When will cryptocurrencies and blockchain really explode?

Every day there is more news about what can, can and should happen in the world of Cryptocurrencies (CC’s) and Blockchain. There has been significant investment, research, and much talk, but the coins and projects are still not mainstream. They have not yet delivered the anticipated explosive changes. Many ideas are being discussed and developed, but none have yielded big, game-changing results. What may be needed is for the big players in the industry, such as IBM, Microsoft and the big financial services corporations, to continue to move forward in developing useful Blockchain applications, without which the entire world CANNOT live.

Financial services are a ripe target for Blockchain projects because current banking systems are still based on archaic ideas that have been faithfully and painfully digitized, and because these systems are archaic, they are expensive to maintain and operate. Banks almost have a good reason for charging the high service fees they charge: their systems are not efficient. These systems have many redundant data layers, as everyone involved in a transaction must have their version of the transaction details. And then there is the business of ensuring that there is a trusted third party to erase all these transactions, which requires even more versions of the same data. Blockchain technology offers the promise of addressing these issues, as each transaction will be captured in ONE single block on the chain, and because it is a distributed database, security and integrity are built in and guaranteed. It may take some time to build trust in these new systems, given that Blockchain transaction verifiers are not the traditional clearinghouses that banks use and trust today. Banks’ confidence in a new technology will take time, and it will take even longer for that confidence to trickle down to consumers.

Another company that may soon be ready to give CC and Blockchain a big push is Amazon. It seems that Amazon is preparing to launch its own crypto currency. This is a company with revenues the size of a good sized country, and is in a position to issue a digital token that would be fully convertible with other CCs and fiat currencies as well. A move like this would allow Amazon to:

• issue coins (AMAZON) to reward and incentivize developers on any of their platforms
• issue coins to consumers to use for in-app purchases
• issue coins to game players for the purchase of virtual in-game goodies
• issue coins to regular customers as part of a loyalty program

Amazon may have the ideal ecosystem of customers and partners to make all of this happen. Worldwide they have around 300 million customer accounts, roughly the population of the US, and have 100,000 sellers on their platforms, with millions of items for sale. There is hardly a more mainstream company than Amazon, with a massive and vibrant economy all tied together. Amazon’s imminent entry into the world of CCs may indicate the adoption of blockchain technology by major institutions on a large scale. What could be just around the corner if an AMAZON coin comes into play is a DISNEY coin, a DELTA AIRLINES coin, a CARNIVAL CRUISES coin, a HOME DEPOT coin – you get the picture.

Stay tuned!