What does the future hold for global blockchain and cryptocurrency development from now until the year 2030? We can safely expect that market capitalization will increase significantly; moreover, central banks will be monitoring this sector very closely because leading tokens such as Bitcoin are bound to compete directly against established fiat. Competition in the blockchain industry, which we can still describe as being an emerging sector, will also increase considerably, and we should expect the Asia-Pacific economic region to take a leading role in this regard.
Any economic forecast for the Asia-Pacific region should be formulated with the backdrop of economic recovery from the collapse brought on by the coronavirus pandemic from 2020 to 2022. Market analysis firms such as Kenneth Research put this into context when they released their projections early in the New Year; to this effect, they took into account the terrible surge of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths in Hong Kong. There was also the matter of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, which ended up being impacted by geopolitical wrangling between the United States, Russia, and China over the looming invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking of Ukraine, let’s not forget that its parliament approved a legislative proposal declaring Bitcoin to be legal tender. This new law was enacted just before Russia accepted the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, thus ordering soldiers to occupy as a prelude to an invasion. Many analysts think that the hryvnia will likely lose further value in the face of a Russian invasion, but the good people of Ukraine will now have Bitcoin as a fallback method to conduct monetary transactions. Ukraine is the second country to make Bitcoin legal tender; the first was El Salvador last year, but we cannot forget that BTC is the de facto currency of Venezuela and Zimbabwe, two countries where economic chaos have made their fiat currencies worthless.
In Asia, the two economies expected to recover the fastest are Japan, South Korea, China, and India. In the case of Japan, it has the potential to recover almost as fast as the U.S. There is a consensus among analysts about the speed of the recovery, growth, and expansion. Barring any major geopolitical events such as a military conflict between NATO and Russia, the swift recovery will require fast development of blockchain technologies, and this is where the Asia-Pacific region will be seen as a strategic partner.
The global supply chain crisis of 2021 has prompted trade representatives from numerous countries to take a hard look at their processes, and many of them believe the time has come to implement blockchain networks for overall improvement. This is an area in which China already has expertise. Even though the People’s Republic has banned the use of cryptocurrencies other than the digital yuan, the government continues to pour millions into the blockchain development sector.
In Vietnam, the country with the highest per capita rate of cryptocurrency ownership, we should expect a major uptick in token trading. Digital currency exchange platforms will be competing for this nascent market, which could easily rival the United States. As for token circulation and digital payments, South Korea will take the leading spot thanks to its tech-savvy population.
