I think you're right about the industry. Not necessarily bitcoin itself or even just other currencies, I seem to be seeing more and more about this as a technology. The article below from the Daily Reckoning was interesting in this context ...

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The biggest thing  since the internet
Dear Reader,

In the last few years, I must have tried ten times to figure out the blockchain. I've always found it hard to get my head around it.

Some technology types are convinced it's the future of everything. It was on the cover of The Economist recently – a senior editor called it their most important technology cover story since the Internet.

According to its fans it will do the following things, and more besides:
- Replace passports, land registries, voting systems
- Replace all contracts
- Get rid of fees on financial transactions
- Replace all keys: for homes, cars, hotel rooms and so on
- Eliminate spam
- End digital piracy of music, films and TV
- Lead to self-owning self-driving cars
- Lead to thousands and thousands of job losses at banks and other bureaucracies

Anyway, two years later, I finally "get it". I see what all the fuss is about now.

Let's see if I can explain it in two minutes.
The trust machine

Okay step one. What, literally, is meant by the word blockchain?

The blockchain is a type of computer code. It uses cryptography to create a trusted public ledger that anyone can inspect, but no single person controls.

Why do we need "a trusted public ledger that anyone can inspect, but no single person controls"?

It comes down to that word trust. The blockchain is a big deal because it uses clever computer code to create something that everybody can trust is accurate and legitimate.

Why is trust such a big deal?

We take trust for granted. In modern Britain we trust complete strangers all the time. Examples: buying food with a credit card, selling a few shares over the phone, buying a house safe in the knowledge that someone won't just seize it.

Obviously we're not stupid. We do that because we've built up a whole big system to make sure strangers can trust each other. A government land registry proves you own your house. A credit card company "vouches for you" when you want groceries. And your broker is one of about six layers of middle men who make sure your shares get transferred to their new owner when you sell them.

In the developed world at least, a lack of trust isn't exactly a big problem, because we've got a huge complicated system of governments and banks and insurance companies and so on which act as a middle man so we can trust each other. Everyone trusts the middle man, so strangers who don't trust each other can do business.

So if it's not a big problem, why do we need blockchain?

Because it costs less! Those trust-creating bureaucracies we've invented, banks and governments and the like, don't come cheap!

I'll start with an example you'll be familiar with: buying a share. Most brokers will charge you around £14, all in, to buy a share.

And they're not ripping you off! The market for brokers is pretty competitive these days. Prices have come way down over the last decade or two. But someone has to pay for all those middlemen at the brokers, the clearing houses, and so on.

Or how about money transfers. I'm Irish, so I've been known to send money across the Irish Sea from time to time. There's no easy way for me to get money where it needs to be in Ireland. So I need to pay a trusted middleman – my bank – to do it for me. For the privilege I pay about £30 each time.

Land registries are pretty boring, at least in the UK. But in many parts of the world they don't exist or they don't work. There are stories of Russian Mafiosi turning up at people's front doors and claiming the rights to their house – with notarised papers to prove it. Trustworthy government institutions are relatively rare on this planet. And where they do exist, they cost a lot of money to run.

Isn't this something to do with bitcoin?

Sort of. Bitcoin, which is a digital currency, is an application of blockchain technology. But it's just one application of the blockchain.

In five years' time we could have a world with millions of different blockchains, each doing different jobs. There might be one for proving ownership of company shares (Nasdaq is already building this by the way). Toyota might have one to pair you with your car. Citibank for transferring funds. Cleethorpes city council might replace their land registry. There are many, many, many applications.

Interesting stuff – but how will it affect me?

Adam Ludwin of Chain, a small Blockchain company, makes the analogy between the blockchain and voice over IP (VOIP). VOIP became the new standard in telephony back in the 2000s. Before VOIP phone calls were still transmitted using the old analogue cables and switches and routers. When VOIP came along, everything went digital "under the hood".

The user experience for ordinary people didn't change much, at first. Maybe a slightly better call quality. But the new system made it way cheaper to send a person's voice from point A to point B.

And now it's essentially free to call anyone, anywhere in the world, using Skype, FaceTime, WhatsApp calls, Viber, etc etc. VOIP made that possible.

VOIP is a neat example, but it's small-fry. The telecoms industry is way smaller than all the industries the blockchain has in its sights. If you can trust a simple piece of computer code then county council bureaucrats, back office bankers, copyright lawyers, and er, locksmiths could all be in trouble.

Neat story. But can I make money from it?

According to Ludwin, the penny has dropped in the last six months. Big banks and companies are rushing to prepare their blockchain strategies. Nasdaq is "distrupting itself" by creating a bitcoin share register.

This thing has started to move.

The first Blockchain companies are starting to appear on Aim already – for example, Coinsilium is planning to float this year.

If I'm right about the potential applications of the blockchain, this isn't going to stay restricted to a few small Aim stocks for long.

Expect big things from the companies building the trust machine.

Best wishes,

Sean Keyes
For The Daily Reckoning

November 2015 BIS paper on the implications of distributed digital currencies.
www.bis.org/cpmi/publ/d137.htm

An interesting read. A threat to some sources of income for banks and central banks.


Overview of possible regulatory actions.

