A Look Into Blockchain Development: What Will the Decentralized Market Look Like in 2019?

The crypto market was more robust than ever in 2017. While 2018 has had an unimpressive run. This is because nearly all coins are careening down by 80% from their record all-time highs.

Last year closed with November and December seeing the largest crypto market growth percentage with Bitcoin attaining a $600 billion in market cap. Consequently, the price of the digital asset shot up to $20,000. This year, similar price movements have been seen despite the fact that the market players were not prepared for the plunge.

A Rundown of the Crypto Space in 2018

Since last year new technologies were experimented with in a bid to tackle the challenges that may have not been obvious initially. Bitcoin’s low scalability pushed  transaction fees up by 2,000%. This issue along with slow transaction speed, led to the lauch of the Segwit protocol that created Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

Bitcoin Lightning network was also launched. Ethereum (ETH) developed Plasma and Casper. However, troubles still continue within the space. ICOs were marred by scams. Not to talk about the hackings on different Crypto exchanges.

Finance and E-commerce

Today, strides have been made regarding crypto changing the finance sector. This allows the Blockchain initiative to be integrated into the payment gateways via off chain transactions and using masternodes. Ripple Foundation (XRP), has been in talks with leading banks to provide Ripple products to users. This will clear the way for the incorporation of cryptos into the banking industry.

While XRP targets institutions to activate global transactions, Stellar (XLM), is focused on individuals with the same goal. Through Stellar, we are seeing significant strides made towards making digital assets a functional form of exchange. After all this was the goal from the onset. These notable developments will certainly continue in 2019.

Trading

Negative market sentiments may sound scary but trading and investing in digital assets remain hugely unaffected. Crypto exchanges still managed to move billions of dollars per day in 2018. OKEx moved $513 million, Binance moved $464 million and ZB.COM transacted up to $430 million according to CoinMarketCap.

The three exchanges on the top accounted for $1 billion in trade volume and more than 200 transactions are on the list. This indicates that trading is an essential actor in the crypto ecosystem and will not disappear anytime soon. Making sure that entities entrusted with huge amounts of funds are safe and secure will reduce the risk of suffering loss of millions of dollars as a result of hacking. In 2019 the development of completely decentralized exchanges will be paramount.

Social Networks

Thanks to social networks the world has become a global village. Blockchain projects looking to make enhanced third-generation networks that will address the shortcomings of second generation networks have been developed in recent months. One of such projects is Steemit.

However, the project on the Steem Blockchain did not have the impact every cryptocurrency enthusiast anticipated. But there is also Indorse, a Social Network dedicated to selling Ads. It offers users rewards in IND tokens. These tokens are used to make a user activity index. The project managed to raise $9 M from its ICO. It is set to continue its development in 2019.

Princess Ogono is a writer, lawyer and fitness enthusiast. She believes cryptocurrencies are the future. When she's not writing, she spends time with her adorable cat, Ginger and works out often.

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