level. For the market to gain mainstream acceptance, however, consumers and corporations will need to broadly accept cryptocurrencies as a user-friendlier solution to their common transactions.

• Investors appear to be confident about the opportunities associated with cryptocurrencies and cryptography. The “inherent value” of the underlying technology, mentioned above, gives these investors good reason to be optimistic. Additionally, just recently some of the more established cryptocurrency companies attracted institutional investors and Wall Street attention. Many Banks such as Credit Suisse and JPMorgan have been testing this technology.