Given the recent growth in the Bitcoin market and extended volatility with Litecoin, there has been renewed interest and speculation on the future of the cryptocurrency market. Over the last weeks the Bitcoin price has been rising and hit £200 per BTC over the weekend, with many speculating that the price rise is due to an influx of Greek money on the cryptocurrency market.
Despite this, Bitcoin is still in it’s infancy and as such patterns are incredibly tough to predict with the cryptocurrency. The just-announced resolution to the Greek crisis is believed to have brought about an end to the rising prices, but nobody claims to be certain that the rise in Bitcoin price is directly linked to the issues with Greece. A number of exchanges noted an increase in EUR/BTC purchases from within Greece but this could simply be down to the deals offered by exchanges to encourage such use. Some projections anticipate that the Bitcoin price could return to as much as $400 per BTC but the future of the cryptocurrency remains uncertain.
Could we see a return to prices of over $400 per BTC?
The large amounts of money that are being pumped in to blockchain technology and the wider Bitcoin community by way of the investment are sure to have a notable influence on the future developments of the digital asset. Combined with the significant interest in blockchain development from a number of somewhat unlikely sources, this could be of incredibly importance in the future of the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency market. Blockchain technology is anticipated to be the real success story of Bitcoin when you ask those involved with mainstream finance and technology industries. Many are saying that the distributed blockchain system has potential applications in a huge number of industries, from the more obvious valuable goods trade to charitable organisations.
The Bitcoin community has obstacles to overcome going forward, the last few weeks have seen continued debate over the maximum block size as the developer community attempts establishes a consensus. This process has seen the network flooded with small transactions in efforts to test the capabilities to handle large amounts of transactions without delays; the block size directly relates to the number of transactions a miner can include when broadcasting a newly mined block to the network. Many have experienced delayed transactions which can cause issues, watching over unconfirmed transactions waiting for a miner to include it a new block can be an agonising process.
Important transactions can be confirmed within one or two blocks by using a higher transaction fee and thus increasing the incentive to miners, but many were unaware of the network tests and unprepared to respond by increasing fees. Delayed transactions can cause havoc on payment network and hopefully we will see a resolution to these issues soon.
Regulation is sure to be an important topic when discussing the future of Bitcoin, particularly following the announcement of Bitlicense and the ensuing complaints from some members of the Bitcoin industry in New York. Few will argue against regulation as a concept, but the realities of trying to establish a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies is incredibly complex; Bitcoin has numerous fundamental features which are foreign to those who are usually in charge of regulating our financial industries and this results in headaches on both sides. The coming years will be of vital importance and the Bitcoin industry must remain firm on the most important issues.
Resilience is always strong within the Bitcoin community and entrepreneurism continues regardless of wider public opinion and mainstream media coverage. New developments are always emerging and there are a number of incredible ambassadors working extremely hard to drive the cryptocurrency towards a future of greater adoption, be that as the digital asset we use today, or through the huge amount of new systems which are likely to be informed by blockchain technology as the fundamentals are expanded on and put to new use.