Not a day goes by without you coming across a message in the news about Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency. What are the important developments for cryptocurrency in the coming months? In this article I will discuss the 4 most important.

A few examples of those messages: Microsoft working on a cryptocurrency based on brain waves and body heat. Millions of clocks in Europe that have slowed down due to cryptocurrency ‘mining’. But also large companies such as Paypal, VISA and Mastercard, which, after previous negative statements, are now suddenly proactively working with it. …

It would overthrow governments and make banks obsolete. Libertines and anarchists saw blockchain technology as the means to strip both institutions of their power. It is therefore very interesting to see that banks and governments in 2020 are so proactive in experimenting and implementing the technology within their ranks. On the one hand, we are currently seeing how blockchain technology is beautifully used in the corona crisis, on the other hand, we are seeing beautiful blockchain companies falling over due to the same crisis. What can we expect in the near future? In this blog the 5 most important developments.

Where I wrote last year that many organizations were still looking for a successful business case, we see that blockchain has quickly changed from buzzword to business opportunity in the past year. A large Deloitte survey this year shows that 82% of the organizations surveyed spend money on the technology, just under 90% see a business case, half even see it as one of the top 5 priorities and the number of successful implementations in a year has doubled. …

We’ve probably never been as dependent on technology as we are now. Working from home, learning, communicating, shopping; think about the problem you have if your phone or laptop breaks down or the internet connection gets lost. According to Vodafone, data traffic has increased by as much as 50% in some areas, the top 4 social media channels by 20% and Netflix has lowered the quality of its streams by a quarter because it could not meet the demand. Although experts are already warning of the even faster-growing power of the already very powerful tech companies, such as Amazon and Facebook, it is also very nice to see how new technologies are used to combat corona. Artificial Intelligence is used to predict pandemics and accelerate drug development, blockchain technology is now also used in various ways. …

Becoming a co-owner of a Ferrari, a Picasso, or a special stock of bourbon; who doesn’t want this? So-called “tokenizing” assets using blockchain technology is currently revolutionizing the investment world, and my World Economic Forum colleagues even expect 10% of global GDP to be stored on the blockchain in seven years from now. Why are assets so massively placed on the blockchain, and what does this “tokenize” entail?

If you “tokenize” something, it means converting something physical into digital tokens, which are then added to the blockchain. The latter guarantees secure transfer and transparency. If you want to buy or sell a house, you usually go through a cumbersome process with different parties such as a broker, notary, and bank and some parts of this process are not transparent. This is precisely because not the whole process is transparent. According to several studies, this is one of the main causes of the credit crisis 10 years ago. …

Over 80 times, the text was practiced and sharpened. Voting exercises, body exercises, meditation; everything was pulled out all the stops for the big day. The hormones rushed through the body like a Japanese bullet train, the throat was as dry as a lake in the Sahara and the 400 eyes and 10 warm lights didn’t make it any easier for the speaker. Heavy dyslexia had already caused major bumps in the entire preparation process, but passion and perseverance prevailed and ultimately led to a virtually fluent story, given by heart. …

Counterfeit eggs and shrimps, sand sold as pepper and colored sugar water as apple juice. The scandals surrounding food fraud are becoming increasingly bizarre, sometimes concerning complete products, sometimes partial. Research has shown that 43% of American salmon is incorrectly labeled, 70% of the “Italian Extra Virgin” olive oil that is not at all, and that the chicken on the Subway consists of only 50% chicken meat. In China alone, more than half a million security breaches were discovered and died worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 500,000 people died last year.

In the Netherlands, too, our trust is constantly being damaged, by the “horse steaks” and constant stream of revelations by Dutch programs such as the Keuringsdienst van Waarde on “fake” sweet mashed potatoes and liquorish. …

Last week I dust off my winter coat, with the persistent cold. In the crypto scene, however, it was one big “winter” all year round, after the Bitcoin’s price dropped to $ 3,000 in December 2018, after having peaked at $ 20,000 in December 2017. In the months that followed, the price rose again until nearly $ 14,000 in July, but in the meantime, only half of that has been left by a pike dive off the course. Unfortunately, the predictions by self-proclaimed experts that the price would rise again to the old record or even higher to $ 50,000, $ 100,000 or even $ 1,000,000 did not come true. …

Two years ago I couldn’t turn my ass in the supermarket, or someone was talking about Bitcoin and blockchain. Two years later, I no longer hear anyone outside of my filter bubble saying these buzzwords and it is only the fresh orange juice, talapia filet, and nutmeg that delight me with their immortalization on the blockchain. I still firmly believe that the technology is going to make a huge impact on our society, as I also predicted in my previous outlook blog last year. …