EKMH Innovators Interview Series: 2020 Blockchain Predictions Week
An interview series spotlighting global tech influencers, disruptors, visionaries, and of course, innovators.
‘Tis the season for reflections and looking ahead to the new year. To celebrate the holidays, this week the Innovators Series focuses on the Blockchain, Crypto and Fintech predictions of mavericks and mavens in the sector.
In this post temtum Founder and CEO Richard Dennis shares his views on what to expect in the coming year:
*Quantum computing will become impossible to ignore in 2020. Google just made a major breakthrough in quantum supremacy, publishing the results of a test where its 54-qubit processor performed a computation in 200 seconds that it says would have previously taken 10,000 years. The imminence of quantum computing holds major implications for the cryptocurrency industry. Today, cryptocurrencies’ pseudo-random generation of keys leaves them susceptible to exploitation by hackers. Quantum computing increases the likelihood of predicting software-generated values, presenting major security concerns. In 2020, the first public quantum computers are coming onto the market.
*With Amazon’s latest cloud service, Braket, providing quantum computers to the public, expect to see traditional blockchain networks challenged by quantum-secure networks. Quantum-secure networks, such as those that leverage quantum entanglement to generate provable random numbers and next-generation hashing algorithms, will be poised to succeed in an era of quantum computing.
*While I certainly hope that the cryptocurrency market rebounds in 2020, Bitcoin may continue its struggles due to its issues with speed, scalability, and resource requirements. Bitcoin originally set out to take on legacy payment systems, but it has not successfully achieved this. Transactions on the Bitcoin network can take up to 10-15 minutes, making it ill-equipped for mainstream payments. Bitcoin also requires high entry points for network participation, which equates to massive computational power. Bitcoin has also faced issues over the last few years with scalability, which can’t be easily solved.
*In 2020, I predict we will start to see other cryptocurrency payment systems gain momentum that tackle these challenges and deliver payment solutions that meets the needs of today’s global economy.