New cryptocurrency products, services, applications, and tools have been blooming year after year since Bitcoin was born. Exactly just what you would expect out of a free market. Developers come up with a great deal of fresh things practically every day and one can get lost in the maze of projects very easily.
Cointelegraph tried to make it a bit easier for readers to source through the supply and approached knowledgeable industry people with the question "what bitcoin projects, except your own, are you looking forward to or are you excited about most in the coming months?" Please, bear in mind the following responses do not come out of a representative poll sample.
Kamil Brejcha, Product Development Manager at Satoshilabs:
"I tried to choose projects which could have a positive impact on bitcoin adoption:
Plutus.it - mobile application enabling bitcoin payments via NFC on every POS terminal with integrated NFC technology. The application's biggest benefit for merchants is they don't have to obtain a special POS device for bitcoin acceptance and can use the existing infrastructure while not caring about bitcoin exchanging for fiat when they do not want to hold bitcoin.
Smartcontract.com - smart contracts are going to play a large role in the near future as they allow to make a contract without a third party - a bank, lawyer, payment gateway, etc... It's simply just about a rule definition under which a payment should be released. For example you can hire someone looking after SEO. You'll make an agreement he will get your webpage to a certain position in web-browsers. The payment is automatically released only if the agreed position would be reached.
Coinprism.com - so called colored coins platform. Colored coins can serve as a medium for company shares. Thanks to coloured coins it's possible to make an IPO on blockchain at the fraction of price of a standard IPO. You can also record the ownership of your physical property on blockchain, etc...
OpenBazaar - decentralized marketplace in the Ebay style, which will enable direct trading between two parties while using escrow service protecting sellers and buyers. Multisig feature enables that transactions and payments can not be misused or manipulated in any way".
Paul Snow, CEO Factom:
"I am excited about bitcoin, and its applications via the developing networks to make payments possible. This includes credit cards that hold bitcoin, Lightning network, sidechains, and more. Payment systems that have bitcoin as a settlement layer will make significant moves in 2016.
I am also very excited about Ethereum and the prospect of deploying real world smart contract solutions. Ethereum promises to increase the speed and effectiveness while lowering costs of managing business relationships."
Jure Pirc, president of Bitcoin Association Slovenia:
"Essentially I am excited about everything that is and will pop up in the cryptocurrency realm in the upcoming months. I am quite excited about the fact that the MLM industry has gotten the grasp of cryptocurrencies. I am not saying I endorse MLM, ponzi, pyramid, binary businesses overall but the serious/honest ones that are popping up and have a genuine sustainable business plan (for example a mining operation) are going to launch bitcoin and cryptocurrencies mainstream.
Being the current president of Bitcoin association Slovenia i will not be endorsing a specific company or service, but we can rest assured 2016 is going to bring bitcoin to the masses thanks to dedication. I want to thank everyone in the crypto space for their dedication and hard work over the years and to remind them that what we do today shapes the future for our children."
Roger Ver, Bitcoin investor:
"I’m a big fan of OpenBazaar, and their competitor in the form of Bitmarkets. Either one will likely change the way people are able to do business with each other around the world. I’m not directly involved, but I’m an investor in both Purse.io and Bitcoinhivemind.com and am very excited about what both teams are creating."
Susanne Tarkowski Tempelhof, CEO Bitnation:
"I'm really impressed by Backfeed.cc, it's the best of all DAO management softwares I've experimented with so far. We've already integrated it into Bitnation, and hope to have a full-fledged integration optimising day-to-day work soon."
Joshua Scigala, CEO Vaultoro:
"I’m looking forward to a block size increase in 2016. I’m also looking forward to the decentralisation of markets with OpenBazaar being high on the list of much awaited apps."