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2018 was a year full of events in the crypto industry.
The market has suffered a severe price correction to the extent that some are starting to doubt the future promises of blockchain. Yet despite all the losses and FUDs, fundamentals continue to grow and 2019 promises to be an exciting year in terms of developing projects and cryptocurrencies going towards the mainstream.
Institutional bodies are becoming more interested in cryptocurrencies.
An example of this is the US state of Ohio that accepts tax payments in Bitcoin. Even merchants who accept cryptocurrencies as payments have grown in number, with several people testifying on social media as they have paid for goods and services with cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH and BNB. They include the notable traders who accept Bitcoin overstock, eGifter, Expedia, Shopify, is others.
Another metric that expresses the growth of the sector is the amount of talent that has been attracted to the blockchain. Research carried out by Glassdoor reveals a 300% increase in job openings linked to the blockchain in 2018 (compared to 2017).
This metric challenges the downward trend of the Bitcoin price, as can be seen in the table below:
Despite the heavy downward trend in the prices of 2018, many would still be in agreement with the investor Anthony Pompliano that Bitcoin is the better performance than the decade. This is important for long-term cryptic investors, as they look beyond the immediate state of the industry for the impact it will have on the future world economy.
As the 2018 draws to a close, it is time to look forward to what 2019 has in store for the growth and development of the sector.
The launch of financial products on the stock exchange in 2019
2018 was full of rumors of institutional investors who bought cryptocurrency, in particular Bitcoin.
This did not determine the rise in the assessment that many expected to accompany him. Several times, the Bitcoin's proposal was rejected in 2018. But the feeling is starting to change, like a The SEC Commissioner stated that a Bitcoin ETF is "definitely possible".
In 2019, a new impetus is expected in the encryption that is gaining support in the world of traditional finance.
Nasdaq is workatively referred to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to launch Bitcoin futures in the first quarter of 2019 and the report was recently published confirmed.
Furthermore, the launch of Bakkt Bitcoin Futures is expected launch in January 2019, after being rejected by the original launch date of December 12, 2018.
Developments to be expected from the crypto projects in 2019
Bitcoin
The Bitcoin blockchain continues to develop despite the bear market, the most notable aspect of development is the Lightning network.
Currently Bitcoin processes about 7 transactions per second. This low transaction speed is the main technical argument against Bitcoin.
The Lightning Network is a solution created at the end of 2017 to help Bitcoin climb and achieve a high transaction speed. The lightning network has been a witness constant progress during 2018, has gained adoption from a payment processing start known as CoinGate, is recently it has grown by 300% with the support of over 4,000 knots.
A full version of the Lightning Network is scheduled for 2019. Success will therefore be based on adoption, which will take time.
Ethereum
Since its release in 2015, Ethereum's blockchain already has so many games and games on its network that have been raised regarding downsizing.
Ethereum boasts over 2,000 simple things on its platform, and developers have been forced to create a solution to its scalability problems. The functionality of the intelligent contract must also be constantly updated, as the blockchain industry continues to evolve.
The next Ethereum update is arriving in January 2019. The update, called Constantinpole, is designed to improve the efficiency of blockchain, reduce the reward of blockers for miners and make the blockchain more resistant to ASICs.
Much later, in 2019, Ethereum foresees a second update, which will include the implementation of the Casper Protocol is sharding.
Casper will transfer Ethereum from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) protocol to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS). PoS solves the problem of large mining operations that have too much energy during the blockchain.
Sharding will allow the Ethereum blockchain to achieve higher transaction rates by partitioning network resources such that a single node does not have to process each transaction in the blockchain history to create a new transaction.
litecoin
Litecoin is consolidating its status of silver for Bitcoin gold.
With Bitcoin becoming a store of value, people might be reluctant to use it in daily transactions, preferring instead to store it. Litecoin is an alternative created to allow daily payments.
The Litecoin Foundation already has a campaign that encourages this, paywithlitecoin.co, which shows the benefits of paying with LTC, such as high-speed transactions and low fares.
The LTC rates are expected to fall much lower with the release of Litecoin Core 0.17. This The update was announced in October 2018, and will probably be published at the beginning of 2019.
However, it is unlikely that Lightning Network will become a fully functioning product in 2019, although significant development is expected to be completed on it.
