According to Deutsche Bank, the new structure of money is weak. According to Deutsche Bank, digital currencies will grow to more than 200 million consumers by 2030. Deutsche Bank’s “Imagine 2030” study indicates that digital currency could gradually overtake cash one day as demand for anonymity and more decentralized forms of a pay rise.
Ilias Louis Hatzis is the founder of Mercato Blockchain Company AG and a weekly blogger at DailyFintech.com.
Typically this time of year, we’re beginning to read price forecasts about bitcoin going to a million bucks a coin. I was never a major fan of price forecasts. Some people get them right, and most of them get them wrong. Price forecasts are for short-term gains, which are typically very tricky.
But I read a fascinating prediction in the news a week ago. Deutsche Bank has made a rather brave remark. The German bank has released a research paper called Imagine 2030. In this paper, the bank says that cryptocurrencies are currently just extensions to the existing money payment framework. They may, however, be substitutes in the next decade.
Deutsche Bank expects that the number of cryptocurrency users would rise by 4x during the next 10 years, hitting 200 million.
The comparisons between the Internet and the crypt are stunning. Before Mosaic, the Internet has been publicly supported and used primarily in an academic environment. Yet enlightened politicians have agreed to legalize commercial activity on the Internet. Although the commercial use of the Internet began with most individuals and companies not learning how to communicate or use the Internet, rails were placed in a place that would gradually transform the future of everything.
The years of simpler usage and massive consumer development are not far away. Talent is ample, money is here, and factors such as economic inclusion and democracy are ripe.
But, for all this to happen, there’s a significant, unpredictable X-factor. How are policymakers going to handle cryptocurrencies? For Deutsche Bank’s prediction to come true, we need educated policymakers to legitimize cryptocurrencies. The report states: “First, they must become legitimate in the eyes of governments and regulators”. Very, true!
The Crypt Control could be right around the corner. As regulatory obstacles are solved, cryptocurrencies can become legal replacements for fiat currency. Without a brutal war, many regimes will not sit by and lose hold of the money supply. Libra and other stable coins could potentially provide a road map for more widespread acceptance, with greater supervision by government regulators.
What’s even more interesting about the study is a segment called “The End of Fiat Money?” “That’s pretty insane when you remember this study comes from a major global bank. What people in the blockchain world have learned for a while now, banks are beginning to understand. But this is positive news!
The true victim of the crypt may not be a fiat, but a plastic wallet. We’ve been steadily removing cash for decades now. Cash, credit, and debit cards are increasingly becoming outdated and will continue to do so as crypto adoption grows. When you think of the evolution, we’ve progressed from physical money and coins to internet transfers and debit/credit cards. The surge in mobile payments by WeChat Pay, AliPay, and Paypal has already made plastic cards obsolete. Blockchain provides several benefits over credit cards, but the fundamental distinction between the two is that all purchases and transactions are made with the absolute consent of the customer. Deutsche Bank claims the plastic cards should be destroyed. If the popularity of blockchain grows, it is only reasonable to conclude that credit cards will disappear. We just don’t need them today.
Deutsche Bank is on the lookout for its forecast.
But forecasts are still tricky, however. Hindsight is 20/20. 20/20. Everyone needs to believe right now. We will get a glimpse of the decentralized future. Things are taking time, but the countdown has started. Cryptocurrencies have been more common than you think they are. According to the study, about 18 percent of US-based students either own at least one digital currency or have owned one in the past.
Crypt can be both good and bad, like anything else in life. Many citizens struggle to grasp the true meaning of cryptocurrencies since it relies mostly on speculative trade, guided through price and uncertainty.
Crypto provides a unique approach that leaves fiat money obsolete. Cryptocurrency empowers individuals to be their own banking and payment tool. Regulatory and technological issues are the main obstacles. User-adoption is the decisive factor of whether crypto can overtake currency. But once fully released and implemented into our lives, blockchain will make the future look radically new, in ways that we can only begin to understand.
