I think the year of 2019 was a year of big hopes for wider adoption and some disappointments. The Libra debacle was one of the big events that, in my view, influenced the market quite a bit. While the reaction of the hardcore crypto community to Libra was mostly negative (Libra is not really a cryptocurrency), there was hope that bringing 1B people to blockchain-based currency will increase awareness and adoption. But this did not work out.
So, in my mind, the biggest milestone is that crypto made inroads into the mainstream media and awareness, and the setback is that this did not lead to wide adoption (yet).
That crypto found its way onto the “top 10” topics of many politicians and central bankers.Of blockchain turbulence in China, which ended on a positive note in late October — but which created waves moving out across the rest of the world.Of increasing legal constraints which have transformed offerings (ICOs) into an option only for those with very well-funded legal and regulatory compliance teams. Still perhaps cheaper than initial public offerings (IPOs) — but the gap is closing.That business leaders began to recognize hype as being “hype”; to understand that the benefits from blockchain, while very real, have limits, some of which are linked to the “tolerance of change” within their own organizations; and to see that the implementation of blockchain technology, for example, for traceability, can be complex.That blockchain developers also began to realize the importance of barriers to implementation created by the complexity of supply chains and organizational culture.Continue Reading on Coin Telegraph