Bitcoin is no longer the king of cryptocurrencies in India. This was proven by a recent study by Jana, a free internet provider that found that Ethereum has been topping bitcoin as the most searched-for decentralized digital currency in India over the past five months. The margin is also quite significant with Ethereum commanding a whopping 34.4 percent of cryptocurrency searches in the country as bitcoin trails behind at 29.9 percent. Another notable mention was BuyUCoin (NEM) with a 21.2 percent of the share. The remaining digital currencies only managed to register 5 percent or less.

Cryptocurrency searches, as it turns out, were highest in December when bitcoin prices soared to a record $20,000 – this accounted for 30 percent of all the searches made within the five-month period of Jana’s study. Since then, bitcoin prices have taken huge plunges while Ethereum, managed to log its all-time high of $1,261 at the beginning of the year.

It is worth noting that even though Ethereum prices have been relatively steadier than bitcoin’s, it does not mean that Ethereum transactions are anywhere close to surpassing bitcoin. Still Jana CEO, Nathan Eagle believes that “search volume is a leading indicator of what has momentum and is showing signs of growth.” He went on to add that while the search volume may not correspond to more people buying Ethereum, it certainly indicates that there is a lot more interest.

The study also revealed that at the beginning of 2018, there was a noticeable drop-off in interest in cryptocurrencies amidst news that suggested that the Indian government would be cracking down on digital currencies.  This was suggested in November 2017 by a government panel and reiterated by Arun Jaitley, the finance minister, during his budget speech in February.

“The government recommending shutting down exchanges and limiting currencies altogether, coupled with the decline in prices, has led to the feverish pitch waning away dramatically,” said Eagle. “There are still quite a lot of searches but maybe we’re getting closer to what a true steady state should look like.”

Bitcoin is once again in jeopardy after German researchers recently discovered that unknown persons have been using the cryptocurrency’s blockchain to store and link to child abuse imagery. Out if the 1,600 files that the researchers analyzed, 99 percent were text and images that included illicit pornography, child abuse imagery as well as other illegal content.

The blockchain is the underlying technology that powers the existence and operation of any cryptocurrency and though they are separate entities, no cryptocurrency can work without the blockchain. At least not yet. The blockchain is essentially a public ledger of all the transactions ever made in the decentralized digital currencies and keeps records of which users own what and stops the currency from being copied. This framework is locked and cannot be altered.

The Implications of These Findings

Blockchains are not limited to cryptocurrencies alone and thus they can be used to hold other types of non-financial data as well. This non-financial data was the point of focus for researchers from the RWTH Aachen University in Germany. The results of the analysis revealed a number of links to dark web services and attachments containing content that was “considered objectionable in many jurisdictions”.

“Our analysis shows that certain content, e.g., illegal pornography, can render the mere possession of a blockchain illegal,” the German researchers wrote. “Although court rulings do not yet exist, legislative texts from countries such as Germany, the UK, or the USA suggest that illegal content such as [child abuse imagery] can make the blockchain illegal to possess for all users. This especially endangers the multi-billion dollar markets powering cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.”

This is, however, not the first time that warnings about the possibility and dangers of storing non-financial, and possibly illegal, data within the blockchain have been issued. In 2015, for instance, Interpol set out a warning that stated that “the design of the blockchain means there is the possibility of malware being injected and permanently hosted with no methods currently available to wipe this data”. The definitively confirmed that blockchain technology had flaws that could enable the sharing of illicit content such as child abuse images.

“Since all blockchain data is downloaded and persistently stored by users, they are liable for any objectionable content added to the blockchain by others. Consequently, it would be illegal to participate in a blockchain-based system as soon as it contains illegal content,” the RWTH Aachen University researchers added.

While this might be dismissed easily since spending bitcoin does not necessarily require a copy of the blockchain (this is, after all, the goal), many other core processes such as mining require users to download a full blockchain copy or at least have chunks of it. In addition to the fears that anti-bitcoin ambassadors are propagating, the findings by the researchers put the booming, but fragile, multi-billion dollar cryptocurrency market’s reputation into the gutters. Still, it is definitely not too late to fix this.

