2018 Crypto Year in Numbers and Facts

Breaker presented 2018 crypto year in numbers. By analyzing the figures, it aims at finding out the real situation with cryptocurrencies.

Many say, the past year was very difficult and even unlucky for crypto and blockchain. Bitcoin’s price fell by 81%. The same thing happened to ICO projects which funding also dramatically dropped. As a result, hundreds of crypto area workers lost their jobs. Still, when assessing the situation we shouldn’t take into account only the price reduction. If you look closely at other crucial crypto indicators, you can see a gradual and steady evolution in blockchain technologies.

Firstly, the number of words in the Crypto Anarchist Manifesto. It is a prophetic document reflecting the thoughts of Timothy C. May who passed away in December. Also, May sent the manifest in a legendary cypherpunks mailing list in 1992. It is considered to be a kind of the Bible for those who believe in the Power of Encryption.

The average salary of blockchain engineers basing on the data provided by tech recruitment firm Hired. The salaries attract many people interested in working with decentralized ledgers.

The number of countries that signed the declaration about the creation of the European Blockchain Partnership in April 2018. 21 European countries and Norway which is not an EU member agreed on a collaboration to develop infrastructure of cross-border public services. This is a good example that blockchain technologies still flourish in spite of the crypto prices decrease.

The capitalization of Coinbase. In October, the company raised $300 million and became one of the most expensive startups in the USA. So, many institutional players are still ready to invest in cryptocurrencies.

The place which takes cryptojacking among all other cyberthreats in 2018 crypto year according to cybersecurity companies like Kaspersky and Symantec. Moreover, after the price growth in 2017, fraudsters started to develop and launch cryptojacking malware helping them to mine cryptocurrency.

Participant number at CoinDesk Consensus conference in New York. Also, the number is thrice as many as that of the previous year. The event lasted three days and became the main event in the series of similar activities conducted by Blockchain Week NYC.

The number of forks created in Bitcoin core repository on GitHub. Though Bitcoin price dramatically fell, thousands of developers still use and work on the Bitcoin code.

The size in megabytes of the largest block mined in the history of blockchain. It was mined on a public blockchain created by CoinGeek, a chief miner on the Bitcoin SV chain.

Sirin Lab’s Finney blockchain smartphone retail price launched in November. The device has a secondary pop-up screen to verify transactions to/from the cold storage wallet. Sirin managed to send 160,000 devices to distributors. It is noteworthy that to promote their innovation, the company hired Barcelona star Lionel Messi as a brand ambassador.

New 2019 has come. And we hope that it will be even more productive for the development of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies.