Since countries worldwide started imposing lockdown, bitcoin has been pretty flat. The stock markets and retail markets are underperforming. Barring an imminent crash down, cryptocurrency markets too followed the suite. Though not experiencing a crash down, the volatility is low in cryptocurrencies. However, the situation is not going to remain the same. Slowly but surely, bitcoin will regain pace. Even now, it does not come in terms with real situation, which encompasses underperforming stock markets and forex. Similarly, bitcoin halving went just about business on 11th May 2020, it will certainly have impact on the volatility of bitcoin market. Obviously, bitcoin market will time and again, grow bigger than ever.
Recent developments in the world of cryptocurrencies:
Everyone talks about the boredom in cryptocurrency markets, basically because they want fast movements in the market preferably upwards. Nevertheless, bitcoin has always been a hodl game. There are some interesting developments going around the world in the crypto space. For instance, Ethereum 2.0 is finally launching around the time of writing this post. That is great news since it improves on scalability of Ethereum and has positive long term effects on bitcoin and overall crypto market as well. A lot of integrated solutions twin up bitcoin and Ethereum. Most cryptocurrency traders use both these currencies interchangeably. On the other hand, bitcoin halving opens up new challenges against its scalability. Any developments even on other popular cryptocurrencies are good for Bitcoin now.
Why it calls for improvement in scalability?
To be straight forward, transaction speed is terrible with bitcoin. Unless you pay a hefty fee, transactions can take anywhere from 20 minutes to even a couple of days to complete. The current system manages only about 2-7 transactions per second on bitcoin and about 12 transactions per second on Ethereum. How are we going to enable the larger population to use these systems with such low transaction rates? Unless it does not give quick and easy access via faster transaction speed, cryptocurrencies are never going to enjoy mainstream adoption. At the moment, bitcoin is not ready for the whole world to enter into this new financial system, which is an amazing alternative to fiat payments.
Millennials – the new demographic:
Besides all the technicalities, scalability and adoption needs to do with demographics. The millennials are more inclined towards switching to this new form of economy. They have gadgets and awareness to deal with it. On other front, you have governments moving towards embracing cryptocurrencies with constant surveillance. There are bitcoin to fiat currency exchanges operating within the legal framework of most conservative territories. These are the promising moves that will help making bitcoin accessible to the masses. Moreover, the early adopters purchase cryptocurrency cards that work at ATMs worldwide. With more ICOs coming into play, we can definitely see developments along that line too.
A lot of aspects regarding bitcoin scalability are still under cloud of doubt. With regards to how quickly bitcoin will scale for billions of people, no one can tell for certain how long it will take. Ifs and buts, is how it works for now. Complete adoption is expected to happen by 2024 through constant development, improvement and provision of solutions for the scalability issues.
