Why You Must Make 2018 the Year of Blockchain and How

12 min readMay 18, 2018

Published in December 2017 on LinkedIn

Whether you’re building the next big thing, looking for the next career move, or starting the next chapter of your life journey, you have a once in a lifetime opportunity to be at the forefront of the market wave building massive momentum, that wave is the Blockchain.

Beyond the insane hype caused by the meteoric rise of Bitcoin, the hundreds of cryptocurrencies popping everywhere, the ICO frenzy taking the world by storm, the blockchain is a fundamental ‘techtonic’ shift transforming the world as we know it.

A foundational technology that’s changing everything, the blockchain is creating the next Internet, opening up new opportunities for incumbents, startups and everyday people to interact more efficiently, directly and globally, and therefore everyone must take notice, starting with you :)

“The only constant in the technology industry is change” ~ Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com

What the Heck Is Blockchain Technology?! (Hint: It’s Not Bitcoin)

The brainchild of a person or group of people known by the pseudonym, Satoshi Nakamoto. By allowing digital information to be distributed but not copied, the ingenious invention called the blockchain technology created the backbone of a new type of internet. While originally devised as the technology that enables the digital currency, Bitcoin, the technology has evolved into something greater, far surpassed Bitcoin and it’s poised to impact every aspect of our life.

Why Is the Blockchain Different from Other Disruptive Technologies?

That’s because blockchain is not a “disruptive” technology, it’s a foundational technology that will likely create completely new foundations for our economic, political and social systems.

“A disruptive technology can attack a traditional business model with a lower-cost solution and overtake incumbent firms quickly. A foundational technology has the potential to create new foundations for our economic and social systems” ~ The Truth About Blockchain by Marco Iansiti & Karim R. Lakhani — Harvard Business Review

Disruptive technologies like AI and VR depend heavily on the technology itself, and its adoption is mostly driven by the companies, startups and associations leading the development, advancement and research, and so its impact might at times be sudden and far sweeping.

However, while the blockchain is transforming every trust-based interaction of our lives, its impact and adoption will be gradual and might take decades, much like it took the internet almost 25 years to take over every aspect of our lives in a way no one ever imagined when it first was introduced.

Why Is 2018 the Year of Blockchain?

To learn about how 2018 is going to shape up, all you have to do is examine the trends emerging in 2017.

A big year for blockchain, from Bitcoin price surges, the rise of ICOs as a funding instrument, and the explosive growth of the Etherium Ecosystem, 2017 will most likely be remembered as the year blockchain went mainstream.

1. Bitcoin’s Has Gold in Its Crosshairs

Starting with price surges to near USD $20,000 at the time of writing this article, Bitcoin experienced a relatively steady climb and achieved a 20 fold increase in one year. And depending on whose predictions you choose to believe, it’s entirely possible that a similar increase can happen in 2018.

Driven by the rising interest from high profile investors, investment funds and institutions, not to mention the launch of Bitcoin Futures on CME, the world’s largest futures exchange, we might see an increase on Bitcoin’s the market cap from $300 billion to $6 trillion, four times more than all the US dollars in circulation and just $2 trillion behind gold’s market cap!

Note: Please don’t take the words above as a recommendation to invest in Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies, far from it, these are highly volatile assets and you stand a good chance of losing all your money. For investment tips please read through to the end of this article.

2. ICO Fever Cools Down

For many startups who are seeking to fund their growth, ICO’s (Initial Coin Offerings) proved to be faster and more efficient than some of the other funding instruments. That translated to over 228 ICOs in 2017, totalling more than $4 billion, compared to 46 ICO’s in 2016.

However, similar to what took place in the dot-com boom, some startups used the ICO fever to raise funds they shouldn’t have as they lacked the validation and didn’t have a proven business case, and there’s always a few startups that were just schemes to defraud investors.

We might see an ICO slowdown, stalls and delays in 2018, but those are signs of maturity as we see more scrutiny from regulators, limitations on who can invest, and as the market filters out people looking for a get-rich-quick instrument and favours savvier, long-term and institutional investors who are starting to play in the space.

These investors are more experienced, lived through the dot-com era, and they will likely get involved in fewer ICO’s but at higher valuations.

3. Ethereum Goes Mainstream with a Meow

Boasting more than 850 applications, Ethereum, the decentralized platform for applications founded in 2015, has recently seen its first true consumer application with over 160,000 users who spent an estimated $15.5-million worth of cryptocurrency on collectible virtual kittens!

