My prediction for 2018:
I believe that mass adoption is in progress and that it will accelerate as the year 2018 unfolds. There are a lot of highly anticipated blockchain apps that will be starting various stages of operation, and in turn, showing the superiority of a decentralized blockchain over traditional centralized businesses. The stunning savings earned by users will cause floods of new investors and clients, further straining the exchange services. This will drive many to the newer Exchanges with low or zero fees, these new Exchanges will then see huge growth and expansion while the more costly but well-known Exchanges will begin to stagnate.
There will be a string of scandals and frauds that will involve various covert methods of skimming cryptos and defrauding clients being exposed. These will cause ripples across the markets that will lead to greater success of open and trustworthy crypto projects and kill other projects due to rumors of connections with fraudsters or a perceived lack of credibility.
It is my belief that the current Bull market in cryptos is not the same as those in the past. My contention is that major corporations all over the world are at this moment scrambling to find their place in the blockchains, and they have new fully staffed development teams working on integrating ASAP so that they do not get left behind stuck in outdated tech. This means that the employees of those corporations are finding out that cryptos are going to explode up over the next 1-5 years. They are also privy to inside information because they know what their own corporation will be utilizing on the blockchain, as well as any sister corporations our partners. So the top levels of management in major corporations are at this very minute starting to carefully take positions in those cryptos that they know for a fact will be winners. And throughout the year that info will be leaked downhill from management to lower level employees, and to all of their friends. So I suspect that we are now sitting on the tip of the star of an upside-down Christmas tree like growth chart that spring upward and expand outward as the next couple of years goes by.
I further believe that Steem will be one of, if not the biggest winner in the first and second Quarter's as people are rapidly learning about its versatility, it's easy path for newcomers into the blockchain technology, and because SMT's are going to explode into a lot of new apps on the Steem blockchain.
After the second quarter EOS will lead the way and the crypto market will undergo a massive shift and get a complete makeover. At least 1000 new apps, many belonging to major and well know corporations, will begin operation on the EOS blockchain in June. These apps will instantly make some of the leading crypto apps that we currently see on the market obsolete or insignificant. EOS will in short order take over the top marketcap position and begin to dominate the cryptosphere.
Once any bugs or problems are solved following the launch of EOS, and I expect there to be few, then Dan Larimer will turn back to his first two babies and either help integrate them with EOS, or revitalize them by adding changes using the knowledge that he learned from constructing EOS. Bitshares and Steemit are part of his posterity and unless the current managers just refuse his help, I think he will do all that he can to improve his image, his resume, and to just have that good feeling from knowing that his children will survive and prosper.
By the end of 2018 Substratum will be picking up major adoption and taking off as the new Internet. There will be many technological hurdles to pass along the way that will slow progress, but billions of people worldwide will be demanding free and open Internet, and they will have it. At or before this point Governments and corporations that can not be easily converted to services on the blockchain or that will no longer be viable in any form, will begin a death struggle, a sort of corporate fight or flight syndrome. Who knows what that will bring.
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