The coming year, 2016 is expected to turn out to be a great year for Bitcoin. Bitcoin value is expected to shoot further upwards, following the supply and demand principles.
Since its introduction in 2009, bitcoin has gone a lot of transformation. It has graduated from being the currency of deep internet to attain the status of global alternative currency. The digital currency is now being widely adopted by individuals and businesses alike. Due to reduced transaction costs and speed of transactions, bitcoin is now the most favorable currency for cross border transactions among many. Bitcoin remittance industry has seen a drastic growth, especially in Kenya and other African nations.
Bitcoin payments is also appearing as a standard option on many leading ecommerce sites, all pointing towards increasing popularity of bitcoin among people. Inclusion of bitcoin payment option on ecommerce sites, allows businesses to cater to global customers as it eliminates the challenges of currency conversion and fiat payment processor support for specific payment forms. Anyone with bitcoin can order and pay for the goods or services with bitcoin, irrespective of their geographical location.
Bitcoin mining is now a lucrative business for many companies who use large scale datacenters equipped with bitcoin mining ASICs. Miners are rewarded with freshly minted bitcoins every time they discover a new block. The bitcoin reward is programmed to be halved every 4 years. June 2016 will be the month when these rewards are going to be further halved.
All bitcoin transactions happening across the bitcoin network are recorded on a distributed ledger known as the blockchain and the same blockchain technology has now grown beyond bitcoin. Blockchain technology is now being used to create applications for various industries, including banking and FinTech. All these factors will be influential in driving the value of bitcoin upwards in the coming days.
It is also speculated that in the coming year bitcoin value may touch $1100 mark in 2016, further increasing to $4000 by the end of 2017. Only time will tell us whether it will really happen or not.