2017 was the year of the blockchain with Bitcoin riding the waves of appreciation and attracting a lot of new investors. Suddenly from being a nerd coin, everyone started talking about Bitcoin and the amount of money investors are making. This lead to a lot more investment and also the creation of Altcoins like Ethereum, Ripple, Tron, and others. But not everything has been rosy this year. While a lot of investors do continue to believe in Bitcoin, 2018 would quite a testing year for the cryptocurrency. If you are an investor, you need to be aware of some those challenges knocking at your door. This post lists 8 challenges that hover over Bitcoin this year.
1. Competition from other cryptocurrencies
This is the greatest challenge of bitcoin in 2018. Competitor cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Ripple coins are getting more popular than bitcoin. In fact, they are seen to provide better solutions such as a faster speed of transaction and lower transaction fees.
2. Very high transaction fee
Imagine paying transaction-fees has high as $28 (and possibly more) regardless of how much you transfer. Compared to other payment methods, even traditional payment methods, this is a rather high fee to charge per transaction. More specifically, not having a standard percentage fee for bitcoin transactions will prove a great challenge in 2018 unless it is well taken care of.
3. Bitcoin legal issues and regulations in countries
Whereas Bitcoin is designed to benefit people from across the world, certain countries remain rigid and do not welcome the idea of bitcoin. Some countries have also begun restricting the use of Bitcoin. Therefore, there is need to clarify and settle all the legal issues related to bitcoin to enable successful transactions. The probe into the taxation of bitcoin users at all levels may impact negatively on investing in bitcoin.
4. Limitation to people without technological and computer skills
Transacting via Bitcoin is complex. Bitcoin does not cater to people without the technical know-how. Additionally, the process is complex and it is difficult to understand how the blockchain works unless you have computer skills. Therefore, there is need to improve the system to enable many people to invest, stake and trade.
5. Susceptibility to hacking
Bitcoin’s infrastructure has great potential of getting hacked in 2018. Hackers are likely to take over millions of computers without permissions and mine cryptocurrencies and possible take over control of it.
6. Inability to protect investors from making losses
No one wants to lose money online. It is evident that many fraudsters and scammers exist online. However, it is not in good taste for investors to stay unprotected. Bitcoin does not guarantee the security of your money in case you make a wrong transaction. There is no provision for holding money, for example, in escrow to confirm payment or to reverse and refund money. Websites like ABitGreedy, offer more informational value on how this is a problem of bitcoin in 2018.
7. Delayed transactions
Nobody wants to wait for a confirmation for 15 minutes or an hour because the process of the bitcoin passing through the blockchain is taking longer than expected or gets more expensive. In fact, you are also vulnerable to double spend attacks under such circumstances.
Unfortunately, the inability to cope up with the high number of transactions on the network. This slows the speed of transaction.
8. Complexity of mining bitcoin
Mining bitcoin requires a lot of energy. It is equally hard since it requires certain skills that need one to understand the structures and technologies. If this challenge is not looked into, the community may be attracted to other cryptocurrencies that offer better solutions such as Ethereum.
All we can do right now is wait and see what will happen to Bitcoin in 2018. People have different expectations and based on those they invest in various cryptocurrencies or chose those to be the currency for different transactions. We hope this article was helpful for you to understand the challenges that Bitcoin is facing nowadays. Do share your thoughts in the comment section and visit the links above to get a deeper understanding in this area.
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