we can look at estimates of people in the world who participated in the global banking system. In 2015 it was estimated 62% of the population had a bank account. Today’s world population is estimated at 7.5 billion so let’s say 4.65 billion people have a bank account (I know lots of people have more than one account, but let’s keep it simple).

To transfer money back and forth in formal banking networks, you need a bank account. But in the cryptocurrency world, you need a wallet. Below is a chart of Bitcoin wallet adoption:

From year-to-year the number of wallets grew from 8.7 million to 16.8 million, almost 100% growth.

Assuming growth continues, there will be 465 million wallets (10% of the world bank account total) in less than 5 years or by 2022.

We can draw some conclusions from these projections:

    - Bitcoin mining is going to stay profitable, very profitable for the foreseeable.
    - As the number of wallets grow, so should the market cap of Bitcoin

And this is the really shocking conclusion to make of this report. There is  a lot of hype about how Bitcoin is a bubble waiting to burst, with a market cap of $65 billion.

But there is $26 trillion dollars sitting in transactions accounts. A 10% capture of that money is $2.6 trillion dollars which would value each Bitcoin at $160,000 (excluding new coin minted after today).

Is this forecast completely outlandish?
Most financial experts writing about Bitcoin would say I am completely out to lunch.

And a positive message: http://www.safehaven.com/article/44720/why-will-bitcoin-succeed-how-about-saving-140-billion-in-bank-fees

Let me cherry-pick a few key points:

1)    Global payments revenue (fees on debit & credit cards, wire fees etc.) accounts for 30-34% of bank revenue—so this is a BIG chunk of their revenue.

2)    In 2016 that revenue was $1.8 Trillion, (with a T) (page 4).

3)    “Outstanding balances on transactional accounts exceeded $27 TRILLION (my emphasis) by the end of 2015, their highest level ever.” (page 6)

4)    “North America continues to derive nearly half its payments revenues from credit cards – far more than any other region – and has a significantly lower reliance on account-related liquidity.” (page 11)

5)    “The average cost for a bank to execute a cross-border payment via legacy correspondent banking agreements remains in the range of $25 to $35, more than 10 times more than for average ACH payment” (page 21)

6)    “reduce the overall cost of cross-borders for banks by up to 90 percent, [you can reach] a target cost of $1 to $2 per transaction or a total cost reduction for banks of up to $140 billion.” (page 22)

Let me cherry-pick a few key points:

1)    Global payments revenue (fees on debit & credit cards, wire fees etc.) accounts for 30-34% of bank revenue—so this is a BIG chunk of their revenue.

2)    In 2016 that revenue was $1.8 Trillion, (with a T) (page 4).

3)    “Outstanding balances on transactional accounts exceeded $27 TRILLION (my emphasis) by the end of 2015, their highest level ever.” (page 6)

4)    “North America continues to derive nearly half its payments revenues from credit cards – far more than any other region – and has a significantly lower reliance on account-related liquidity.” (page 11)

5)    “The average cost for a bank to execute a cross-border payment via legacy correspondent banking agreements remains in the range of $25 to $35, more than 10 times more than for average ACH payment” (page 21)

6)    “reduce the overall cost of cross-borders for banks by up to 90 percent, [you can reach] a target cost of $1 to $2 per transaction or a total cost reduction for banks of up to $140 billion.” (page 22)

Il y a 20 ans, j'aurais compris mais maintenant - et parce que c'est une partie de mon métier -, je sais qu'il est facile d'avoir une grande scalabilité

Because you value access to that thing today.

I had planned to buy some stuff back when we were around $4.8k, but I guess they can wait now.