by The world of cryptocurrency is expanding at an exponential rate. The total market cap for all 4,000 cryptocurrencies is over £1.6 trillion. More than anyone could have anticipated just a few short years ago.
The number of crypto users has exceeded 100 million and is continually growing. This data has even led to the institutional adoption of Bitcoin and other digital money – mainstream financial institutions included.
However, many changes are anticipated in the next five years. For that reason, it pays to keep your mind and eyes open. Bitcoin wallet account balances might just depend on it. If you’re thinking about investing today, you could consider online bitcoin wallet for bitcoin transactions. Here are a few trends to consider.
Cheaper Transaction Fees
If you are a Bitcoin investor, transaction fees are likely to be the bane of your existence. As the number of crypto users grows, the networks become more congested. As a result, transaction fees are on the rise.
Newbie crypto users often avoid Bitcoin as the fees prove to be too high. However, it’s not all doom and gloom. Firstly, because even now, there are ways to pay less on a transaction. Waiting for the traffic to clear to a degree is a well-known strategy.
But in terms of trends, that’s not enough. The rising fee rates are real concerns for all parties involved – developers, miners, and users. That’s why we already see innovative technologies that are going to affect the cost of transactions.
The Lightning Network is the perfect example. It sits on top of Bitcoin and reduces the congestion caused by the excessive number of transactions in the system. Not only that, but the fees are a mere fraction of what you’d typically pay.
Even though it’s still in an experimental phase, the Lightning Network indicates a significant trend. We can expect other technologies to address lowering crypto transaction fees in the future.
The Integration of 5G Mobile Network
The introduction of 5G technology has created many possibilities, yet it stays underestimated by many. It represents an entirely new paradigm in mobile network technology and offers greater transmission speeds.
More importantly, the lower latency and a more significant number of connected devices represent a great opportunity for cryptocurrency.
5G will affect how crypto mining operates and how the DeFi applications will develop. Overall, the implementation of 5G will level the playing field as the network data speed will no longer be an issue.
More Regulation
When Bitcoin really took off, so did the talk of regulation. Up until 2012, most regulatory bodies didn’t know how to tackle the issue of regulating cryptocurrency.
Since then, however, many changes have been implemented. But it wasn’t until 2017 when Bitcoin had an outstanding year, that the era of government scrutiny truly began.
The regulation was unavoidable, and some would say necessary, especially regarding crypto taxes. While crypto taxation is still not a big deal, that will likely change soon.
And that change may well prompt the development of crypto harbours where users with significant holdings might move to avoid paying taxes.
The Looming Crypto Crisis
Granted, talk of the Bitcoin bubble bursting seems never to end, and it’s at a point where many have discarded it as a scare tactic.
But in reality, just because it hasn’t happened yet, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t expect it. Never before has Bitcoin and other major crypto coins been so transparent, secure, and regulated. This steady growth of cryptocurrency has presented a set of problems we’ve not previously encountered.
The increased supply of coins within the financial sector will likely lead to the devaluation of Bitcoin. However, as crypto users continue to worry about the crisis that’s likely coming, others are in damage limitation mode.
There’s a great incentive to develop a risk assessment model that will prevent any significant loss. The improvement of current risk assessment models is necessary, as many of them currently revolve around guessing.
Prepare for the Crypto Future
Other trends that we might expect in the following years are an expanding market for DApps, NFT tokenisation, and the likely introduction of new digital coins. But with everything changing so fast, there are probably many unexpected trends on the horizon.
The volatility of cryptocurrency is a well-known fact, and we’re all used to being surprised by anything crypto-related.
Hence, it pays to keep your eyes open. Bitcoin wallet technology in the near-future might look very different. Transaction fees could skyrocket or decrease substantially. However, the regulation, taxation, and the emergence of 5G will change the landscape of cryptocurrency for certain.