A virtual game that allows users to buy, sell and breed digital cats, CryptoKitties was launched by Vancouver-based startup Axiom Zen, and at one point accounted for roughly 20 percent of the traffic on the Ethereum network.

While many blockchain and Ethereum purists criticized the move and considered using Ethereum for such applications a waste and treated it as heresy.

However, the founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, engaged in the conversation and was fully in support of CryptoKitties, as a great illustration of the value of the blockchain, pointing out the obvious, that just like with every technology before it, the blockchain isn’t immune to entrepreneurial thinking that will use the technology for everything from simple entertainment and gaming to complex enterprise and government applications.

Like it or hate it, successes like CryptoKitties will drive many to start blockchain projects and benefit from the popularity of the technology and the Ethereum platform. This trend is further boosted by the rise in value that Ether, the Ethereum token, experienced in 2017 from a little under $10 in January to about $870 at the time of this writing.

2018 will continue to see a growth in the number of applications utilizing the Ethereum platform and it’s likely that the success of CryptoKitties will open the door for many more applications that are customer facing that will cause the platform to evolve and mature much faster.

4. The Big Coming out of Blockchain Projects

In the past few years, the number of blockchain projects on Github has increased dramatically to reach a total of 86,034 projects in 2017 as a report from Deloitte shows.

The challenge is that many of these projects are experiments that are done in isolation, especially in organizations working on such projects in secret, and don’t want the word to get out. As a result, there hasn’t been much sharing of the outcomes, fundings, and learnings.

It’s highly likely that 90% of these projects will fail and be abandoned, but that still leaves us with 8,000 projects and all it takes is a few more like CryptoKitties to heat up the market and get more developers, entrepreneurs, businesses and investors interested.

Other exciting projects include SweetBridge, Gigix, uPort, Status, Zipper, Fintrux.

2018 certainly holds the promise of more such projects coming to light, growth in the talent pool, more sharing among the community and cross-learning from the results of the work done so far.

So How Do You Make 2018 the Year of Blockchain for You?

The road to success as is never easy or clear and to break through the daily challenges you face you need the right tools, mindset, strategies, and resources for success that you can apply immediately to create the results you want.

Unfortunately, when it comes to learning something new, especially technology, most people think they require formal or institutional education, validation from an authority, and believe that the process must take years to get to a level of confidence enabling them to engage, create, collaborate and contribute to the ecosystem and community.

In today’s world, however, this is a severely flawed approach that will leave you behind while the world around you moves at exponential speeds. If there’s ever a time to stop waiting for things to take shape the way they’ve done before, it’s now, and this has never been truer when it comes to technology as it is for the blockchain.

Blockchain is an evolving technology, its platforms, applications, talent, and expertise are taking shape now. It’s time for you to fully engage, to spend your time, energy and money on the one thing that matters the most; ACTION.

And to leave you with more than just one word, here’s one of the most effective frameworks that you can use to survive these insanely uncertain fast-changing times, thrive no matter how demanding is your schedule, and make a global impact with your work :)

Step 1 | Serve People

At the core of every innovation that matters and exists today is a fundamental fact that sometimes gets ignored, forgotten or taken for granted;

The purpose of innovation is to serve people, period. Nothing else matters.

Without a customer-facing application that delivers value, technology is limited, meaningless and useless. That’s why Bitcoin is single-handedly responsible for thrusting the blockchain to the forefront of the world scene, after all, Bitcoin is the first customer-facing application of blockchain. Without Bitcoin, the blockchain would’ve remained invisible and limited, just like the internet without browsers would’ve remained just a network of connected computers and data that has no meaning or use.

Remember, people are everything, they are your customers, team, friends and family. So in every step you take and every move you make as you continue to learn about blockchain and its different applications remember to keep your focus on what matters most; serving people.

Step 2 | Execute Ideas

Stop thinking about the ‘perfect’ or ‘best’ blockchain idea or product, and all the skills you need to acquire to build that mythical amazing idea or product, instead start executing on any blockchain idea or product that has the potential to add value and serve people.

To serve people you must interact with them, ask them, listen to them. So even if the idea you started with was somehow silly or stupid like; everyone can become a broadcaster and content creator (YouTube), or everyone can become a taxi driver (Uber), or everyone can rent out their property like a hotel (Airbnb), or everyone can trade cryptocurrencies (Coinbase), or everyone can collect and breed cats online (CryptoKitties)!

