2018 saw crypto markets suffer a lot of turbulence with most investors keeping their cards close to their chests. The crypto bear market though was not the main story for 2018 and will not be for 2019 either, according to Coindesk contributor, Eric Piscini, who is the CEO of Citizens Reserve and former Blockchain lead for Deloitte.
Eric looks back at the early days for crypto around about 2012 when he and his two friends launched Deloitte’s Blockchain practice. In 2013 he moderated a panel at the Money2020 conference. He recalls Blockchain being so new at the time that it didn’t even have a proper name yet. Despite how green he and his friends were at the time about the industry, he knew that it was only a matter of when; the industry was going to blow up.
At the conference, various personalities such as Taariq Lewis, David Johnson, and Charlie Lee spoke about decentralized commodities, business models and self-governing organizations, as a clueless crowd listened on. In the midst of the lost crowd, Eric was fascinated and sought to learn more.
Eric remarks that one of the key lessons he’s learned on crypto in 2018, is that crypto’s with the loudest headlines are not necessarily the ones with the best stories to them. According to him the real notable points for crypto in 2018 were;
The rise of new tokens
New tokens such as security coins, non-fungible tokens, equity tokens, and stable coins demonstrated the vitality and versatility of the crypto industry. The fact that such a bearish year was able to see the advent of such diverse and innovative products is impressive
Significant crypto investments
2018 also saw a lot of interest in crypto from traditional financial institutions and new technology entities which led to a lot of investments being made.
Regulation
A lot of people see regulatory moves towards cryptos as death sentences but Eric thinks the opposite. In his view, regulatory measures, weed out all the bad actors in the industry and keeps them at bay. Secondly, he also asserts that regulatory moves prove that Crypto’s are not a fad and are here to stay.
So what does he expect in 2019?
Buying the Bottom
After the crypto winter, warmer days are in the offing. He believes that the early days of 2019, are your chance to buy the bottom. Some people may counter this assertion with some reports stating that cryptos are braced for a further short, but he believes that early 2019 is your time to bet on the best coins and best teams
Better core tech
Eric believes that the bear market has taught people that the Blockchain is not about getting rich tomorrow but more about tech improvements in scalability and performance.
Killer consumer app
Eric believes that we might just see an app that brings Block chain’s value to the non-techies.
Decentralized businesses
He admits that this is the hardest of his predictions, but he does conceive the rise of decentralized banks, insurance, supply chain, capital markets, and payments
He finally looks back at the money2020 conference in 2013 and notes that most of the ideas and predictions made by experts in that conference have become reality.
