Market IntelligenceVote: Will Bitcoin and Other Digital Currencies Be Here in 5 Years?Jeff John RobertsBitcoin is the world's most famous crypto-currency but, these days, you barely hear about it.Instead, the buzz has shifted to blockchain, the underlying technology for bitcoin, which banks are now using for day-to-day business.Meanwhile, newer and more versatile types of digital currency are overshadowing bitcoin.This raises the question of whether bitcoin even has a long-term future.I recently spoke with Faisal Husain, the CEO of Synechron, which advises banks about blockchain, and asked him if he thought bitcoin and two other well-known crypto-currencies—Ripple and Ethereum—will still be around in five years.His answer: two of the three currencies will survive, but he wouldn't say which ones.You can weigh in yourself by taking our poll below, but I confess I don't see an obvious candidate for failure—or success.RelatedBiotechWhy Cancer Biotech Clovis Oncology’s Stock Is SoaringBiotechWhy Cancer Biotech Clovis Oncology’s Stock Is SoaringIn the case of bitcoin, it's by far the biggest with a market cap of around $11 billion, but its core use case is still for sketchy stuff, such as ransomware payments or buying drugs on the Internet.

Meanwhile, mainstream bitcoin companies like Coinbase and Circle are pivoting as fast as they can towards more general forms of Internet money transfers.Ripple has the advantage of being both a currency and a transport protocol, and the company that bears its name has recently locked up a number of high profile partnerships with major banking institutions.This bodes well for the company, though it's less clear the currency (known as XRP) has a long-term role.Bankers like using Ripple's infrastructure to move money around, but several have told me the currency is unnecessary, and that banks do not want to be forced to use it in the course of foreign exchange transactions.Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.As for Ethereum, it's attracting the most enthusiasm right now among developers (see my colleague Robert Hackett's recent profile in Fortune), appearing to be the most versatile and sophisticated form of crypto-currency.But it's market cap is less than a tenth of bitcoin.

(Ethereum is worth around $1 billion, while Ripple is third at around $250 million.)All this doesn't mean, of course, that all these crypto-currencies can't flourish in the future.ethereum full nodeAccording to Adam Ludwin, CEO of a well-respected blockchain company called Chain, the three currencies will still be around, and the financial ecosystem will even integrate newer ones like Zcash (in which he is an investor)."Ibitcoin paypal coinbasedon’t think they’ll ever go away.bitcoin майнингOne of their design principles is resiliency in a hostile environment," Ludwin says.ethereum round"Bitcoin [especially] is a clear and sustainable project."Hebitcoin ptc sites

adds that bitcoin and other crypto-currencies also have a place as a distinct asset class, like gold, for people who want a store of value outside conventional currencies and investments.So what do you think?bitcoin robot jonathanTake our poll and predict if the three most well-known crypto currencies will still be around in five years:And, of course, take whatever results you see with a grain of salt.bitcoin forum satoshiOnline polls are not known for being conclusive.buy bitcoin with cvvFurthermore, in the case of crypto-currency, there tends to be a selection bias in terms of who will take such a poll (think crypto-geeks and speculators) in the first place.bitcoin pill reportShare This Story!Let friends in your social network know what you are reading aboutTwitterGoogle+LinkedInPinterestPosted!A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

xEmbedCLOSESAN FRANCISCO — Bitcoin, sometimes frowned upon as a currency of the underworld, is fast gaining currency in the financial world.The crypto-currency soared past $2,000 for the first time over the weekend as investors increasingly treat it as a new gold standard and countries such as Japan and China integrate it into their banking systems.On Monday, it traded 6% higher at $2,182.74, according to CoinDesk.( that focuses on blockchain, the technology that underlies digital assets such as bitcoin, allowing it to be tracked and secure.Johnson was instrumental in the decision by e-commerce company Overstock to begin accepting bitcoin in January 2014."Bitcoinis a safe investment," Johnson says.Related:INFLATION Q&A: What you need to know about rising pricesBitcoin ransomware demand shows criminal links are hard to shakeInvestors are snapping up gold.Here's whyThere have been plenty of skeptics about bitcoin during its popular but volatile rise, from former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to J.P.

Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, to users who were burned by the bankruptcy of bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox and ensuing plunge in prices.The predilection among criminals to use the peer-to-peer currency, as well as its place outside traditional banking systems and regulations, has stymied some of its advocates' best-laid plans.In March, the Securities and Exchange Commission rejected a proposal for the first exchange-traded fund that would track bitcoin's price, citing the currency's unregulated market.But global demand has offset those concerns.After Japanese regulators introduced rules this spring that recognize bitcoin as a legal method of payment, investors flocked to swap yen for bitcoin in a frenzy of trading activity.In China, analysts attribute a spike in bitcoin sales to a significant drop in the difference in bitcoin prices between U.S.panies and governments are embracing the currency for several reasons: It's easy to transfer overseas without  high surcharges; it offers simple, anonymous transactions online; and it is supported by a secure digital infrastructure."It

doesn't surprise me at all that the price of bitcoin has been bid up," says Perianne Boring, president of the Chamber of Digital Commerce."(Crypto-currencies) Ethereum and Ripple are also surging strongly.""Therun-up in value isn't what's important — it's the fact that is has the potential to be a whole new kind of currency on the planet," says Mark Johnson, a long-time bitcoin investor who is CEO of Descartes Labs, which analyzes complex satellite images.Much of the attention around bitcoin has centered on its use by criminal enterprises, the latest being the demand of ransom — via bitcoin payment — from WannaCry, the group behind the world-wide hack that reached 150 countries this month.That may be changing as the price of bitcoin continues its ascent, validating Web browser pioneer and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen's prediction in 2014 that blockchain had the potential to become a multi-billion dollar technological breakthrough.Boost VC was the first fund to back a bitcoin-related start-up, Coinbase, in 2012, says Adam Draper, managing director of Boost.