“Innovation almost always is not successful the first time out. You try something and it doesn’t work and it takes confidence to say we haven’t failed yet. … Ultimately you become commercially successful” ~ Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School Professor

It doesn’t matter where you start and what your idea or product looks like at the starting point, it also doesn’t matter how much skill or training you have, it’s all about how you finish, with a perfect product and amazing idea and no customers, or with a thriving business with many paying customers with an evolving product that will continue to develop.

So pick an idea and start, you will learn so much more about your customers, grow as an entrepreneur, develop your blockchain skills and experience, and eventually move your startup forward through the sheer power of getting shit done!

Don’t know where to start? Take our Free Startup Course or check out our Free Startup Resources

Ready to execute on your idea? Try our Online Startup Training

Step 3 | Learn Faster

You’ve probably heard it before, there aren’t enough people to fill the positions needed in technology companies. That’s a 100 times bigger problem in blockchain. There just aren’t enough skilled people even on an entry level, not to mention on all other experience levels. Big organizations and well-funded startups have already pouched everyone they could put their hands on, others are busy working on their projects.

This is an incredible opportunity for those who are ready to learn faster and build the talent pool.

So how do you learn faster?

By following this formula; Make, Measure, Fail, Learn, Make, Fail Harder, Learn Even More, Make Again, Succeed, Change Everything, Repeat.

Doing is faster, more effective and most importantly, more real. You can always construct a perfect world in your mind, where everything magically falls in place and behaves exactly how you expect it to, and so your product might end up being the perfect solution and you may even achieve product-market fit!

But in the real world things break, don’t work and often fail. That’s when learning happens. Add to that the severe lack of expertise and talent, the abundance of guides and material online, and the fact that the blockchain technology and its platforms are still evolving and haven’t reached maturity, by doing the work you can be part of this wave instead of being a follower later and pick up on the leftovers!

Build something, work with others, participate in hackathons, attend events, connect with experts, learn and share what you’ve learned, and become a leader in this shaping community. This is your chance.

Still, don’t know where to start, and not sure about this blockchain thing, check out my Free Blockchain Course.

What If All I Wanted to Know Is How to Invest in Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies?!

After the launch of The Blockchain Course, many people started asking me questions about investing in Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies through Coinbase and other exchanges. While I’m certainly not an investment expert by any measure, but since you asked, here are the three core investment pearls of wisdom I’ve learned and I live by:

1. Be Ready to Lose

Never invest money you are not willing to lose, only invest Money You Are Willing to Lose*. There is no such thing as guaranteed returns — Run to the hills when you hear the word ‘guaranteed’. The market changes constantly, and that’s especially true when it comes to cryptocurrencies.

2. Diversify, Diversify, Diversify

If you do choose to invest, it’s highly recommended that you diversify your investment, there are currently 3 currencies offered on Coinbase, more on other exchanges like CEX.IO, so you may want to consider investing in more than just bitcoin, that way if one goes down in value, the gains from the other balance the overall impact.

3. Experiment, Learn and Get Better

Do things gradually, take small amounts of risk, experiment and test strategies and tactics, research and learn about Active and Passive Investing**, know what you are investing in, learn from the results of your actions, continue to move forward and get better.

Resource: How To Invest in Cryptocurrencies: The Ultimate Beginners Guide

Some Books for you to read: The Richest Man in Babylon, The Intelligent Investor, Buffettology, Competitive Strategy, Thinking, Fast and Slow

*Money You Are Willing to Lose: this is excess money that you may have set aside. It does not include: rent money, bill money, food money, personal or business loan, mortgage or any other money that you need to pay back.

**Active vs. Passive Investing (Investopedia.com): If you’re a passive investor, you invest for the long haul. The strategy requires a buy-and-hold mentality. That means resisting the temptation to react or anticipate the market’s every next move. Active investing, as its name implies, takes a hands-on approach it involves a much deeper analysis and the expertise to know when to pivot into or out of a particular asset.

Disclaimer: This is not intended in any way to be a recommendation or endorsement of investing in bitcoin or cryptocurrencies. The intention is purely to provide helpful information.

What do you think? Did I get anything wrong or miss something? I realize that many of my readers are more informed and experienced than I am, so please comment or send me a message. Love to know your thoughts.