Did you miss out on the Bitcoin Bandwagon? Own some but want to know if you should sell them or wait? I reached out to 10 Bitcoin experts for their informed predictions about Bitcoin over the next 5 years. The following is what they shared with me.
Bryce Weiner, CEO of AltMarket, Inc.
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Why I Know What I’m Talking About:
Bryce Weiner, CEO and Founder of AltMarket Inc., is a renowned expert and innovator in the cryptocurrency space. Bryce began his blockchain engineering career in 2012 by building his own bitcoin mining farm. Now, with over a dozen blockchain networks to his credit (several of which are publicly traded), Bryce is one of the most experienced blockchain engineers in the industry. Bryce is also CEO of Tao Records and founder of the Tao Network, a public blockchain network specifically tailored to suit the needs of music industry applications. Prior to founding the Tao Network, Bryce was a software developer for firms such as Thomson Reuters and Lockheed Martin.
Here is the Inside Scoop:
Bitcoin will top $100,000 in the next 24 months, and $500,000 within the next 60. Bitcoin is a “bubble,” but not as is commonly assumed. Bitcoin isn’t backed by a government, which makes it unique and what provides the “bubble” aspect of it’s economics. As a result, in the next five years corporations and governments will begin to custody Bitcoin as a balance sheet asset. As the price of Bitcoin rises, the political landscape may begin to shift as “Bitcoin wealth” begins to explore influencing the offline world. By the end of the next five years nearly every American will own some form of cryptocurrency.
Matt Oppenheimer, CEO of Remitly
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Why I Know What I’m Talking About:
Matt Oppenheimer is the co-founder and CEO of Remitly, the largest independent digital money transmitter in the United States, whose customers transfer more than $4 billion annually. Remitly is disrupting the broken $588 billion remittance industry with its mobile-first money transfer service that is easy, affordable and secure. To date, Remitly has raised more than +$60 million from leading venture capital firms. The inspiration behind Remitly came when Matt was working for Barclays in Kenya and saw how difficult it was to send and receive money overseas.
Matt was drawn to the global impact his business could have: remittances eclipse foreign aid in improving global wealth equality and give people who receive them upward mobility. He began working on the problem immediately as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Highway 12 Ventures in Idaho and launched the company from Techstars in Seattle. Matt was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2016 in the Pacific Northwest and has been recognized as a Puget Sound Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree for his work with Remitly. He holds a MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Dartmouth College.
Here is the Inside Scoop:
Bitcoin will remain a store of value, and we have no idea if it will go up 50x or go down $10. We can’t predict this. The future of Bitcoin is not likely in the payments space, but it is an acceptable store of value and working well for some who invested early on.
Other digital currencies: Bitcoin is the monster in the room, digital currency market cap is so different, currently at a combined market cap of $175 billion with Bitcoin leading the pack at $79.7 billion (Coinmarketcap.com). After bitcoin Ethereum comes the closest to Bitcoin at over $36 billion, but the rest drop below that dramatically. The entire digital currency space is till considered a big TBD — but the rapid growth is interesting to watch.
Blockchain is quite the buzzword used pretty loosely. Similar to how people use buzzwords like Big Data, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence. There are components of those methods already used by companies, but these terms give it a brand.
For what it is and what it does, many companies already use some Blockchain-like methods but most people don’t really know what they’re talking about when talking about Blockchain and it’s not consumer-friendly. Companies are feeling pressured to consider or adopt Blockchain, and those who fall under this pressure will be slow to actually adopt it. Used internally by companies it would be very positive for customers as it would make payments faster and add additional layers of security.
Dr Tim Lynch Psychsoftpc
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Why I Know What I’m Talking About:
Dr. Tim Lynch, President of Psychsoftpc, received his Ph.D. in Psychology of Computers and Intelligent Machines from Boston University. Shortly thereafter, Omni Magazine named him the first Robopsychologist or Computer Psychologist. He was then written up as a computer psychologist, or psychologist who studies how computer interaction effects personality and how to make computer interfaces more user friendly, in the Wall Street Journal, Psychology Today, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, the London Sunday Times, Computer World, and many other publications. As part of his Doctoral Dissertation on the Effects of Computer Use on Personality and Social Interaction Patterns, he created Artificial Intelligence Natural Language software which was the basis of programs used by NIH division of AIDS Research and the United Nations, among others.
Psychsoftpc makes high performance Virtual Reality ready Gaming Computers, GPU Tesla Personal Supercomputers for cryptocurrency mining, Turn Key GPU Tesla Supercomputer Clusters for Big Data & Research & cryptocurrency mining, Virtual Reality ready Professional Workstations and turn key Big Data Hadoop Clusters in Quincy, MA Computers Built in the United States With Traditional Massachusetts Craftsmanship by Psychsoftpc of Quincy, MA USA
Psychsoftpc is an artisanal computer company, so they hand craft all of their machines and subscribe to a Just In Time philosophy. They are constantly evolving their machines with the very latest technology and are often the first to put out machines that take advantage of the latest tech because they don’t stock parts or pre-build machines which have to moved before they can use the most advanced technology in their machines. So while the other guys can take months to put out machines with the latest, fastest tech, the folks @Psychsoftpc can take days. Thomas Friedman in his book Thank You For Being Late says we must constantly adapt to rapid shifts in technology because of accelerating technological change, specifically the impact of Moore’s Law and market forces which are linking the world more powerfully than ever before. Unlike the other guys out there, Psychsoftpc embraces this. They are constantly adapting and improving their machines. They don’t release new model names, just improve the machines they build with the latest tech as it comes out.