Furthermore, Litecoin is trying to activate anonymous transactions on its blockchain to increase its fungibility. This was suggested by Litecoin Founder Charlie Lee on the popular crypto TV program, Magical friends cryptoand it could be Litecoin's priority for 2019.
Cardano
Cardano is should release the characteristics of the Shelley phase in 2019, starting with the stake pool delegation and testnet. Shelley is the development phase of Cardano aimed at making the project completely decentralized and autonomous.
In addition, Cardano is able to offer advanced smart contract features suitable for business use, particularly with regard to transaction speed.
TRON
TRON launched its main network on 25 June 2018 and has been continuously growing ever since.
Recently, Tron has passed Ethereum in the use of dapps, as well as in the number and volume of transactions put through these dapps.
In a recent interviewJustin Sun, CEO of the Tron Foundation, says so Tron will adopt zk-SNARKS in the network. Expected for the first quarter of 2019, tits meaning is that TRX transfer tokens can be anonymous and private to a greater extent.
It is also worth mentioning the acquisition of BitTorrent by Tron in July 2018, which is a move to promote Tron's mainstream adoption. Tron will use its network to build BitTorrent more efficiently in 2019, a development known as Project Atlas.
OmiseGo
The OmiseGo Project is bringing financial services to the unpaid world, focusing in particular on Asia. OmiseGo is based on Ethereum as a peer-to-peer payment system and on a decentralized exchange.
In 2019, the project should reach a milestone in their roadmap, creating a scalable PoS blockchain and a decentralized exchange.
The completed, current and imminent phases of development can be seen in the following roadmap:
Hyperledger
Hyperledger is an open-source, non-profit, independent, intelligent contract platform originally launched by The Linux Foundation.
Hyperledger is focused on creating a platform suitable for large organizations, such as IBM and Intel, interested in blockchains and smart contracts.
On October 1, 2018, Hyperledger announced a partnership with the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), becoming both associated members in the organization of the other. This is expected to trigger a partnership in 2019, which would probably lead to interoperability of the Hyperledger and Ethereum blockchains.
Qtum
Qtum is a noteworthy platform with a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) verification system. The mainnet was launched in September 2017 and a number of developments they have already taken place on the platform.
Qtum plans to launch its QtumX enterprise version in the first quarter of 2019. In the second quarter of 2019, Qtum is expected to release its first public testnet with x86 smart contractsand the mainnet integration of the x86 virtual machine is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2019.
Qtum also plans to introduce Lightning Network in 2019. This will help the blockchain platform to scale and achieve higher transaction speeds. The plan is to have a public testnet of the Qtum lightning network in the second quarter.
Zilliqa
Zilliqa it is a blockchain platform for hosting decentralized applications similar to Ethereum.
The considerable advantage offered by Zilliqa is a transaction speed that is many times higher than what Ethereum currently offers. According to website, the platform is able to perform up to 2,828 transactions per second.
The launch of the Zilliqa mainnet was previously scheduled for the third quarter of 2018. However, it was rescheduled due to concerns on the readiness of the code.
January 2019 was announced the time frame for the launch of Zilliqa mainnet.
Other cryptographic products and services arriving in 2019
IOTA and Volkswagen have scheduled the launch of a digital car pass for Q1 2019. This would be the first functioning product for IOTA. This should be the first of many, as already the IOTA partnership with other companies with those who plan to create products with their Tangle technology.
Recently, Coinbase started offering a counter-top trading desk (OTC) for the institutions get the crypts exposure.
Binance also has he started the tests a fiat-to-crypt exchange in Singapore. The full launch is scheduled for 2019, with many other trading and trading tools also online to be introduced in the encrypted market.
Conclusion
The crypto industry showed a great resilience in 2018 despite the bear market.
Throughout 2018, the industry has been obsessed with regulatory voices that have contributed to the FUD regarding the future of cryptography. Now that there is a glimpse of what the regulations will be for the industry, the focus will be on efficiency (through development) and adoption (through marketing efforts) in the new year.
The impact that these developments will have on the evaluation of cryptocurrencies is still uncertain. While there are arguments for a bull run, short sellers could still have an impact on the market for a longer period of time.
In spite of everything that happened, in 2019 there are a lot of things that we will not see now – the above are just a selection of some of the developments we can expect in the new year.
2019 will certainly not be like 2018, nor will it be like 2017. What the year will reveal will be in the hands of developers, business managers, marketers and various stakeholders in the industry's ecosystem.
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