How about some renewed interest in Russia? I have no idea how large their influence would be on a global scale, but I do think it's possible that we'll see more adoption there.
Putin recently called for regulations of crypto, but without prohibiting them.
Source:
http://bitcoinist.com/vladimir-putin-endorses-blockchain-russia/I'm curious to see what other people think about this...
I am not sure, but I think people overestimate Russia, I do agree however that India and maybe even china could be a catalyst.
Also, thinking about it, all these government "ICOs" by Venezuela are a very good sign I think. As any exchange can list the currency and allow people to convert these worthless tokens to better ones say, Bitcoin. Thus opening the gate for the whole population to adopt this new technology.
Thinking that many governments won't realise this when launching these new "E-Currencies".
I'm not sure that I agree with you that these government ICO's are a good sign, specifically in the case of Venezuala's Petro.
Petro is essentially a dictatorship issued crypto, backed by Venezuela's oil reserves. People there can't even use their own currency (Bolivar) to buy into Petro.
I'd like to see other countries develop their own form of crypto-currency, hoping they'd do it differently than Venezuela.
Some reading material on Petro:
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-02-25/venezuela-s-petro-cryptocurrency-won-t-help-debthttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-22/venezuelans-unable-to-buy-maduro-s-cryptocurrency-with-bolivarsFrom the second article:
Investors will have to overlook confusion about how the currency will operate. The white paper says the Petro is built on the Ethereum network, while the user guide the government published says its on the Nem network. There are also questions as to whether the $735 million raised so far touted by the government is true, as the public Petro blockchain shows inflows for about half of that.