Japan made bitcoin a legal currency, and now it's more popular than......

Bitcoin trade in Japan accounts for about half of the global trade volume. That number has surged since the government passed a new law earlier this year, recognizing bitcoin as a legal form of currency. CNBC's Akiko Fujita reports.

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World's largest asset manager says get ready to 'stomach complete losses' in cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies "should only be considered by those who can stomach potentially complete losses," says Richard Turnill, BlackRock's global chief investment strategist.
"We don't see them becoming part of mainstream investment portfolios soon," he adds.
However, Turnill says cryptocurrencies could become more widespread with time.

A Bitcoin crypto-currency shop in Rovereto, Italy.
Investors should only consider cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin if they are prepared to lose everything, BlackRock Investment Institute said in its weekly report Monday.

"We see cryptocurrencies potentially becoming more widely used in the future as the markets mature. Yet for now we believe they should only be considered by those who can stomach potentially complete losses," Richard Turnill, BlackRock's global chief investment strategist, said in the note.

Turnill noted cryptocurrencies' high volatility, fragmented markets and lack of regulation. "We don't see them becoming part of mainstream investment portfolios soon," he said, adding that their volatility makes U.S. stock market turbulence during the financial crisis "almost look placid."

Cryptocurrencies also haven't been able to protect investors from sharp drops in stocks. That's despite arguments for investing in the digital assets given their low correlations to traditional assets.

The digital currencies had "no ability to mitigate portfolio drawdown during periods of acute market stress like equity flash crashes of August 2015 and February 2018,"
Bitcoin, the largest @cryptocurrency by market capitalization, leaped 2,000 percent to above $19,000 in the 12 months through mid-December. The surge of interest spurred the world's largest futures exchange, CME, and its competitor, Cboe, to launch bitcoin futures in December as well.

Enthusiasts expected the derivatives products would pave the way for more institutional investor participation and even the launch of bitcoin exchange-traded funds later this year.

However, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has asked companies to withdraw their applications for bitcoin ETFs. Trading volume in the CME and Cboe bitcoin futures also remains relatively low compared with other, more widely traded products.

Bitcoin has lost about half its value in just about two months and was trading near $10,000 Monday.

BlackRock's Turnill expects cryptocurrencies will need to overcome significant challenges in order to gain wider appeal.

He noted the blockchain technology underlying cryptocurrencies would require a "massive shift" in software development for broad adoption. Regulators would likely need to play a major role in such a shift, Turnill said. He does expect a global regulatory framework on cryptocurrencies to emerge, potentially from a G-20 meeting set for March.

BlackRock had $6.28 trillion in assets under management at the end of December as the world's largest asset manager.

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a new currency that was created in 2009 by an unknown person using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. Transactions are made with no middle men – meaning, no banks! Bitcoin can be used to book hotels on Expedia, shop for furniture on Overstock and buy Xbox games. But much of the hype is about getting rich by trading it. The price of bitcoin skyrocketed into the thousands in 2017. # New mindset and thriving ecosystem drive future applications.

Operators hoping to capitalize fully on this opportunity, will need a new mindset and new business models to be able to scale to the diversity of IoT connections across vertical industries. Operators also need to foster closer relationships with verticals and the application developers who will enable this environment.

Huawei is cultivating an ecosystem that brings together global and local, or "glocal", business partners to boost industry collaboration and innovation capabilities. By supporting the greater good of the industry this generates more opportunities for all ecosystem players.

The impact of this thriving ecosystem can be seen in Huawei's Wireless X Labs, which is dedicated to the study and exploration of future applications. Since the lab was established last year Huawei has worked with over 250 partners to develop over 45 new innovations including 5G wireless connected smart factories, wireless control of automated vehicles and robotics, and cloud-based industrial cameras. Other examples include connected drones, the world's first wireless charging base station for drones, cloud-based AI guiding helmets, and remote medical treatment with the low latency of 5G.

Smarter networks from 4.5G to 5G

At MBBF 2017, Ryan Ding, president of the Carrier Business Group at Huawei, urged operators to start building capabilities now to support future 5G services.

In a keynote presentation, Mr. Ding said: "Never leave until tomorrow that which you can do today. Our industry cannot just sit and wait for 5G. We must act now, incubating new services and building new capabilities in 4.5G networks. I believe that WTTx [wireless to the x] and NB-IoT will be a good start."

WTTx has become a mainstream way of providing home broadband alongside fibre, copper and cable. The commercial use of WTTx is accelerating globally and by the end of 2017 there will be over 200 WTTx networks, serving 50 million homes.

