So it seems the haters were correct. The crypto market bubble did actually burst.

Back in late 2017 some famous faces chipped in their opinions on the magnificent rally that crypto was making. Luminaries such as Jordan Belfort declared Bitcoin’s price a bubble, Warren Buffett said he was almost certain it would end badly.

These comments were not taken in good spirit by many hardcore investors of Bitcoin and other crypto at the time.

And Twitter was offended.

This prompted the endlessly entertaining crypto bull, John Mcafee, to promise he’d eat his dick on live television if Bitcoin wasn’t $100,000 within a year.

A sight to behold!

But then came January, and with it came a whole bunch of news and negativity which began to test investors nerve over the following weeks.

The widely covered Bit Connect collapsed. Rumours of a Korean crypto ban. The SEC meeting to discuss what to do about crypto. An Mtgox guy began selling his billions of Bitcoin. Facebook and Google banned adverts for crypto. An upcoming G20 meeting which investors feared crypto regulatory measures might be discussed. Oh and a few exchange hacks just to keep everyone on high alert.

Which brings us to now. Bitcoin is down circa 60% from it’s all time high. Ethereum much the same. And a market full of alt-coins whose market cap has halved or more during an incessant slide into February and March. (see Cardano or Ripple).

But here is the thing.

Nothing has changed.

Well, nothing has changed with the technology behind blockchain. If anything, it’s improved.

Developers have been striving to improve network speed, as in the case of Bitcoin’s lightening network and Lightening Labs. With the aim to scale transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain to millions of new users in the coming years.

Ethereum has seen a boom of use. ICOs have been taking advantage of creating ERC20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain for a while now, and it doesn’t look like stopping.

Companies such as Factom are making waves in the financial sector by creating a product that helps secure and validate mortgage information on the blockchain.

And don’t discount some of the groundbreaking ICOs which have been surfacing. (ok, disclaimer. There are a lot of trash and obvious cash grabs out there too.)

So where does crypto go from here?

It’s pretty clear that blockchain technology is going to change a lot of industries for the better. The next decade will see many changes.

It’s going to simplify tasks for corporations and individuals. It’s going to secure many unsecured processes. But it’s also going to create a lot of job losses within said industries due to these changes.

It’s time for those affected to evolve or be left behind.

There’s hidden value in many crypto alt-coins. But you have to dig deep and research the companies behind each project using a large magnifying glass.

Remember this technology is still in its infancy.

Think real world use for their blockchain and true problems to solve. Think teams of experts with experience in their industry. Ignore the fluff.

As for Bitcoin itself, who can really say?

It has a real world use. It has a lot of areas in which it can evolve. It has many experienced and intelligent people working with it.

It will be improved.

But before it can change the way we pay for our every day items, the powers that be are most certainly going to attempt to get it under close control. It’s the way of the world.

There is value in Bitcoin and it seems John Mcafee can see the future.

Is he right?

Time will tell.