BOLT Examines The Next Decade in Cryptocurrency Mobile Payments

January 6, 2020         By: Steven Anderson

There’s no doubt that the last decade in cryptocurrency has been an utter panic. Back in 2009, bitcoin was essentially worthless, and didn’t actually take on much measurable value until March 2010, when bitcoin was worth around $0.003 per. Fast forward to the end of the year when bitcoin briefly flirted with $20,000 before settling into its current level of about $7,000. It’s one of the biggest new trends in mobile payments, and our friends at BOLT sent us some projections about what the 2020s might look like in mobile payments.

The word came in via co-founder and chief commercial officer of BOLT.Global Christel Quek, who noted that the chances of seeing bitcoin back to its $20,000 highs are pretty remote. However, Quek does look for “more investor interest” to show up in the next decade.

That’s bad news for all those folks who mortgaged their houses to buy in at the roughly-$20,000 level, but still. With everybody from Facebook to the US government starting to look into issuing cryptocurrencies, it’s not out of line to suggest that the old-school versions could take on new life.

Meanwhile, changes in China and other countries could portend some new life in the investment front. In fact, if China liberalizes and the west gets excessively authoritarian, it could effectively hand China the reins on cryptocurrency as a whole.

In sum, BOLT considers the 2010s to be an “exploratory phase”, while looking for the 2020s to be the phase for “innovation and application.”

Valid enough, and we’re likely to see a lot of innovation and application come around. We’ve seen as much with the previous slate of blockchain-based predictions for 2020. There’s certainly more than enough room for cryptocurrency to advance, and we’re already seeing moves toward making it more accessible. But first, cryptocurrency in general has to break this stigma that it’s basically just a thing for criminals and speculators. Without use cases-and plenty of them-the end result will be a go-nowhere picture for crypto.

With institutional investors getting in on the action, and even governments starting up, the next 10 years may be a lot more stable for cryptocurrency in general. Only time, however, will tell just where this all ends up.