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<h3>The recent interest and investment in the cryptocurrency market has brought a whole new type of investor to the market, and that is institutional investors. </h3>
<p>While there have been many Venture Capital firms that have invested and been involved with cryptocurrency for a long time, there has never been more interest and investment in the cryptocurrency market than there is currently. While we have seen the market capitalizations of many coins skyrocket over the past few months, the level of investment is nothing compared to the levels of investment when projects begin to show actual promise of being able to handle the task of achieving mainstream adoption and everything that comes along with it. While there are still many high value and volume traders and investors in the cryptocurrency market, the biggest thing that has come from the recent interest and investment has been drawing the interest of institutional investors and corporations. </p>
<p>As more practical and functional blockchain projects begin to come to the market, Bitcoin will likely continue to loose more and more dominance. While many current projects may have the potential to be great, if the projects aren't able to implement the necessary changes quickly then they may be left behind. With how fast things have been moving within blockchain technology, its completely reasonable to assume that a project that is built on a completely different blockchain system than current projects could have a better chance at success. Having to try to reach consensus among miners and workers on the network to make fundamental changes to the network is an extremely difficult and lengthy process, which leads me to believe a project that is originally deployed with an easier ability to scale and a more practical network has a better chance at success. </p>
<p>http://www.playersmoney.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Smart-Money-Secret.jpg</p>
<p>While many of the oldest and most prominent projects still have die hard supporters and believers, it seems that many are so caught up in the theoretical potential of these projects rather than a practical method of reaching that end. When individuals are so entrenched in their beliefs, different opinions often form which has lead to serious conflicts among development in many of the most popular projects. While a 100 Billion dollar total cryptocurrency market capitalization is a big step, the market capitalization would be so much higher if there were more projects capable of supporting practical blockchain applications and use cases.</p>
<h3>With so much interest in blockchain technology, why haven't we seen more projects with more practical use cases?</h3>
<p>Up until the Ethereum project, all blockchain applications would have required a developer to build a blockchain specific blockchain, which requires serious skills, time, and expertise. While the Ethereum project has shown promise in its idea of a decentralized computer and the development of DApps, it is likely that it may fall short of what many are expecting it to be. Ethereum will likely be able to make adjustments and changes to adapt to the demands of adoption, but the question is when they will be able to actually implement the changes. For Ethereum to be capable of achieving and supporting DApps that gain mainstream adoption, fundamental changes would need to be made to the Ethereum network as a whole. While this could happen, it is very likely that the necessary changes will be a long way away. </p>
<p>http://www.forestview.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Affiliate-Marketing-From-Theory-to-Practice1.jpg</p>
<p>Application specific blockchains like Steemit have had serious success in the past several months, but a successful blockchain specific application is very difficult and costly to implement. The one thing that has always been missing has been the single blockchain platform that can handle and host a wide range of different distributed applications, and I think we will see numerous upcoming projects attempting to accomplish this goal. While these projects will likely not make projects like Ethereum irrelevant, they have the potential to improve and capitalize off of Ethereum's shortcomings. </p>
<h3>Interest is no longer just from the profit potential, but rather how platforms could offer solutions to real world problems and offer practical use cases. </h3>
<p>The potential that a practical Dapp platform has is huge, and I think that the increased interest and investment in Ethereum recently is a perfect example to validate that fact. While Ethereum may not be able to actually satisfy all of the capabilities required of an efficient DApp platform, it still shows that individuals are actively seeking these types of platforms as a solution. While it will likely be mainly hoobyist and investors involved in the project during very early developement, I think that a promising project could gain serious support and institutional investment after the platform proves its capabilities. Businesses are ready to deploy and embrace blockchain technology, but there is currently no platform that is capable of currently supporting the types of services that they require.</p>
<p> As the level of institutional investment in the cryptocurrency market increases, I also think that this could also lead to increased pricing stability throughout the cryptocurrency market. Big investors and traders have always been able to have significant influence over starting price runs and retreats, but as the total capitalization of the market continues to increase the influence of single individuals will likely decrease. Much of the daily volume of cryptocurrency traded is done by investors and speculators in short term positions, but as practical uses and use cases increase the volume of tokens demanded for current use also increases. </p>
<p>http://devops.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/practical.jpg</p>
<p>The purchase of tokens for currently use on a platform is actually still relatively uncommon, which really makes me think about what pricing levels of an 'in demand' token could look like. The number of long term holders would have a huge influence on the liquid supply available for trading and depending on the amount and stake of the long term holders, it could potentially cause pricing levels few have ever imagined. When we consider the sheer size of the businesses and industries that blockchain technology is seeking to improve upon and replace, the idea of trillion dollar market capitalization after mainstream adoption are completely reasonable.</p>
<p> It seems like an increasing amount of individuals interested in practical use cases and blockchain technology in the long term are entering the market, which will only increase the ease of at which a promising project could come to life. So far in 2017 we have seen the price level of many tokens to increase 20 fold in a matter of months, and if a project utilized advanced technology and an improved network, the amount of investment it would receive would likely be huge. 'Smart Money' has began to look at the cryptocurrency and blockchain market, but they have different requirements for investment than many of the large cryptocurrency traders in the past. A platform that could support applications with practical and achievable use cases is what everyone is waiting for, and I sure hope that the EOS platform is able to achieve that goal. </p>
<p><em><strong>I really hope that you enjoyed this post, and as always I encourage any feedback, questions, input, ect. you may have. For more information on the upcoming EOS project see the white paper </strong></em><a href="https://github.com/EOSIO/Documentation/blob/master/TechnicalWhitePaper.md"><em><strong>here</strong></em></a><em><strong>, and subscribe to the mailing list </strong></em><a href="eos.io"><em><strong>here</strong></em></a><em><strong>.This post will be posted through chainbb, and I encourage you to check it out! Thanks for reading!</strong></em></p>
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<p>image sources:<a href="http://www.playersmoney.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Smart-Money-Secret.jpg">1</a>-<a href="http://www.forestview.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Affiliate-Marketing-From-Theory-to-Practice1.jpg">2</a>-<a href="http://devops.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/practical.jpg">3</a></p>
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