In recent months, we've talked a lot about the surge in the value of Bitcoin. It's quite an amazing phenomenon that those in the investing world simply cannot ignore...regardless of your comprehension of its validity or understand exactly how it works. As of the writing of this article, the value of one Bitcoin has surged to over $4,300 and the momentum doesn't appear to be slowing.

An analyst from Standpoint Research published a 122-page report that was recently summarized on Investopedia and talked about his long-term optimism for Bitcoin. Ronnie Moas, the analyst from Standpoint, noted that cryptocurrencies will continue to keep rising and take away market share from stocks, precious metals (i.e. gold), bonds and other national currencies. While the notion of "if you risk money and lose, at least it was worth a shot" doesn't resonate with some folks, the short-term prospects look pretty darn good so far.

Moas expects that Bitcoin will surge through the end of 2018 and could reach $5,000 -- almost an 80% increase from his initial report (which was $2,800 at the time and has almost doubled in value since then).

There are a few other new cryptocurrencies that are taking a stab at the market as well. Firstly, "Ethereum"expects its value to double from just under $200 to $400 over the next year, and additionally, Moas estimates Litecoin, another digital currency, will double from about $40 to $80. The charts for the concept of cryptocurrencies mirror those of Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Tesla (TSLA), Facebook (FB), Netflix (NFLX), and Google (GOOGL) in about 10-15 years...all of those stocks, being beasts in the modern day. 

Below you can see the performance of Bitcoin over the past year: after hovering around the $800 for much of 2016, the surge began in early April and despite some pullback has soared since mid-July.

Is it too late to get in? He doesn't think so, and neither do I. Especially if the market becomes more accepting of the notion of digital currency rather than currencies that allow the printing of more money and lose value over time. We may have found a unique way to combat inflation.