Dcc it will rice to 4$ in 2018. Betting in Bicoin price rice in 2018 and technology behind it

So, in amongst all that bad news and declarations that bitcoin was ‘a failed project’, it appears one of the world’s biggest tech investors has been quietly buying up bitcoin.

Bloomberg reported yesterday that Peter Thiel — an early Facebook investor and founder of PayPal — has been buying massive amounts of bitcoin.

He’s not the only one…

BlockTower capital, a prominent crypto hedge fund, placed a $1 million bet that bitcoin will reach US$50,000 by the end of 2018.

They’ve done this by buying a call option on the LedgerX platform.

If bitcoin doesn’t reach this price by 31 December 2018 then they lose the entire $1 million.

Aside from this big money confidence, there are also two technical developments due to hit in 2018 that will radically improve bitcoin’s usability.

This is something a lot of critics forget.

Bitcoin is not a static project. It’s a constantly improving technology.

It’s the essence of programmable money. Coupled to an unalterable and limited supply (unlike dollars, which governments print at will), it fulfils both a store of value and medium of exchange functions.

The first upgrade is something called the lightning network…

You see, bitcoin is getting more expensive to transfer on-chain. It used to cost a few cents to send any amount of bitcoin, but now it can cost $30-plus.

This rules out many ‘micro payment use’ cases bitcoin was once touted as being useful for.

So how has this happened?

Well, it’s basically a victim of its own success.

As its popularity has grown, the number of transactions has bloated the system. In bitcoin parlance, the blocks are full. To ensure a transaction is included in a block, users need to pay higher fees. Otherwise transactions can be left in limbo or severely delayed.

The lightning network solves this problem.

It moves a bunch of payments off chain, with the option to attach to the blockchain if need be (in case of a dispute).

This will allow near instant and almost free transaction capability.

Bitcoin will once more be a decentralised medium of exchange.

The second development that’s coming soon is something called Rootstock. Basically, it upgrades bitcoin to allow smart contract capability. Much like ethereum (ETH) already can.

This will allow a whole new level of development to take place using the highly secure bitcoin blockchain.

These two developments are huge.

And 2018 should see some big strides in their technical progress. The big money knows this and is starting to move in. But they don’t want to show their hand yet.

So, when you hear about how ‘bitcoin is dead’ or finished, remember that the Peter Thiels of the world didn’t get where they are by taking investment advice from mainstream finance journalists. Or faceless clowns on Twitter!