Speculation about the adoption of blockchain in a global scale has been taking headlines for months now. People wonder whether it will happen at all, but most pundits think that 2019 will be the year in which said technology will become a normal occurrence rather than a futuristic event.
That is precisely the opinion of MIT Technology Review, which is a magazine related to the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that has been around since 1899. On January 2nd, it revealed an article in which it explained that 2019 will be the year in which blockchain ventures will become mundane.
In the piece, readers can enjoy a concise, but powerful conclusion: although the blockchain technology disappointed in 2018 following a successful 2017, many “innovative-sounding projects are still alive and even close to bearing fruit.” That, coupled with various global enterprises’ intentions to launch major blockchain-based ventures, 2019 has all the ingredients to be “the year that blockchain technology finally becomes normal.”
A Roller Coaster
The MIT Technology Review identifies 2017 as the year in which the blockchain technology was “a revolution that was supposed to disrupt the global financial system,” but the valuations of most blockchain-based cryptocurrencies sharply declined in 2018.
The magazine states that several Wall Street actors, such as Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)’s New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Fidelity (a prominent investment firm) are going to enter the cryptocurrency industry, providing an indirect boost to blockchain-based affairs across the globe.
Some sectors may argue, with a strong point in their favor that, the hype surrounding blockchain is decreasing. However, there is still a critical point in its quest towards mainstream adoption: it provides a regulator-approved setting for crypto assets.
The Review shows another example of a crucial point in blockchain’s favor: it significantly improves the smart contract framework and technology that will be suitable for use in numerous legal scenarios.
The piece closes by saying that the fact that blockchain technology will become normal in 2019 will “reshape” the ideological framework that provided crypto assets their first ‘momentum.’ Whereas cryptocurrencies started off as anti-government assets, the situation is being reversed as some nations have already launched state-backed digital coins and other countries have similar plans.
A little bit more about the MIT and the Technology Review
The MIT, which stands for Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is one of the most influential educational institutions of its kind. It is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the Eastern part of the United States of America.
It was founded in 1861 in the middle of increased industrialization of the United States, adopting a European polytechnic university model. The MIT is widely recognized for its prowess in applied science and engineering, as well as for research in the physical sciences, biology, economics, linguistics,
The MIT owns the MIT Technology Review, a magazine with a rich history that goes back to its foundation in the XIX century, most precisely in 1899. It ran through 1998 as “The Technology Review,” but it had its name changed to MIT Technology Review in that same year. Its total circulation surpasses 160,000 magazines.
By Andres Chavez
