The other side of the bitcoin: it’s all about the blockchain As is the case week after week, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies continue to dominate news cycles. There’s excitement for both the currency and its underlying blockchain technology, but this enthusiasm is increasingly being met with a fair share of scepticism. On Monday, ING’s principal economist Teunis Brosens called bitcoin a “niche” product that has little long-term value for broader audiences. However, he does give praise to blockchain, saying that it is “an impressive technology that may bring progress in a variety of fields. Long live blockchain.” Moreover, in a survey titled “Trends in Fintech and Investor Communications” by Mediant, 30% of respondents chose machine learning and AI as the fintech innovations that would have the most impact on organisations in the coming 2-3 and 3-5 years, while 1% backed bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Respondents had significantly more faith in the impact of blockchain and distributed ledger technology than cryptocurrencies, particularly within the 3-5 year period, where 24% of respondents backed the technology and around 1% cryptocurrencies.
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