State of the Blockchain, 2018 outlook
Amidst a wide spread down turn for BTC and Alt coins there is a lot of silly skepticism about this being the beginning of the "bubble" popping. I won't go into why that's wrong, there are already too many posts about it. Never fear blockchain is here to stay. What we are seeing is a large scale correction as investors cash out and the FUD slide following it.
Instead I'd like to share my outlook for 2018...
Bitcoin (BTC)
Current market cap: $242,000,000,000+
Will Bitcoin survive the drop? Yes. Bitcoin is the ideology behind blockchain movement. As long as fresh investors are coming to play it will have a place. That very fact will keep a steady, albeit volatile, growth in the near future. The problem Bitcoin will face in the long term is it's functional viability. The fees are high, its incredibly slow compared to most other currencies and development is lackluster. Top that with the perpetual mountain of unconfirmed transactions and you really see who Bitcoin is. As investors and implementors of blockchain wise up, it's going to start having some real resistance in a few years. My best guess at 2018 is seeing this climb over 40k or 50k in value with higher volatility.
Bitcoin Cash (BTH)
Current market cap: $49,000,000,000+
Let me start with this... was never a true believer in BTH. I see BTH is a salvage shipwreck developers are trying to cast back out to sea. Developers have proven it can float and it has done very well this year. I think it faces some real competition and even after the fork it is running on what should be considered deprecated blockchain concepts (PoW). Also they garner a lot of hate from a sizable portion of the Crypto community. Many claim Roger Ver is manipulating the market by releasing press and gaining media coverage bashing BTC and saying BTH is the new BTC. I hope 2018 goes down as the year all projects need to put up or shut up... that all depends on how fast the majority of blockchain investors educate themselves. I think it will at least remain above $2000 in 2018, but who knows... with Coinbase and Bitwala support it could see highs of $6000.
Ethereum (ETH)
Current market cap: $67,000,000,000+
Ethereum has a bright future ahead. After the proof of stake change we should see a much faster network. Also several big enhancements are in the pipeline to make DAPPs easier to develop. If Vitalik can continue his marketing rampage next year and continue developer acquisition; the added use case value and public interest is going to skyrocket. ETH is ending the year in a great place. I have a lot of confidence the ETH team will deliver and we will easily see over $1500 value.
Litecoin (LTC)
Current market value: $15,000,000,000+
Litecoin should see continued steady growth in 2018. Partnership for use on Yours.org (Steemit competitor) and a dedicated development team with clear vision has my confidence LTC is here to stay. Also LTC has one of the most genuine leaders in the blockchain community. Charlie is honest about the value of LTC even when it's over valued. He recently sold off his interest to remove any his conflict of interests and build more trust in the community. My rough prediction for LTC in 2018 will be over $500.
Ripple (XRP)
Current market cap: $46,000,000,000+
Love it or hate it, Ripple absolutely killed it this year. I had strong confidence throughout the year that XRP was going to end on a high value. Ripple has a strong advantage over ALL the other coins here... Government and Financial institution backing, extremely dedicated and experienced development team, marketing vision and proven ability to deliver. Ripple has several pieces of software IP that the company is winning at integrating with large vendors across the world. As implementations continue to be validated and go live the number of transactions will snowball and the market cap will crawl up toward BTCs current cap over the next 3 years. This means it wouldn't be shocking to see XRP value hit $2-3 in 2018. Add in investor hype and FOMO, it could easily end up overvalued in 2018 well above $3.
STEEM/SBD (STEEM / SBD)
Current market cap: $850,000,000 / $43,000,000+
There is plenty of coverage about predictions for STEEM and SBD here on Steemit. I'm not a "whale" or veteran Steemit user and I've not been around to see it grow from the start. I have been following it and what the community is building from a distance, including following the development efforts of Condenser and SteemJS. I believe STEEM/SBD stand to grow 100% over 2018 easily. We are already seeing the state of competing communities leading to a fallout and discovery of Steemit and Dtube. This growth will continue, I have no doubts. If Steemit can build a public and strong marketing pipeline for 2018, correct the issues with user acquisition (slow account registration, no cross-network affiliation) and get some form of mobile app together it could be far beyond 100% growth next year.
I chose a few top coins here that would hold interest with the community here. These are not the only coins I have interest or invest in. Before year's end I'll be sharing my thoughts on a few other big announcements in blockchain for 2018.
Disclaimer: As with any crypto post, the thoughts shared here are my opinions...don't stake your life on these outlooks.
If you like my "State of the Blockchain", please upvote and share your thoughts in the comments!
Cheers, Willsling