How Does Bitcoin Position Itself on Financial Markets?
A fast growing cyber-currency, Bitcoin has become an issue of high interest for the media, speculators, and even the U.S. government. Up until a couple of years ago, there were multiple stories about Bitcoin, most of them related to the fact that the currency is mined by computers and circulates without being regulated by a central bank. As such, there was a rather science-fiction appeal about the currency, with many finding it difficult to tell whether the currency was real or just a nerds’ gimmick.
The fact remains that Bitcoin is a somewhat complicated matter and it does not seem that this will change for the foreseeable future. Mike Hearn, a Google engineer that develops Bitcoin software on the side, argues that facilitating Bitcoin transactions is certainly something that will be of high interest among traders in the future, but the software is likely to remain complicated for the years to come and those who are looking to build more consumer-friendly interfaces will face challenges.
The Difficult Issue of Bitcoin Regulation
What is also certain is that Bitcoin will end up being completely regulated, simply because this is part of any mature financial system. The U.S. government has taken a keen interest in the virtual currency, and experts believe that Bitcoin needs to be regulated, but the main problem is that the concept seems difficult to grasp, even for financial specialists.
According to Primavera De Filippi, a faculty associate at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard and researcher at CERSA / CNRS, “Bitcoin is slowly making its way into the digital economy”, which means that it is nowadays accepted by a growing net of merchants as a form of payment for their products. Some examples include Newegg, overstock, Expedia, Dell, and Microsoft.
As Bitcoin operates independently as a decentralized payment system, it means that people can exchange it on a peer-to-peer basis, without the need of going through a financial intermediary. Some of the challenges that regulations have to meet when it comes to virtual currencies include money-laundering and terrorist financing as well as taxation complications.
Bitcoin Forecasts for 2017
In 2016, the price for Bitcoins rose more than 100 %, which pushed the price for a single Bitcoin to $963 in December from about $430 at the beginning of the year. Bobby Lee, CEO of one of the leading Bitcoin exchanges in China, BTCC, believes that the scope of this cyber-currency can be further expanded.
A similar growth is expected for 2017, but there are multiple factors that can influence the price of Bitcoins to take into account. These include rising interest rates, an influx of new money, as well as the past performance of Bitcoin on the financial markets. Joe Lee, the founder of Magnr, estimates that “2017 will be the year Bitcoin’s price stabilizes over $1,500.”
Other analysts go even further to predict that 2017 will break the $2,000 wall for the Bitcoin. Vinny Lingham, the founder of Civic, appreciates that Bitcoin prices will be somewhere between $2,000 and $3,000 by the end of the year. His opinion is shared by Petar Zivkovski, COO at Whaleclub, who believes that 2017 will be a spectacular year for Bitcoin and that the end of the year price for the virtual currency will be somewhere close or just above $2,000.
Experts argue that it is possible for the Bitcoin to double in value every year for the foreseeable future. As a number of nations begin a war on cash, there is only room for the Bitcoin to grow up and it will continue to do so until it reaches its full potential.
Bitcoin’s Future Looks Bright
Even though it was initially called “a failed experiment” and even “a Ponzi scheme”, Bitcoin has survived multiple existential crises and nowadays it is in its eight year of operation. The network has developed considerably, and taking into account that it takes years to build up a financial protocol of this nature, Bitcoin is on track to become an important player on the market.
Analysts argue that even though Bitcoin is not really perfect and there are still lots of problems to overcome, it is essential to take into account the fact that its potential is not yet reached, and that the Internet will ultimately win in getting its very first true payment protocol.