Here is the Inside Scoop:
Bitcoin will go up and down over the next 5 years while bitcoin mining will become more difficult and require more and more robust and powerful computing technology while blockchain will continue to thrive and find more uses beyond just cryptocurrency. Bitcoin will also face increased competition from other cryptocurrencies but there will be a culling of the herd and many of the newer ones will fall by the wayside as the cryptocurrency market becomes saturated and most lose their value. since cryptocurrency is private and not state sponsored or backed there will always be risk involved in its use.
9 More Bitcoin Experts Predict What Will Happen With Bitcoin Over The Next 5 Years Mark Jeffrey, Founder & CEO at Guardian Circle & Guardium
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Why I Know What I’m Talking About:
Mark Jeffrey is an award-winning technology entrepreneur with 25 years of experience and three exits. These include The Palace (sold to Communities.com in 1998), ZeroDegrees (sold to IAC in 2004), TargetClose, Mahalo (now Inside.com), and ThisWeekIn. He’s also a published author of nine books, including BITCOIN EXPLAINED SIMPLY (2013) and THE CASE FOR BITCOIN (2016).
Mark recently founded Guardian Circle, the first emergency response system that acts as an AMBER Alert-style warning for your own private network. This free app rewards emergency responders in cryptocurrency with Guardium, the company’s new token.
Here’s The Inside Scoop: In my 2015 book, The Case For Bitcoin, I laid out a scenario where Bitcoin would be worth $500K per coin within five years. I still believe that — so I am not surprised at all by the rising price. It is inevitable that it will go even higher — much, much higher. It is simply the best ‘store of value’ the world has ever seen, and more people are understanding that.
Ian Balina of IanBalina.com
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Why I Know What I’m Talking About:
Ian Balina is an author, entrepreneur, speaker, cryptocurrency advisor and investor that uses data-driven analytics to find top performing ICOs.
He leads a global syndicate of investors that invest between $100k-3M in ICO projects. He’s been featured in WSJ, Forbes, HuffPo, INC, Entrepreneur, and more.
He’s been named one of the top 2017 Crypto Trader/Analysts by Coindesk, Crypto Influencer to Follow on HuffPo as well as spoken at high profile events such as Hybrid Summit, ICO Forward, Blockchain 360, and Block CON.
He quit his day job at IBM earlier this year to go full time into crypto currency investing, and started his own Patreon group which accumulated over 1100 patrons (50k/mo revenue) in a matter of a week.
His Youtube channel (27k + subscribers) covers ICO reviews, AMAs with ICO founders, Livestreams, and new Diary Series which covers the his daily grind.
He’s built all this through his obsessive commitment to his engaged audience through his social media profiles and showing people how to start side hustles, make 100k+ in their 20’s, as well as invest in the top performing ICOs.
Here’s The Inside Scoop:
Over the next 5 years, Bitcoin will reach a global scale of adoption. Innovation will continue to push developers to create mainstream applications. Within five years from now someone from around the world will use Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies in apps like Paypal and Venmo to pay someone. Speculating on price, I think 1 BTC will be over a million within 5 years. The early adopters of Bitcoin will be filthy rich. There will be many more countries where Bitcoin is accepted as an official form of payment. This will also potentially bring more stability to countries that have traditionally unstable currencies. The population will be more confident in a real store of value, not just an inflationary fiat from their government.
Ryan Derks, Owner, Ryan’s Hodl Fund
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Why I Know What I’m Talking About:
I previously worked as a licensed investment manager for 8 years. After 4.5 years of investing in Bitcoin I quit my job this summer and started an SEC registered cryptocurrency management fund. The goal is to remove the major barriers keeping people from owning cryptocurrencies while also doing the due diligence and security to make sure they’re successful.
Here’s The Inside Scoop:
Bitcoin will continue to rise as more and more people understand the value it provides. When Wikileaks was cut off from traditional financial institutions they went to Bitcoin. When Zimbabwe overthrew their dictator in Nov 2017, that night, they went to Bitcoin(price increase of over 50% due to demand). An rough estimate is 1% of the global population owns some Bitcoin. If that number only increases to 5% globally I would expect a large short-term supply shortage that increases the value dramatically. Also, as Wall Street institutions and their counterparts in other countries get involved, the ways to access Bitcoin will grow significantly. This again will create more demand than available supply.
The more that people realize the benefit of the separation of government and money the more adoption Bitcoin will see. People in countries like Brazil, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and more do not need to be lectured on the benefits of a decentralized, consensus based, asset ledger that is uncontrollable by their government. They have been living the opposite for decades.