Yesterday, Microsoft founder Bill Gates gave his opinion on bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies and initial coin offering (ICOs) during his appearance at a Reddit AMA. According to Gates, the use of cryptocurrencies for anonymous transactions or payments is not such a good thing especially because of the challenges it presents to law enforcement when following up on criminal transactions. This is despite the fact that a philanthropy under his name is currently in a partnership with a cryptocurrency firm, Ripple, in a bid to cater to the unbanked. Also in previous interviews, in 2014, for instance, Mr. Gates said that bitcoin is “better than currency” and that it was “exciting because it shows how cheap transactions can be.”

During the Ask Me Anything (AMA) session, Gates was asked about his thoughts on bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a whole. His full response read:

“The main feature of cryptocurrencies is their anonymity. I don’t think this is a good thing. The government’s ability to find money laundering and tax evasion and terrorist funding is a good thing. Right now cryptocurrencies are used for buying fentanyl and other drugs so it is a rare technology that has caused deaths in a fairly direct way. I think the speculative wave around ICOs and cryptocurrencies is super risky for those who go long.”

Is It Justified?

Well, first of all, the key value proposition of bitcoin and many other altcoins is censorship resistance and not anonymity – this is perhaps what has made bitcoin the most widely used cryptocurrency in the world. In its current state, bitcoin is still far from anonymous but a number of proposals have been brought forward seeking to have the system’s privacy buffed up.

On to Gate’s point, the more anonymous digital currencies like ZCash and Monero have gained a lot of attention and recognition by criminals and darknet users. Anonymous electronic cash payments have the potential of making the criminal dealings that are already thriving on fiat currency more efficient. A typical example would be how easy it would be to collect ransoms from someone you do not want to meet physically. This widely applies to hackers who often install ransomware on victim’s computers.

It Is Not All Bad

Even though Gates pointed the negative aspects of cryptocurrencies as a store of value, he still vouched for the underlying technology. In fact, the Microsoft founder has in the past made some very positive comments on the technological advancements that the Bitcoin represents, rather than bitcoin itself. Notably, in 2015 BackChannel interview, he pointed out that users needed to “draw on the revolution of Bitcoin, but Bitcoin alone is not good enough.”

An analyst claiming to have spotted the pattern in bitcoin’s market very unpredictable market says that the price of the digital currency is likely to double within six months and regain the astonishing heights it was soaring towards before the recent price plunge.

As it is for regular stock exchanges, if you can accurately predict the cryptocurrency price changes you stand to become extremely wealthy, profiting by purchasing the cryptocurrencies when the prices are low and then selling them once the prices peak. However, this is an ideal scenario – in reality, all cryptocurrencies are very volatile which makes foolproof predictions impossible.

Regardless, Fundstrat Global Advisors managing partner, Thomas Lee see is anticipating a new record peak for bitcoin come July. Lee’s prediction is based on the analysis of the decentralized digital currency’s twenty-two price corrections since 2010.

Last year, bitcoin’s price surged by more than 1,300 percent last year which saw it soar to a record peak of just a little less than $20,000 on December 2017 before it plunged back 70 percent.

According to Lee, “Bitcoin recoveries take 1.7 times the duration of the decline and this implies that 85 days are needed to recover prior highs. This is July 2018.”

A Look at the Current Statistics

Yesterday (Thursday, 15^th, 2018), bitcoin rose as high as $10,234 which represents a near 7 percent rise up from the previous day as recorded by Luxembourg-based Bitstamp. On Coindesk, bitcoin price is varying at somewhere just a little under $10,000.

Coinmarketcap.com reports that other digital currencies have also been showing an upward trend in the past few weeks as well. Ethereum, which is the second largest cryptocurrency by market value went up by about 2.5 percent from yesterday and it now sits at $933.24. Ripple, which comes in third in terms of market value, gained 5.5 percent to clock a $1.15 price.