Jack Ma of Alibaba, speaking at the World Intelligence Congress in Tianjin recently, had this to say about Bitcoin and the blockchain:

“The blockchain is now a hot word. First, blockchain is not a bubble, but Bitcoin is a bubble. Bitcoin is just a tiny application of blockchain. At least inside Alibaba, blockchain must be a solution that addresses the privacy and security issues in the digital era.”

This follows hot on the heels of Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz’ similar statement, and is one which has been echoed around the business world in the last year or so, which is (and I’m paraphrasing here):

“Bitcoin is different from blockchain. We [companies] like blockchain, but we don’t like Bitcoin.”

Where do we go from here? Is Bitcoin actually going to die out? Will proprietary blockchains be developed that do not need to utilise the currencies currently existing, or will we see BTC, LTC and ETH becoming assimilated into business’ business models and payment systems going forwards?

In all honesty this could go myriad ways, but it is looking as though cryptocurrencies will either explode, or blockchain explodes whilst cryptocurrencies dies out.

Or, maybe the dominant currency hasn’t yet been released. Here at TheCoinRadar we firmly believe that the power and potential of cryptocurrencies and the application of blockchain is still far from being truly realised. Indeed, the next few years will doubtless prove more crucial than the formative, 2009-2013 years of blockchain’s inception.

Anyone have a crystal ball we can borrow?