After the turn of the New Year, Cryptstorm posted a review of the year in crypto in 2018. It covered some of the overarching storylines and trends in what was ultimately something of a disappointing year for cryptocurrency, and one in which there was essentially a prolonged slide in value. Much of what’s reviewable about cryptocurrency in 2018 is bitterly disappointing to proponents of the tech and investors in the assets. However, it also all set us up for a fairly interesting 2019, in that we simply know very little about what to expect moving forward, at least in terms of value trends. What we can predict, at least loosely, however, is what major storylines we might be talking about another year from now.
If we had to guess, these could well become some of the big stories and headlines surrounding cryptos by the end of 2019.
Venezuela’s Crypto Experiment
Not for the first time, a country in turmoil has raised questions of whether or not a cryptocurrency can effectively take over as the primary option for an entire nation. In this case, we’re talking about Venezuela, which unfortunately has been mired in significant civil conflict for some time now, with signs pointing toward escalation before any kind of reconciliation and rebuilding. In the meantime, the country has pegged some of its hopes for economic recovery on a cryptocurrency, which some view as a scam and others see as an opportunity. It’s exceedingly unlikely that this will end up being a positive example of a nation turning to cryptos, but as the Venezuela conflict unfolds throughout 2019 (and hopefully no longer), this will likely be an interesting story for those monitoring cryptos around the world regardless.
A Betting Takeover
Betting businesses are constantly expanding internationally, through casino games and sportsbooks, and are more recently making strides forward even in the United States. And one of the core questions of the involved businesses is what sort of system is win place for customers looking to spend money. Indeed, a U.S. resource for the expanding industry poses the question directly as one frequently asked by customers: How do I make deposits and withdrawals when using betting sites? Slowly but surely, some gaming and betting platforms are answering this question with crypto integration. We’d expect that more mainstream options such as PayPal, Skrill, and credit card processors will continue to be used. However, cryptos could also take over a significant portion of this business in short time. It may well be one of the main areas of adoption in 2019.
The Next Bull Run
This is not necessarily a prediction that there will be a bull run for major cryptos in 2019. However, if we’re to predict the storylines of the year ahead, this one is a virtual certainty in that we’ll either be discussing a bull run that’s happening, or anticipating the next one to no end. This comes from the simple fact that a lot of crypto supporters and even plenty of neutral observers haven’t given up on another surge in value at some point. If cryptos take off again in anything like the fashion they did in 2017, it will be the biggest story of the year; if they don’t, we’ll be talking about the potential that they might anyway.
The Facebook Potential
It’s somewhat surprising that the potential Facebook connection for cryptos hasn’t gotten more attention already. We learned early in 2018 that Mark Zuckerberg was studying cryptocurrencies for potential integration in Facebook, and while we’re not sure exactly what this means, it’s something to keep in the back of our minds. It could well be that Zuckerberg has since lost interest or decided against integration, but if not, we could well see more news surrounding the potential ability to send and receive cryptos via our Facebook and possibly Facebook Messenger platforms.