All eyes on Japan in 2018

[hoodi]

Already following them for the last month, I am fascinated by the intelligence of Janapnese government, always one step ahead.

[teejaymuna]

This is great insight. Thank you for sharing.

[Drunkenhorse]

I agree , all eyes on Japan , I really love how this country is making an example for the whole world. Regarding crypto of the future, I would say EOS and Steem. Steem is the fastest crypto on the market now and has a great potential. Fees are also very cheap.

[Calangaman]

Thank you guys, feel free to circulate the Japanese version to your Japanese friends.

[Tony_Nguyen]

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This paper presents the situation of the cryptocurrency market at the end of 2017 and the challenges that the crypto community still faces. Thanks to its crypto friendly legal framework, Japan should be the country to watch in 2018. The currently high transaction fees of Bitcoin offers an opportunity for Japanese crypto assets to become the preferred payment method on the island and maybe in the world.
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Looking back, 2017 was a fantastic year for the crypto world. Investors enjoyed 20 fold returns on Bitcoin (BTC), 100 for Ether (ETH), 60 for Litecoin (LTC) and so on. It was hard to lose money in dollar terms.

This exceptional performance is the consequence of years of hard work from developers, exchanges, lobbyists, authors, etc. to make Bitcoin and the likes more known and accessible to the world.
The crypto market is becoming mainstream: institutional and retail investors are now together in this new asset class. The more, the merrier one could say.

Indeed, the influx of new joiners came at a benefit: the skyrocketing rise in value of crypto assets.

But it came at a cost too: Congested blockchains, rising transaction costs, crashing exchanges, etc.

While cryptocurrencies made a name for themselves this year, a lot must be done so that they leave their nascent state and become mature payment methods.

The time is now to scale.

On December 13, Vitalik Buterin, the Founder of Ethereum, challenged his followers on Twitter:

•   “So total cryptocoin market cap just hit $0.5T today. But have we *earned* it?”
•   “How many unbanked people have we banked?”
•   “How much actual usage of micropayment channels is there actually in reality?”

Without a real use case in the daily life of people, 99% of cryptocurrencies and tokens will be remembered as a funny investment that turned out to be a mirage.

Bitcoin is here to stay.

It has the first mover advantage, the biggest network, fair incentives and its scarcity makes it the true digital gold. It’s the benchmark of all crypto assets. For these reasons, Bitcoin will survive and at least act as a store of value.

However, Bitcoin was also designed to be a medium of exchange but it is now too slow and too expensive to use. Being the first mover also has its flaws. Bitcoin blocks are 1 Megabyte big and occur every 10 minutes. That is not enough to cope with the thousands of new transactions happening every minute. Bitcoin miners include the transactions with the highest fees attached in the blocks.
This is how Bitcoin is no longer viable as a medium of exchange for small transactions.

It may be temporary though.

The introduction of the Lightning Networks (LN) solution to the Bitcoin network will make Bitcoin great again.
But when will that happen?
Will the community tear itself apart as it did when the Segregated Witness (Segwit) solution was launched this summer? Nobody knows. There may well be another 12 to 18 months of developments and hiccups along the way.

So what will happen in the meantime?

Now that millions of people have become aware of cryptocurrencies and that the Bitcoin blockchain is in limbo, there is an immense opportunity for an altcoin to become the preferred coin for transactions.

Let’s remember that the value of a coin mostly depends on the size of its network. The more people use it, the higher its value.
Also, the number of merchants accepting Bitcoin vs credit cards is still low worldwide. A successful altcoin could in no time take over Bitcoin as the preferred coin by merchants.

Therefore, this is no surprise that the Bitcoin cash (BCH) supporters are so vocal in the media. BCH offers lower transaction costs thanks to its 8 Megabytes block size. It could thus fill the gap.
Litecoin (LTC) is another contender. It’s a clone of Bitcoin with larger and more frequent blocks. It has Segwit too.

In the end, the users will decide which coin they endorse.

But the legal framework plays an important role here.
In most countries, the legal status of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is still unclear. Why would merchants accept cryptocurrencies that are uneasy to apprehend and that the government can ban overnight?

Japan gave cryptocurrencies legal tender status in April. This is a massive step for a rapid adoption by Japanese people and merchants.
Which coins are they likely to endorse for payments?

BCH? LTC? Probably not. These coins are known in Japan but probably lack the support of the local crypto communities.

And Japan has its own altcoins: NEM and MONA. They are very different in design.

NEM is similar to Ether as it enables the creation of NEM powered blockchains and smart contracts. There are 9 billion tokens that were premined. Transactions are validated by nodes, based on a Proof of Importance method.

MONA is a fork of LTC with more frequent blocks. It is popular with gamers and is even accepted by IT stores. Coins are mined by the traditional Proof of Work method.

