With 2017 just around the corner, Andrew Keys, co-founder of ConsenSys, a production studio building decentralized applications for blockchain ecosystems, has put forward 17 decentralized technology predictions for 2017.

Keys believes that in the new year, the average person will start understanding that blockchains aren’t just an upgrade to database and Internet, but rather tools to re-architect social, financial and political systems.

“Ethereum smart-contract blockchain systems will actuate near frictionless price discovery mechanisms for intermediation. Intermediaries like banks, accountants, notaries, custodians, trustees, agents may have to begin to find higher value propositions for customers as the cost of trust will plummet”, he said.

He also expects the blockchain ecosystem to move beyond the proof-of-concept in 2017, with early stage or small production of blockchain deployments.

“[T]he early adopters will begin to go-live in 2017, with critical masses beginning to go-live in 2018”, he added.

He further said that the New Year will also mark the beginning of DApp mania on the Ethereum mainnet and that the average user will finally be able to feel and see what Ethereum is and does. He added that many of the DAapps going live in 2017 will be anchored by self-sovereign Ethereum-based identity.

Key believes that “scalability” will remain the holy grail of blockchain technology. He emphasized that the public blockchain with the most attainable and impactful scalability roadmap is Ethereum. To that end, he said:

“Three simultaneously developing avenues for Ethereum scalability are state channels such as Raiden, Vlad Zamfir’s proof-of-stake solution, Casper, and Sharding. I foresee Raiden integrating with Ethereum and Casper live on Ethereum in 2017.”

Pointing out the “TheDAO-saster”, Keys said that the efforts towards smart contracts security will grow in earnest as the ecosystem trends towards production environments.

He also foresees failure and consolidation particularly in the permissioned blockchain infrastructure sectors that don’t have Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) support. Keys explained that any permissioned blockchain that doesn’t support smart contracts that compile to executable EVM bytecodes will be as siloed as systems built on SQL databases.

Keys also talks about the dawn of a new regulatory environment, wherein regulatory bodies will interact with leading blockchain companies like Coinbase, Coin Center, ConsenSys, and Union Square Ventures to understand and work together on the barely trodden next generation tokenized asset world.

“Eventually (not in 2017) all of these will be fluidly tradable for one another from a unified user interface. Coinbase is really showing its leadership with respect to the tokenized and decentralized world of tomorrow”, he added.

He further said that Ethereum developer tools will continue to improve, making the rate of development of software grow at an exponential pace. He sees great success for Vitalik and company, who he said will “continue to move fast and break things”.

“Rivalries between Bitcoin and Ethereum will end in 2017 as Ethereum proves it’s sheer dominance in every aspect of these decentralizing technologies with its proof-of-stake implementation”, he said.

He emphasized that supply chains will evolve into supply blockchains in pharma, finance, public sector, mining exploration, and retail. Also, among the current blue chip technology companies, he said that Microsoft will continue its dominance in the blockchain space. In addition, GovChains will continue to form all over the world in central banks, supply chains, land registries, identity systems, and voting processes, he said.

Keys expects India and China to roll out skilled blockchain developers, products, and capital. In particular, he foresees thousands of Solidity experts coming from Indian cities such Bangalore, Chennai, and Delhi from leading system integrators like Accenture, Synechron, Tech Mahindra, and Wipro.

“China will also have deep developer pools, but rather than serving as the backbone to the world, their blockchain technology and brainpower will reside locally on the hundreds of Chinese smart city projects and internal banking applications which are perfect use cases for blockchain”, Keys added.