11 CEOs and founders on whether cryptocurrencies will be mainstream in 2019

Mike Segar | Reuters
A man wears a Bitcoin logo t-shirt on the floor of the Consensus 2018 blockchain technology conference in New York City, May 16, 2018.
While bitcoin is the king of cryptocurrencies, most people still aren't using it day to day, and thousands of other coins remain largely undiscovered, which means crypto still hasn't achieved mass adoption.
The hype surrounding crypto tends to be split between extremes: the good (such as reinventing industries, gaining control of our financial assets) and the bad (such as online security and liquidity). And ever since the massive spike in bitcoin prices around summer 2017, much has been said about the magic that is blockchain, but much has also been written about crypto exchanges getting hacked, millions of dollars going to waste and innocent people getting scammed, all thanks to the privacy and anonymity of the technology.
Will 2019 finally be the year where crypto goes mainstream and all obstacles are in the past? Here's what 11 executives of known blockchain companies have to say.

Brandon Synth, founder of Skycoin
Source: Yoav Vilner
Brandon Synth, founder of Skycoin
"Other than a few selected digital coins, most of those available today hold no value at all. In 2019, the regulations will centralize the market into just a handful of leading, real coins. Then, people will be able to trade them using only a few major and controlled exchanges. So when you take down all the worthless coins, and stop using exchanges that aren't safe, it might be easier to mass adopt in 2019."
— Brandon "Synth," founder of Skycoin, a blockchain and web decentralization platform

Brandon "Synth," founder of Skycoin, a blockchain and web decentralization platform

MONEY
11 CEOs and founders on whether cryptocurrencies will be mainstream in 2019
Yoav Vilner, Contributor 16 Hours Ago
A man wears a Bitcoin logo t-shirt on the floor of the Consensus 2018 blockchain technology conference in New York City, May 16, 2018.
Mike Segar | Reuters
A man wears a Bitcoin logo t-shirt on the floor of the Consensus 2018 blockchain technology conference in New York City, May 16, 2018.
While bitcoin is the king of cryptocurrencies, most people still aren't using it day to day, and thousands of other coins remain largely undiscovered, which means crypto still hasn't achieved mass adoption.
The hype surrounding crypto tends to be split between extremes: the good (such as reinventing industries, gaining control of our financial assets) and the bad (such as online security and liquidity). And ever since the massive spike in bitcoin prices around summer 2017, much has been said about the magic that is blockchain, but much has also been written about crypto exchanges getting hacked, millions of dollars going to waste and innocent people getting scammed, all thanks to the privacy and anonymity of the technology.
Will 2019 finally be the year where crypto goes mainstream and all obstacles are in the past? Here's what 11 executives of known blockchain companies have to say.
Brandon Synth, founder of Skycoin
Source: Yoav Vilner
Brandon Synth, founder of Skycoin
"Other than a few selected digital coins, most of those available today hold no value at all. In 2019, the regulations will centralize the market into just a handful of leading, real coins. Then, people will be able to trade them using only a few major and controlled exchanges. So when you take down all the worthless coins, and stop using exchanges that aren't safe, it might be easier to mass adopt in 2019."
— Brandon "Synth," founder of Skycoin, a blockchain and web decentralization platform

Alexander Ivanov, CEO of Waves Platform
Source: Yoav Vilner
Alexander Ivanov, CEO of Waves Platform
"What we're witnessing now is crypto finally gaining long-overdue recognition by businesses, state authorities and the financial world — most importantly, by respected traditional banking and fintech institutions.
"2019 will definitely be the start of crypto's mass adoption, though much more still needs to be done for the two worlds — traditional banking and crypto — to coexist frictionlessly. There are important questions that need to be answered. For example, should banks create coins of their own in order to compete with already established cryptocurrencies?"

— Alexander Ivanov, CEO of Waves, a secure blockchain ecosystem for users and businesses

MONEY
11 CEOs and founders on whether cryptocurrencies will be mainstream in 2019
Yoav Vilner, Contributor 16 Hours Ago
A man wears a Bitcoin logo t-shirt on the floor of the Consensus 2018 blockchain technology conference in New York City, May 16, 2018.
Mike Segar | Reuters
A man wears a Bitcoin logo t-shirt on the floor of the Consensus 2018 blockchain technology conference in New York City, May 16, 2018.
While bitcoin is the king of cryptocurrencies, most people still aren't using it day to day, and thousands of other coins remain largely undiscovered, which means crypto still hasn't achieved mass adoption.
The hype surrounding crypto tends to be split between extremes: the good (such as reinventing industries, gaining control of our financial assets) and the bad (such as online security and liquidity). And ever since the massive spike in bitcoin prices around summer 2017, much has been said about the magic that is blockchain, but much has also been written about crypto exchanges getting hacked, millions of dollars going to waste and innocent people getting scammed, all thanks to the privacy and anonymity of the technology.
Will 2019 finally be the year where crypto goes mainstream and all obstacles are in the past? Here's what 11 executives of known blockchain companies have to say.
Brandon Synth, founder of Skycoin
Source: Yoav Vilner
Brandon Synth, founder of Skycoin
"Other than a few selected digital coins, most of those available today hold no value at all. In 2019, the regulations will centralize the market into just a handful of leading, real coins. Then, people will be able to trade them using only a few major and controlled exchanges. So when you take down all the worthless coins, and stop using exchanges that aren't safe, it might be easier to mass adopt in 2019."
— Brandon "Synth," founder of Skycoin, a blockchain and web decentralization platform
Alexander Ivanov, CEO of Waves Platform
Source: Yoav Vilner
Alexander Ivanov, CEO of Waves Platform
"What we're witnessing now is crypto finally gaining long-overdue recognition by businesses, state authorities and the financial world — most importantly, by respected traditional banking and fintech institutions.
"2019 will definitely be the start of crypto's mass adoption, though much more still needs to be done for the two worlds — traditional banking and crypto — to coexist frictionlessly. There are important questions that need to be answered. For example, should banks create coins of their own in order to compete with already established cryptocurrencies?"
— Alexander Ivanov, CEO of Waves, a secure blockchain ecosystem for users and businesses
Anastasia O. Andrianova, CEO of Akropolis.io
Source: Yoav Vilner
Anastasia O. Andrianova, CEO of Akropolis.io
"I believe that 2019 will mark the beginning of crypto adoption, as we will see wider institutional expansion in the field and more relevant funding pouring in. An entire mass adoption, however, will take more time as institutional adoption will take more than the next 18 months.
The key factor that requires work is the usability of crypto — user experience, wallet management, etc. More and more companies are aiming to solve that.
"
— Anastasia O. Andrianova, CEO Akropolis.io, a blockchain pensions platform

Chris Tse, CEO of Cardstack
Source: Yoav Vilner
Chris Tse, CEO of Cardstack
"Currently, the internet is far from decentralized. The biggest crypto exchanges are successful and have great user experience, but in no way are using the peer-to-peer aspect that makes blockchain a unique technology. In order to mass adapt in 2019, decentralized applications will need to focus on their user experience and so the ecosystem needs to invite designers, product thinkers and researchers into the field."
— Chris Tse, CEO of Cardstack, a decentralized application framework
Carl Bennetts, co-founder of Status.im