2017 has been an excellent year for cryptocurrencies if we were to judge by the tremendous amounts of increase in price that a lot of the cryptocurrencies have seen this year, like Ethereum with 8500% return on investment since January 2017 and Bitcoin with 2000% gains in the same period. Ever since Bitcoin breached the $10,000 a few weeks ago, the cryptocurrency market has seen an unprecedented level of growth as investors from around the world have flocked to this new asset class that will form the basis the future world economy.

As Bitcoin continues to influence global discussions around finance and digital assets, many professionals are pursuing structured learning to better understand its underlying technology and economic impact. A Certified Bitcoin Expert credential helps build practical knowledge of Bitcoin, blockchain fundamentals, mining, and decentralized financial systems, providing a strong foundation for navigating the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

A New Asset Class

Most asset classes that have existed throughout the history of humanity, where people park their private wealth like bonds, equities, and even cash have almost always been tethered to the health of the state that issued those asset classes. As history has shown us, this is very problematic for some reasons the biggest among which is that people do not have any control over the future of such an asset if their government is unable to sustain itself.

For example, after the first world war, the German Mark suffered hyperinflation as a result of the war. When the war broke out, Germany decided to suspend the gold standard and fund the war entirely by borrowing. This led the German central bank to print a lot of currency, thereby diluting the existing cash flow and causing a sudden rise in the price of everyday items. People who held government bonds saw their savings diminish overnight and as a result could not even afford daily necessities. Sadly, this is still the state of affairs for most fiat currencies where the central bank of any given country has an extraordinary amount of power to dictate the dilution of the money supply. Such a manipulation of wealth is not possible in Bitcoin as the supply is fixed at 21 million Bitcoins and the network is secured by a decentralized network of miners. Since Bitcoin is not tethered to any particular government or organization, it is indeed the first global currency and hence is often referred to as digital gold.

Beyond Bitcoin, the rapid growth of digital assets has created opportunities to understand the broader cryptocurrency market and its evolving use cases. A Certified Cryptocurrency Expert credential equips professionals with practical insights into cryptocurrency ecosystems, blockchain networks, token economics, and digital asset management, helping them evaluate this emerging asset class more effectively.

Wall Street’s Legitimizing Influence

Some news stories have come out of Wall Street in the last several months which have helped Bitcoin gain the trust of the average investor. Wall Street veterans like JP Morgan CEO James Dimon have until now called Bitcoin a bubble, but last week billionaire Wall Street investor Mike Novogratz publicly came out in support of Bitcoin and claimed that Bitcoin would be worth $40,000 by the end of 2018.

In addition to the public support, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) listed Bitcoin futures on its website on Sunday. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) along with NASDAQ are planning to implement Bitcoin futures in the near futures as well which means that Bitcoin futures are soon going to be tradable on all of the three most significant exchanges in the world. This new wave of interest from Wall Street has not only done wonders for the price but has also added an air of legitimacy to Bitcoin as these traditional exchanges have a lot more regulation to prevent against market manipulation.

As blockchain adoption expands across financial services and enterprise applications, professionals also benefit from strengthening their broader technical expertise. A Tech Certification helps develop practical skills across emerging technologies, software systems, cybersecurity, and digital infrastructure, complementing blockchain and cryptocurrency knowledge in today's technology-driven economy.

High Level of Technical Innovation

Anyone who has followed the Bitcoin scaling debate over the last three years is familiar with the amount of disagreement that consumed the Bitcoin community regarding block sizes for so long and slowed actual development. Since the Bitcoin Cash hard fork that occurred on August 1, 2017, the two factions have separated and have had time to implement their scaling strategies.

For Bitcoin Cash that means bigger blocks which can process transactions faster and for meager transaction fees. Bitcoin Cash has had a lot of success with this method and has seen its price quadruple since the hard fork. For Bitcoin Core, instead, the focus remains on their off chain scaling solution, called the Lightning Network. Lightning Network is expected to be implemented in Bitcoin in 2018 and could help Bitcoin to scale to millions and even billions of transactions of seconds which is going to be crucial for mass adoption. Considering the momentum that Bitcoin has going for it and the roadmap for all the technical innovation that is in the works, it certainly seems that 2018 is going to be the year of the Blockchains.

As blockchain technologies continue to gain mainstream attention, effectively communicating their value becomes increasingly important for organizations and innovators. A Marketing Certification helps professionals strengthen their skills in strategic communication, product positioning, and market outreach, supporting greater awareness and adoption of blockchain-based solutions.

FAQs

1. Why was 2018 called the Year of Blockchain?

Many industry observers referred to 2018 as the "Year of Blockchain" because businesses, governments, financial institutions, and technology companies shifted their focus from cryptocurrency speculation toward practical blockchain applications. Although cryptocurrency markets declined during 2018, investment in blockchain research and enterprise adoption continued to grow.

