With bitcoin’s value up over 300% from its 2015 lows, this push-up in price might only just be getting started. Below are five bitcoin projects that promise to deliver real value to bitcoin in 2017.
Also read: How to Choose the Right Bitcoin Wallet for Your Needs
Yours.org
Yours.org, the brainchild of Ryan X Charles, aims to decentralize content monopolies. Companies like Facebook and Youtube make money by selling advertising on content created by the public. By enabling micro payments, the Yours Network wants to be the place where content creators of all types come to monetize their own content without paying most of the potential profit to a third party. Yours is currently testing the platform with real users and hopes to open it up to the public early 2017.
Also read: ‘Yours Network’ to Use Bitcoin in Competition Against Steemit
MegaUpload 2.0
Serial internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom launched a content hosting and streaming service called MegaUpload in 2005. The site ran until 2012 when it was shut down by the US government for allegedly breaking copyright laws. Similar to how Napster’s file sharing network was a stepping stone towards today’s Pirate Bay, MegaUpload 2.0 is better, faster, stronger and says it cannot be shut down. The site introduces a new form of micro-payments called “bitcache” which uses bitcoin. Kim Dotcom stated that he has over 100 million users of the original version that will be ready to try MegaUpload 2.0 when it launches as early as January 2017 and that this will push the price of bitcoin above $2000.
RSK
This platform (formerly known as Rootstock) promises to combine the functionality of ethereum smart contracts with the security of the bitcoin blockchain. Headed by Sergio Lerner and Diego Gutierrez, the team raised $1 million in funding earlier this year and launched a test net version last month. The team looks to release RSK to the public in 2017. Since RSK is using the same code as ethereum, this project could eat ethereum’s lunch and take bitcoin to the next level.
Also read: RSK Launches New Testnet ‘Turmeric’
Regulated Bitcoin Funds
U.S. regulators have been dragging their feet on approving bitcoin funds, but around the world big players are getting involved. For example in Germany, Acatis, a fund for wealth managers and banks, now invests in bitcoin. Also, Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund (GABI) based in the U.K. has recently received approval to be listed on the Channel Islands Securities Exchange. In the U.S. the Bitcoin IRA, and in Sweden XBT Provider, help investors get into bitcoin while still trading on regulated exchanges. Once products like these show some serious gains, hedge funds around the world will come under pressure to take a bitcoin position or lose customers to other funds that do.
Global Adoption
Right now a perfect storm for bitcoin is brewing around the world. Brexit, inflation in Venezuela, limits to allowable gold holdings in India, the list goes on. All these point to bitcoin as an attractive investment and a real solution for everyday use in more places around the world. The volumes traded on peer-to-peer bitcoin exchanges like Localbitcoins and Paxful are consistently reaching all-time highs. This upward trend doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon.
In conclusion, the bitcoin ecosystem looks to be moving from a promising technology to delivering much more real value in 2017.
Disclaimer: The author acknowledges owning bitcoin. Before making any investment decisions, seek the services of a competent ‘Investment Adviser’.
Do you agree with these choices? Have any other suggestions? Let us know in the comments.
Images via: Shutterstock, Yours.org, Hannah Johnston/Getty Images, RSK Labs
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