A survey by the World Economic Forum says the tipping point for bitcoin and blockchain adoption will happen by the year 2025.

The majority of 800 executives and experts surveyed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) put the 6-year-old currency bitcoin, as well as the underlying blockchain technology, 10 percent of the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) running through the two technologies by 2025. The WEF was a bit more cautious with its own prediction and put 2027 as year they would reach the "tipping point."

The WEF described the use of apps such as Smartcontracts.com, a website that allows people to issue programmable contracts that pay out sums of bitcoin when certain factors (set by the creator of the contract) are reached and verified, without the involvement of any middleman, as a "Shift In Action" in society. "These contracts are secured in the blockchain as "self-executing contractual states," which eliminate the risk of relying on others to follow through on their commitments."

"[By 2025] 58% of respondents expected this tipping point to have occurred. Bitcoin and digital currencies are based on the idea of a distributed trust mechanism called the 'blockchain,' a way of keeping track of trusted transactions in a distributed fashion. Currently, the total worth of bitcoin in the blockchain is around $20 billion, or about 0.025% of global GDP of around $80 trillion," read the report.

Positive impacts of bitcoin and blockchain technology reaching a critical tipping point listed by the WEF included: more direct financial transactions with less and less middleman; brand new assets that can be traded; better property records, and more financial inclusion in emerging markets; blockchain-based contacts and legal services used as unbreakable escrow or programmatically designed smart contracts; and increased transparency.