State of Bitcoin and Blockchain 2016: Blockchain Hits Critical Mass

CoinDesk’s 2016 State of Bitcoin and Blockchain report summarizes key trends, data and events from 2015, details findings from our annual Thought Leader’s Survey and includes predictions on what to expect in 2016.
This article highlights a few of the key findings from the report.
2015 Review
The major story from 2015 is undoubtedly the increasing focus on bitcoin’s underlying technology, commonly referred to as blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT). Many parties, from government authorities to financial institutions, began to examine potential applications of DLT for securities transaction settlement and other use cases.
Meanwhile, bitcoin’s price and exchange trading volume bounced back strongly after a gloomy first half of the year.
Venture capital investment increased 36% year-on-year, although the pace slowed down in the second half of 2015. Mainstream retail adoption of cryptocurrencies continues to lag due to a lack of compelling use cases, and there are also signs that bitcoin’s use on the dark web has peaked.
Bitcon’s scalability debate was a hot topic in software developer circles in 2015, and it recently spilled over into mainstream discussion with the high-profile departure of developer Mike Hearn. While many proposed scalability solutions exist, none have achieved sufficient consensus for deployment.
However, industry leaders who were surveyed state they are confident that the question of bitcon’s scalability will be resolved, at least in the short-run.
Overall, the tempo of industry regulation slowed 2015.
The New York BitLicense, the state’s industry-specific licensing regime, went into effect in August, and the European Court of Justice (ECJ) announced that bitcoin transactions are exempt from value-added tax (VAT) in October.

This post was published at Coin Desk on January 28, 2016.