Like online dating, Bitcoin has little value if only a few people use it. As weird as online dating was when it first came out it is just a routine part of society now. I suspect we will see a consistent increasing number of businesses and individuals accepting cryptocurrencies as payment for goods and services
Within 5 years, Bitcoin could easily be above $200,000 per coin. The only thing that stands in the way of anyone using Bitcoin is access to the internet. The only thing, in my opinion, that can stop Bitcoin is Bitcoin itself.
Yasmeen Drummond, Halo VC
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Why I Know What I’m Talking About:
I have been in bitcoin since 2012. I now work with Joey Krug (founder of Augur), who is now CIO at Pantera for their $100M ICO fund as well as their digital asset fund. I recently started my own syndicate called Halo VC, with the intention of creating community around female angel investors who are passionate about healthcare and science. I am passionate about finding ways to improve women’s empowerment and health through blockchain, bitcoin and ethereum.
Here’s The Inside Scoop:
Women will increasingly gain access to all forms of crypto-currency and in connection with this, women will become more empowered and gain agency through forms of work that is decentralized, community focused and world-changing. Women will come together to work on decentralized projects that service their families, cities and children. Children will start to understand bitcoin and have allowances in the form of crypto currency.
Kayvan Alikhani, CEO, Compliance.ai
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Why I Know What I’m Talking About:
With more than 25 years of experience in startups, tech and the financial industry Kayvan leads Compliance.ai strategy and operations. Most recently, Kayvan led the identity strategy at RSA, and represented EMC on various industry alliances such as the FIDO board. He is well-versed and experienced in the finance sector
Here’s The Inside Scoop:
In 2018, Financial services companies will take advantage of Blockchain based solutions to address Anti-money laundering perils. Regulations driven by KYC requirements will force crypto-currencies to modify their existing approaches of user anonymity, and to provide visibility and oversight to help foster usage and uptake within global financial markets. Look to FINCEN to collaborate across international boundaries to set forth standardization of KYC requirements, which could then enable using the digital trail as superior replacement to the fiat paper trail, enabling transaction transparency to help tackle money laundering.
Justin Wu, Head of Growth at Coincircle
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Why I Know What I’m Talking About:
Justin is head of growth at CoinCircle, a blockchain startup that tokenizes established companies & enterprises. Outside of blockchain, Justin ran growth of a $3m Kickstarter in 30 days & led SaaS products to $1m ARR in a year. He also shares daily tips on growth hacks & insights on the business side of Blockchain, collaborating with such brands as the Wall St Journal, CES, and NASA.
Here’s The Inside Scoop:
Bitcoin will exist but won’t be the dominant coin in the next 5 years. It will continue to have an explosive and strong store of value per coin due to scarcity, but it will have strong competition from other next generation cryptocurrencies and other emerging blockchain(s). There could be new structures beyond the concept of blockchain as well. We will see tokens that will achieve greater scalability, and advancements that will allow for high transactions across many real life use cases beyond Bitcoin.
In the near future, the market in the future will be more open to other cryptocurrencies beyond just Bitcoin as there will be multiple exchanges and gateways that allow for direct purchase of those tokens. We will also see big players such as enterprises and organizations enter the space to tout their technologies & industry positioning as the defacto token for its specific industry. They will be bringing their household brand names with them along with their customer base to attract more mainstream retail investors, Wall St. and beyond. In fact, the best killer apps will be invisible to the masses, where blockchain and crypto might not even be mentioned. We will see more progression into a tokenized world & economy where every action would be exchanged through tokens.
Jameson Lopp, Infrastructure Team Lead, BitGo Inc
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Why I Know What I’m Talking About:
Jameson Lopp is a software engineering team lead for BitGo, an enterprise digital asset security service based in Palo Alto. He is the creator of Statoshi, a fork of Bitcoin Core that analyzes statistics of Bitcoin nodes, founder of Mensa’s Bitcoin Special Interest Group, and founder of the Triangle Bitcoin & Business meetup. In his spare time he waxes philosophical upon the nature of Bitcoin.
Here’s The Inside Scoop:
Over the next five years Bitcoin will continue to gain mainstream acceptance as a superior store of value. We’ll see similar adoption patterns as we have with most emerging technologies — they will be used first by tech savvy citizens of wealthier countries and eventually as it becomes cheaper and easier to use, will be adopted by a greater diversity of people. As BTC gains a greater reputation than gold, we’ll see a mass influx of value not just from individuals, but also from sovereign wealth funds and central banks that manage currency reserves.
The road to “hyperbitcoinization” will be rocky. The larger Bitcoin grows, the more threatening it becomes to incumbents. We can expect to see more innovative attacks arrive in the form of social, technical, and financial manipulation. It will come down to the community of users to detect and mitigate these attacks — they are what make Bitcoin robust. If Bitcoin weathers the storms ahead, it will eventually emerge as the dominant currency that can withstand attacks from even the most powerful entities.