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Ever since Satoshi Nakamoto announced the wonders of blockchain and cryptocurrency to the world, Bitcoin has been in news, and its price has risen to another dimension now! Since the very inception of the concept of cryptocurrency, there were speculations that it might not sustain for a long time, in the world of law and order, and centralized banking system. But against all odds, cryptocurrency skyrocketed and broke its own records, when Bitcoin touched $7500 per coin this November (2017).
There’s a popular term associated with Bitcoin holders, and that is – HODLERS. It is not a typo, but a well-known term in the crypto-world, which means, that the investors hold on to their coins, despite a dip in the market, unlike in other areas, where a sudden dip forces everyone to sell and pull out.
The bitcoin value was largely undermined by early investors who called the entire system, merely a bubble that was about to burst, but then, people’s trust in it proved everyone wrong, as it rose to heights!
How Perfect is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin isn’t a perfect currency either, as it has its own limitations. With ever increasing number of transactions on blockchain, and increasing pressure, weighing down the entire system, a humungous challenge stands before bitcoin miners – to either increase the blockchain size or reduce the number of transactions per block, so that the overall speed can be enhanced, and more efficiency can be added. But with that also, number of challenges will arise, and the major one that the miners are worried about is – centralization of currency. With less number of transactions per block or with double the number of block size, only the miners with bigger computing powers will be able to make profits. Fees per transaction will come down and small miners will suffer.
Cancellation of SegWit2x’s Hard Fork
This is the primary reason behind cancellation of SegWit2x, which was planned to be conducted in November 2017. With the cancellation of this much awaited hard fork, Bitcoin community has been divided into two different opinions. One side is satisfied with the decision as it will maintain the integrity and core values of the coin, while other side worries about the future of the currency, as one day, or the other, a hard fork will be required to host and process all the transactions.
This cancellation is seen in positive light, in the sense that miners admit, that their faith in the currency and people, has been restored, because the decision was in their favour. Investors on the other side, worry about the expansion in future, as more people are investing every day in cryptocurrency, leading to more transactions on the existing blockchain, hence increasing pressure. This cancellation also led to a rift between miners of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash was a result of a hard fork that happened in August 2017, after which the price of Bitcoin touched the legendary $5000 mark!
But, annulment of this recent fork did affect Bitcoin price, though for a short-time, but it did cause Bitcoin to fall down below the $6000 mark. It did scare the investors, or so to say, the entire world, but then it caught pace and rose up within a couple hours, again.
Coinbase revealed that every day they add 10,000 new accounts to their database, and on some good days, the number rises as high as 50,000. With such a huge number of accounts being added, imagine the number of transactions being executed. Thus, there exists a dire need of expansion, and it is due near future.
Bitcoin Gold Goes Live
BTG or Bitcoin Gold, was a highly anticipated fork that brought a new subsidiary of Bitcoin – Bitcoin Gold in the market. The fork happened in late October 2017, but BTG has gone live only today (13th November 2017). Before its commencement, the price of BTG soared as high as $450 per coin, although it wasn’t even confirmed whether the coin is solid enough to sustain at that price or not. Just because the name Bitcoin is associated with a coin, the prices swell unbelievably, and that is what happened with Bitcoin Gold too.
Right now, the price is somewhere between $260 to $290 per coin, which again is too high for an altcoin at its commencement stage, but that is what the name ‘Bitcoin’ does! Bitcoin Gold works on Equihash algorithm, unlike Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash which use SHA256 (secure hash algorithm). Equihash is more secure and robust than SHA-256 and the unique thing about Bitcoin Gold is that they support Segregated Witness (SegWit), they ensure protection from Replay Attacks and they provide a unique address format to the users, something which Bitcoin does not have currently.
Bitcoin Gold is seen as a better option to invest by the investors, only because of the features it supports and the layers of security it has added to the previous system of cryptocurrency. Within 24 hours Bitcoin Gold first touched the $500 mark, and then crashed to $300, which put the investors in a dilemma whether to invest in it or not. But since then, it has held its position strongly and has been recovering from the sharp decline.
What holds for the future of Bitcoin Gold and cryptocurrency in general is something that only time can tell. But one thing is for sure, that cryptocurrency is reckoned to rise in future, as every business is inviting blockchain to its operations, for more security and to retain their investors. If a business will want to continue the old-school way, in future, there are high chances that investors might support his competitor who will have blockchain technology embedded in their operations. So, blockchain is indeed tech of the future, and as predictions have it, cryptocurrency will rise, under all circumstances.