2017 - The Year of Bitcoin - Japan Looking into Regulating Bitcoin Exchanges

Bitcoin did hit it record heights shortly upon reach of this year and this is a positive sign for many more good things to follow, at least from my point of view.

Japan is planning on enforcing bitcoin exchanges!

When Japanese cabinet passed a bill accepting bitcoin as a currency it was followed by a boom of merchants wildly starting to accept bitcoin as a payment option. They have taken another step into enforcing bitcoin exchanges as of this year.

No more complete wild west with Japanese government plan on regulating bitcoin exchanges and this has been looked upon as a positive action from authority which in result encourages even more merchants into accepting bitcoin as a payment solution. Some industry experts believe that the number of merchants accepting bitcoin may increase by four times. This would mean quarter of a grand of shops accepting bitcoin.

Japan has been quite a bitcoin mainstream country when it comes to this commodity, both from the sides of government and people. Perfect merge of interests just as it inteded use was designed for. The currency from people to people , in order to free us from centralization and from the looks of Japanese government actions, it sure seems to be working.

For example Japanese citizens have a solution for paying for their electricity bill using bitcoin. How cool is that? How soon before other countries will follow in the same steps? Lets stay fair, it is not a direct channel of government accepting bitcoin but it is done through a payment processor which wouldn’t mean that some time in the future governments cannot start doing it direct.

Another big reason why bitcoin is so wildly spread among Japanese population is due to its wide mentions in different local media sectors. Clearly if you keep buzzing about something into people’s ear day in and day out then eventually it will stick there but at least this time it isn’t a bad thing but our beloved bitcoin.

Industry leaders speculations for bitcoin and the blockchain in 2017

Aaron Voisine, Co-Founder and CEO of Breadswallet says that:

„I predict that 2017 will see bitcoin become recognized as a legitimate ‘uncorrelated asset’ for a large number of money managers and financial advisors. Holding a diversified portfolio of assets is of course what any prudent financial advisor will recommend. This however doesn’t do you much good if those assets’ value all move in the same direction at the same time. In order to achieve diversification, you need to hold some assets that increase in value when the others go down. Bitcoin is a perfect example of an asset that has shown to increase in value in times of fear and economic turmoil, and one that I think many money managers will begin to see as a prudent addition to their portfolios.”

Bitcoin entrepreneur known as Kim DotCom states that:

"To the average person, the current value per Bitcoin of $1,000 per Bitcoin seems high. But if you look at the market capitalization of all Bitcoin it is only $16+ billion. The market value of all the gold that was ever mined is approximately $7 trillion. It’s not hard to imagine that a mass adoption of Bitcoin could reach a market cap of more than $1 trillion. Do the math. Bitcoin are still incredibly cheap. A price per Bitcoin of $100000 is a possibility within a decade or two. Hold on to your Bitcoin. You’ll see a rise to $2000+ in 2017.“

Do you think that 2017 will be a good year for bitcoin and the blockchain or other way around? Have you heard of any breaking developments or acceptance of bitcoin in some part of the world? We are eager to hear about your views in the comments below.