Five reasons 2018 could be the best year yet for cryptocurrencies

1. The work on scaling issues BTC LTC

BTC is the most important cryptocurrency. Most government-backed money that goes in and out of crypto goes through bitcoin, so what happens to the original cryptocurrency affects the entire market.

The token's market dominanc at 40 percent as of Wednesday. By my estimates, however, it's clear bitcoin's market dominance should return to 70 percent of the entire space eventually.

I am guessing we see 150 percent potential upside in bitcoin for 2018 and litecoin maybe even more [percentage wise].

Bitcoin now can't handle more than six or seven (or, with the "Segregated Witness" protocol upgrade, it's 12 to 14) transactions a second. Compare that with credit cards, which involve thousands of transactions per second, so the criticism about bitcoin's ability to be useful at larger scales is understandable.

The scalability has in it high fees as well. It could make room for Litecoin if they do not do anything about this.

The best solution as I see it, is second-layer peer-to-peer off-chain networks. Lightning Network allows for transactions off the blockchain, thereby decreasing the transaction costs almost to zero and increasing the speed and scalability almost infinitely. LITECOIN will benefit most from this but.

In the coming months, there will be a violent sharp uptick in transactions and the use of more bitcoin in these channels. What's more, the Lightning Network doesn't have any fee. Yes! ZERO!

2. Large scale and more legitimate ICOs [use of ETH and BTC]

Like last year, initial coin offerings (ICOs) will impact the ethereum network because ICOs usually require plenty of ether. ETH being used all the time to fund ICOs would mean growth x10 in 2018, and The cryptocurrency's price could possibly triple to $2,000.

Though other platforms could see similar gains, its most likely to see ethereum will be the main focus and also BITCOIN.

3. Regulation [BTC, ETH, LTC]

With all the talk about regulations will hurt markets, this is really a short-sighted look at things. In the long run, companies are going to need rules for the sake of legal stability and certainty. You will see a day, the word Regulation will not be a bad thing, but it will give users and institutional clients the confidence to invest! Right now they just do not have the confidence to get them over the line and dump in huge money to the crypto asset space, that will soon change by the end of 2018 I feel.

While some see regulation as a bad thing, I feel the mentality of users and investors will soon see this as a positive thing for the entire environment.

4. A lot of execution and usability [LTC especially]

LITEPAY with litecoin and other cryptos is a game changer as the number of users and merchants is set to increase sharply in 2018. Its just the beginning. So watch LITECOIN rocket as they comes into focus, and implemented more and more.

This would burnish the current reputation of cryptocurrencies, with companies trusting them even more. Daily transactoin in crypto? Well who really knows? its early days here, and it could be massive.

Start-ups bomb, of course, it happens time and time again. But the spectacular successes of companies such as Airbnb or uber, help mask those failures. Likewise, cryptocurrency and in the start up space here will overshadow the negative news of other start ups going belly up.

5. Institutional investors [ETH BTC]

2018 will be a stellar year for cryptocurrencies as this will be the first year of solid institutional and big money do start to flow some of their funds into the ecosystem.

I would guess that $12 billion to $14 billion has so far flown into the crypto ecosystem, but that's nothing compared to what institutional funds could invest. Since the beginning, at least $500 billion, the next $10 billion to $12 billion, which is small potatoes for some funds, and we would see a market cap over 1 Trillion dollars all up. That would take up prices very dramatically by end of the year. This is a just a guess on my part.

Conclusion

Lets say you combine all these factors above, the market's upside potential could rise to up to seven or eight times the present levels. While this might not be as much of a multiple comparing that to 2017, it is much higher in absolute terms. So if that sort of analogy is right, it would make 2018 the most successful year in crypto currencies ever. Additionally, this sort of growth might not be based on hype or hope as it would be on solid foundations when you do the math above.

Please remember, this is in no way investment advice, and should definitely do your own homework, and take your own actions based on that. When you dismiss real risks it can cause you to lose money and I would not want that for you.

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