"WTTx is different from the traditional mobile broadband business. There is high data consumption, fixed location and much, much higher concurrency, especially at night. So we need to build up new capabilities to match this difference," said Mr. Ding.

However, existing networks are built for connecting people and they now need to evolve to become application-centric, data-driven, intelligent systems. The use of big data and AI will enable operators to build networks that can be controlled and managed more intelligently. From operations and maintenance to service provisioning, operators need networks that are automated, self-optimizing, and self-healing to drive stronger performance and greater capacity.

In the next few years operators will inevitably move to 5G networks which will transform the role of mobile technology in our society. As demand for connectivity grows, 5G will deliver the speed, reliability and security to meet the demands of new applications everywhere. In fact, Huawei is already working with Deutsche Telekom and Orange as well as EE, Telefónica and Vodafone on 5G trials, with EE and Huawei achieving 2.8Gbps in the UK's first end-to-end 5G test.

During his keynote speech on embracing 5G mobile networks, Edward Deng, president of Huawei Wireless Solution, highlighted that operators' top priority is to build a 5G-oriented mobile network that meets the demands of a super connected society and industry development, and this requires fostering the three elements of future network:
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"Operators will need powerful network capabilities that meet the high capacity, seamless coverage, and low latency requirements of a wide range of services; an agile network architecture to improve the efficiency of multi-service connections; and intelligent network management to enable efficient network O&M, improve network performance and optimize the service experience," explained Mr. Deng. To help operators seize new business opportunities and achieve sustainable growth in a digitalized society, Huawei has introduced key technologies and solutions that will power future mobile networks: 5G Era SingleRAN, Mobile Cloud, and Wireless Intelligence.

Why Bitcoins?

Bitcoins can be used to buy merchandise anonymously. In addition, international payments are easy and cheap because bitcoins are not tied to any country or subject to regulation. Small businesses may like them because there are no credit card fees. [Some people just buy bitcoins as an investment,] hoping that they’ll go up in value.

Reshaping the world with mobile: The only limitation is our imagination.

Mobile technology is reshaping society and the global economy in ways that would have been unimaginable a decade ago.

Today faster mobile broadband is delivering services that allow consumers to download high definition video in minutes, play live multiplayer games, watch TV and make video calls on the go without buffering.

The proliferation of smartphones has connected people across the world, and by mid 2017, two thirds of the world's population had a mobile subscription – a total of 5 billion unique subscribers. By 2020, almost 860 million new subscribers will be added, taking the global penetration rate to 73%.

However, with mobile subscriber growth slowing and competition intensifying, many telecom operators are questioning whether they've had the best of times and the future outlook may not be so promising.

At this year's Global Mobile Broadband Forum (MBBF 2017), held in London, the most influential decision makers from the ranks of operators, vendors and other participants in the mobile ecosystem gathered to explore how to achieve sustainable growth in the future.

In the opening keynote presentation at MBBF 2017, Huawei Rotating CEO Ken Hu, said "What if these operators were told they could tap into 1 billion new subscribers offering sustainable mobile revenues?"
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These new subscribers are modern connected cows, dairy herds that wear mobile connected sensors. In China, operators are helping dairy farmers track their dairy herds by using Huawei's NB-IoT technology which provides longer battery life, cost savings and greater coverage. Through the collection of biometric information from the NB-IoT devices, farmers can monitor the cows' movement and health and let them graze further, to better manage milk production.

The results are nothing short of impressive – farmer profitability has increased by 50%, equal to $420 per cow, per year, and for the telecom operator every connected cow is a new subscriber, bringing $10 per cow, per year.

"You could say the connected cow is a cash cow for dairy farmers and operators. And the opportunity doesn't end there. Connecting 'things' such as the world's 20 million shipping containers, 100 million new bicycles, 300 million LED streetlamps and 1.8 billion water meters, are bringing new services to industries, cities, businesses, and homes, and placing operators at the center of this new mobile world. But driving the connectivity of everything requires fresh thinking, smarter networks and a stronger ecosystem,"

Connecting everything and everyone demands collaboration

In the future mobile broadband will enable fully automated homes, driverless cars, smart manufacturing, smart parking and holographic conference calls among other consumer and industrial applications.

"However, mobile won't change the world by itself," Mr.Hu explained. "There are many challenges to overcome before the promise of a truly connected world can be realized. There is a well-known phrase in Chinese – "Weiji"– which means that through challenge comes opportunity."

Adopting this mindset will help drive collaboration amongst the telecom industry, vertical industry partners and applications developers to enable mobile networks to deliver a near-endless array of connected services to enhance our lives. "The only limitation will be our imagination,"
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