Both coins enjoy strong local support and can be purchased directly against Fiat on the Japanese exchanges.

This is why Japanese altcoins shall be monitored closely in 2018.

Their adoption by local merchants shall be facilitated thanks to the clear legal framework for cryptocurrencies in Japan and the work of their communities.

Should they become widely adopted in Japan, the network effect could make them very popular in other parts of the world.

Calangaman
Published on Bitcointalk on 27 Dec 2017

Very good analysis. Japan is a strong supporting party.

[sms301]

I think Canada and japan is gonna do very well this year in crypto. So I'm gonna buy some japanese and Candian ICO and coins in next few weeks.

[Flodner]

Japan is the great country, and I hope to visit Japan this year.
Knowing that cryptocurrency is very popular in Japan, I haven't seen many ICOs, Projects of Japanese origin here.
I think may be that's because Japanese people have own forums, own places to discuss.
If somebody has a list or just few ongoing projects, ICOs to name - that would be good.

Are you sure that it's right to call NEM Japanese project?
On the site the team is quite intertnational.

Also wikipedia says:
"The NEM.io Foundation launched NEM's Blockchain Center in a 10,000-square foot facility in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to serve as an accelerator, incubator and coworking space."

[Zanuar003]

The information is very interesting though long. I have lived in Japan and admired his discipline and morale. Probably very good if bitcoin becomes the digital currency there. Certainly must be with a strategy that is right for people to use it.

[Ilaybit]

Ah I want crypto to be legal. I want to pay taxes for crypto.
I want to live from crypto and I want to use it everyday.

[Anti-Cen]

Neo is going to be the coin that's used in Asia and it's a bit like ETH but fifty times faster
so yes they will place restrictions on western crypto-coins just like they west likes to do
with the rest of the world.

Japan, South Korea will jump on board with China and we will be left with Ripple if no one
gets something sorted out this end and clearly Bitcoin cannot scale and has just become a
rip-off in terms of fees and it won't take long for ETH (Twice as fast as BTC) to start running
into scaling problems too.

IOTA is about ten times faster than a mere 7 transactions per second we get here and sad to
say it's just not enough but before you bang on about lighting network the study up first like
I have done. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2776719.msg28395400#msg28395400

Banks are being built into Bitcoin under your noses and yes anyone can host a bank/hub but you
need lots of BTC and hardware and then hope the miners don't block you out because they will
be looking to host the banks.

[gidaahmad]

I admit that Japan is the country with the greatest interest in crypto. It is evident that Japan now holds the title as the country with as the largest Bitcoin Market in the world.

[Viscera]

Thanks for sharing this.. i'm big fan of XEM because my mentor is one of my Mentor is part of XEM Community.. they have real use cases and i think this year would be good for xem ofcourse.

[skyflakes88]

I have always admire japan in this kinds of feat because they are embracing the change faster than anyone else with a strong willed discipline i guess its their culture they are too hospitable and they really embrace what their country is practicing like they are advance creatures that don't what to stop working   its one of their assets that's why crypto currencies are really matched to the way they lived.

[hydeevanz]

I watch lots of things about the world and wonder what are the things that makes a country to be great than any other countries. One of the best country for me is Japan because of the individual's discipline and also the one who made the trends in technology. Japanese are cool and smart which result of fast changing of their environment especially in their fiat less transaction.

[Lemer]

Indeed, for now, Japan's policy on cryptocurrency is quite friendly, and it is widely used to promote cryptocurrency.
The Japanese are highly sensitive to the future and the next generation of innovative technologies, which is why Japan has developed so quickly.

[usechain]

If Japan's advanced state can accept cryptocurrencies and recognize the legitimacy of bitcoin, I think Bitcoin will gradually be accepted in other countries as well.

[Calangaman]

Are you sure that it's right to call NEM Japanese project?
On the site the team is quite intertnational.
Also wikipedia says:
"The NEM.io Foundation launched NEM's Blockchain Center in a 10,000-square foot facility in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to serve as an accelerator, incubator and coworking space."

Some founders are Japanese. Actually, the CEO of Japan's ZAIF exchange is on the NEM board.

[Turkish88]

Imagine the panic when we see news about Japan banning btc, ICO, exchangers )))

[Calangaman]

FYI MONA coin just performed a successful atomic swap on Friday. MONA is a fork of Litecoin and was the first coin to implement Segwit.
Tech wise, it's a very solid coin, suitable for payments.

https://monappy.jp/memo_logs/view/nontarouchannel/2493  (Japanese content)

[bengca84135120]

Japan's bitcoin is legal, and Japan has a lot of crypto-currency in the world!
In Japan bitcoin can be bought and sold on its own, or shopping in shops.
Japan can better promote the promotion of digital currency in east Asia! The prospects for bitcoin in 2018 are great!