1. Asia and the Middle East will aggressively push blockchain

Interest in blockchain continues to be very high in Asia and the Middle East, where some of the largest banking institutions are forging ahead with blockchain projects or service offerings, particularly in payments.

For example, banks in Japan and South Korea have just begun testing a blockchain technology that could achieve same-day international transfers and cut costs by nearly 30 percent.

2. Cybersecurity will amplify blockchain adoption

With the rise of ransomware attacks demanding cryptocurrencies, blockchain and IoT cybersecurity will emerge with defenses based on cryptocurrency technologies.

While this may sound fantastical and futuristic, the emergence of blockchain cybersecurity tools may be the next big thing in blockchain. With major breaches such as Equifax proving that companies generally cannot safeguard current identity data systems, the need for a more secure blockchain-based identity approach, in which no one holds all the keys, will emerge.

3. ICOs will take off

There was a seismic jump in ICOs in 2017, and the ecosystem of cryptocurrencies has expanded in a huge way. In the next year, the pace of ICOs will grow significantly faster, and will overtake venture capital funding.

4. Finance and insurance will go all in

The insurance and finance sectors are two of the most likely to experience deep, and threatening, disruption from blockchain technology.

Insurance will emerge as a hot area as claims processing and complex multi-party processes like subrogation will show the business value of blockchain-based automation. And, JPMorgan will open a cryptocurrency trading desk, despite Jamie Dimon's viral comments dismissing the validity of cryptocurrencies.

5. Automation, privatization are coming

Blockchain will drive digital transformation of the enterprise specifically with automation, digitization of processes, tokenization of physical assets and activities and codification of complex contracts.

In addition, governance issues will continue to plague bitcoin (Segwit2x), ethereum (frozen Parity funds) and others as new challenges emerge. This will drive enterprises to "private" blockchains but will not slow down the growth of core cryptocurrencies.