Mike Hearn, Jan 15
archive.is/9Kmlb#selection-943.0-980.0
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The resolution of the Bitcoin experiment

I’ve spent more than 5 years being a Bitcoin developer. The software I’ve written has been used by millions of users, hundreds of developers, and the talks I’ve given have led directly to the creation of several startups. I’ve talked about Bitcoin on Sky TV and BBC News. I have been repeatedly cited by the Economist as a Bitcoin expert and prominent developer. I have explained Bitcoin to the SEC, to bankers and to ordinary people I met at cafes.
From the start, I’ve always said the same thing: Bitcoin is an experiment and like all experiments, it can fail. So don’t invest what you can’t afford to lose. I’ve said this in interviews, on stage at conferences, and over email. So have other well known developers like Gavin Andresen and Jeff Garzik.

But despite knowing that Bitcoin could fail all along, the now inescapable conclusion that it has failed still saddens me greatly. The fundamentals are broken and whatever happens to the price in the short term, the long term trend should probably be downwards. I will no longer be taking part in Bitcoin development and have sold all my coins.

Why has Bitcoin failed? It has failed because the community has failed. What was meant to be a new, decentralised form of money that lacked “systemically important institutions” and “too big to fail” has become something even worse: a system completely controlled by just a handful of people. Worse still, the network is on the brink of technical collapse. The mechanisms that should have prevented this outcome have broken down, and as a result there’s no longer much reason to think Bitcoin can actually be better than the existing financial system.

Think about it. If you had never heard about Bitcoin before, would you care about a payments network that:
•Couldn’t move your existing money
•Had wildly unpredictable fees that were high and rising fast
•Allowed buyers to take back payments they’d made after walking out of shops, by simply pressing a button (if you aren’t aware of this “feature” that’s because Bitcoin was only just changed to allow it)
•Is suffering large backlogs and flaky payments
•… which is controlled by China
•… and in which the companies and people building it were in open civil war?

I’m going to hazard a guess that the answer is no.

...

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Bitcoin "Made in China" coming soon?

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Chinese Central Bank Studies Prospect of Own Digital Currency
People's Bank of China says digital currency reduces cost
PBOC set up team in 2014 to research digital currencies

China’s central bank said it is studying the prospects of issuing its own digital currency and aiming to roll out a product as soon as possible, contending that alternative payment systems can improve the efficiency of global transactions.
The People’s Bank of China set up a research team in 2014 to study digital currencies and application scenarios, according to a statement posted on the regulator’s website. The PBOC said it has consulted with experts from Citigroup Inc. and Deloitte LLP, though it didn’t specify what technology it would be using to issue its digital currency or how it would work in relation to the yuan.
Digital currencies have gained prominence with the rise of bitcoin, which is mined with high-powered computers and operates with a distributed ledger that contains the payment history of every circulation. China has become one of the biggest markets for bitcoin and miners, as Chinese regulators have largely taken a hands-off approach with bitcoin exchanges and businesses.
“They’ve recognized the opportunities the digital currencies have,” said Zennon Kapron, managing director of Shanghai-based consulting firm Kapronasia. “If they did have something the government could monitor and use, that could fit into their longer-term plans.”
Capital Flows
An estimated $843 billion of capital flowed out of China in the 11 months through November, according to a Bloomberg estimate, and policy makers are having to add funds to the financial system to prevent interest rates rising amid an economic slowdown.
Early bitcoin adopters envisioned the currency as a means to obtain freedom from control from central banks and financial institutions.
Bitcoin was created in 2008 under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto, a programmer or a group of programmers, and does not operate an administer, like a central bank. Rather a network of volunteers validate transactions via their computers, which require encrypted electronic signatures, and in return earn fees based on market prices.
“Right now it’s too early to see what effect PBOC’s move will have on China’s bitcoin community," said Wang Chun, Beijing-based co-founder of the world’s second-largest bitcoin mining pool F2Pool. "They could decide to let bitcoin co-exist with its own digital currency, or chose to crack down on it."
Blockchain Technology
The Philippines is already trying to use blockchain technology that underpins bitcoin to issue its own digital currency. Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. wants to become the first major exchange operator to use blockchain technology.
Often when a revolutionary technology first enters the public realm, it emboldens early adopters, said Charles Mok, an IT advocate who serves on the Hong Kong Legislative Council. Still, commercialization of the new technology needed to make it available to the masses fuels property rights and government enforced rules, he said.
“It’s always a tug of war between the government, the regulators and non-government organizations,” said Mok. “It’s natural that governments will say they want to come because of the financial market impact, they want to protect consumers.”
Bitcoins have declined 3.5 percent in dollar terms this year, after climbing 36 percent in 2015, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-21/chinese-central-bank-studies-prospect-of-own-digital-currency

Happened across some bitcoin pricing.

Seems to have rallied a bit in the last few months. Now "worth" around $423.

blockchain.info/charts/market-price?timespan=all&showDataPoints=false&daysAverageString=1&show_header=true&scale=0&address=

bitcoinhelp.net/know/more/price-chart-history

Bitcoin Blasts to Record $10,000 as Bubble Warnings Multiply

Bitcoin surpassed $10,000 for the first time, bringing this year’s price surge to more than 10-fold even as warnings multiply that the largest digital currency is an asset bubble.

The euphoria is bringing to the mainstream what was once considered the providence of computer developers, futurists and libertarians seeking to create an alternative to central bank-controlled monetary systems. While the actual volume of transactions conducted in cryptocurrencies is relatively small, the optimism surrounding the technology continues to drive it to new highs.

Bitcoin has risen by more than 50 percent since October alone, taking off after developers agreed to cancel a technology update that threatened to split the digital currency. Even as analysts disagree on whether the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is truly an asset, its $167 billion value already exceeds that of about 95 percent of the S&P 500 Index members.

contd.
www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-29/bitcoin-leaves-skeptics-behind-while-blasting-to-record-10-000