2. What happened to cryptocurrencies in 2018?

After reaching record highs in late 2017, cryptocurrency prices experienced a major market correction throughout 2018. While digital asset prices fell significantly, blockchain technology itself continued attracting attention from enterprises, developers, and investors interested in long-term innovation.

3. Why did companies become interested in blockchain during 2018?

Organizations explored blockchain as a way to improve transparency, reduce fraud, automate business processes, strengthen security, and streamline data sharing across multiple parties. Many companies launched pilot projects to evaluate blockchain's potential in real-world operations.

4. Which industries explored blockchain in 2018?

Industries including finance, healthcare, supply chain management, logistics, insurance, retail, energy, agriculture, real estate, and government services actively experimented with blockchain-based solutions during 2018.

5. How did banks respond to blockchain in 2018?

Many financial institutions invested in blockchain research, joined industry consortiums, and tested distributed ledger technology for payments, trade finance, cross-border settlements, and digital identity. Most focused on enterprise blockchain rather than public cryptocurrencies.

6. What role did enterprise blockchain play in 2018?

Enterprise blockchain became one of the year's biggest trends. Businesses evaluated permissioned blockchain platforms such as Hyperledger Fabric, R3 Corda, and Quorum to improve collaboration, compliance, and operational efficiency while maintaining greater control over network participants.

7. What were blockchain consortiums?

Blockchain consortiums brought together multiple organizations to develop shared blockchain networks and industry standards. These collaborations aimed to solve common business challenges through distributed ledger technology rather than isolated proprietary systems.

8. How did governments approach blockchain in 2018?

Governments around the world explored blockchain for applications including digital identity, land registries, public records, customs documentation, healthcare records, and voting research. Some countries also began developing regulatory frameworks for digital assets.

9. Did blockchain adoption increase in 2018?

Yes. Although many initiatives remained in the pilot stage, blockchain adoption expanded through proof-of-concept projects, strategic partnerships, and enterprise investments. Adoption was growing, even though widespread production deployment was still limited.

10. What role did smart contracts play in 2018?

Smart contracts gained significant attention because they could automate agreements and business processes without requiring manual intervention. Developers explored their use in finance, insurance, supply chains, digital identity, and decentralized applications (dApps).

11. Why was supply chain management a major blockchain use case?

Supply chain tracking became one of blockchain's most promising applications because distributed ledgers could improve product traceability, reduce counterfeiting, increase transparency, and simplify auditing across multiple organizations.

12. How did blockchain affect startups in 2018?

Many startups built solutions around decentralized finance, supply chains, digital identity, gaming, healthcare, cybersecurity, and tokenization. At the same time, funding became more selective following the cryptocurrency market downturn.

13. What happened to Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) in 2018?

ICOs remained active during part of 2018, but regulatory scrutiny increased significantly. Investors became more cautious as authorities examined token offerings more closely and concerns grew over fraud and unsustainable fundraising practices.

14. What challenges did blockchain face in 2018?

Major challenges included scalability, interoperability, regulatory uncertainty, energy consumption debates, user experience limitations, integration with legacy systems, and proving measurable business value beyond pilot projects.

15. Which blockchain platforms gained attention in 2018?

Platforms such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric, R3 Corda, EOS, Stellar, Ripple, NEO, and Quorum attracted significant developer, enterprise, and investor interest for different use cases and technical approaches.

16. Was 2018 truly the Year of Blockchain?

Many analysts considered 2018 a turning point because attention shifted from cryptocurrency price speculation toward enterprise blockchain development. While the phrase was widely used, blockchain adoption continued evolving well beyond 2018, making it one important milestone rather than a definitive endpoint.

17. What lessons emerged from blockchain adoption in 2018?

Organizations learned that blockchain is not a universal solution. Successful implementations required clear business problems, strong governance, collaboration among stakeholders, realistic expectations, and careful evaluation of costs and benefits.

18. How did 2018 influence future blockchain development?

The investments, research, and pilot programs launched during 2018 helped lay the groundwork for later innovations in decentralized finance (DeFi), NFTs, tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), central bank digital currency (CBDC) research, enterprise blockchain, and Web3 applications.

19. How has blockchain evolved since 2018?

Since 2018, blockchain technology has expanded through Layer 2 scaling solutions, proof-of-stake networks, decentralized finance, cross-chain interoperability, institutional digital asset adoption, tokenization, enterprise deployments, and increasing regulatory development across many jurisdictions.

20. Why is 2018 still significant in blockchain history?

Although blockchain has continued advancing, 2018 remains an important historical milestone because it marked a shift from widespread excitement about cryptocurrency prices to a broader focus on practical blockchain innovation. It demonstrated that even when markets declined, organizations continued investing in the underlying technology, shaping many of the blockchain ecosystems that exist today. Humans briefly stopped asking, "How high can Bitcoin go?" and started asking, "Can this technology actually solve business problems?" That turned out to be the more durable question.

Why 2018 is the year of Blockchain?