...
Perhaps 2018 is bitcoin's 1994.
...By 1998 things had changed alot. Win 95/98 IE/Netscape made it much more useful and simple to use the internet and sites began to proliferate. I had dropped out to take a 35k job at a search engine optimization company (which seemed like alot at the time) that quickly went out of biz, but my connections from that job led to other connections that have kept me working for the 20 years since.
tldr; if it's 1994, buckle up, things will be unrecognizable in 4 years.
What would be our Netscape moment? Or AOL temporary dominance?
Is Lightning a.k.a Netscape (without the IPO) and is Coinbase/Binance/Bitfinex, perhaps, the AOL equivalent?
Or, would it be something else out of left field?
At this point, I think Bitcoin's "internet" or "Netscape" moment won't have much to do with a bunch of tech advancements to either Bitcoin or 2nd layer solutions. Personally I think it's going to be Bitcoin ETFs that define the turning point.
When Wall Street and corporations start singing the praises of Bitcoin ETFs, hedge fund investors can begin to invest directly through those vehicles, and Mom and Pop suddenly find a Bitcoin ETF as part of their company's Mutual Fund 401k portfolio offerings... then look the fk out.
Money will come pouring in. And Average Joes on the street will suddenly start buying in as well.
And possibly something like Bitcoin being added as a payment option to EBay or Amazon. That would also be huge.