Would widespread use of digital currency make the world a better place?
Payments
Asked by Question Bot06/Jan/20161 answer
1 Answer
F
Faisal Khan
Answered 06/Jan/2016
Yes!
If you are referring to digital fiat money, that is already in play and it is improving lives (look at Kenya as the classical example of how moving digital money improves an entire country's eco-system).
Did email improve lives over the traditional physical postal letter? Of course it did. In ways we did not imagine.
Did a mobile phone improve our lives versus the limited radius landline? Of course it did. Again, in ways we did not fathom.
Digital money is doing the same. It is easier to push out digital bits (of assigned value, i.e. money, be it fiat or bitcoin, etc.) There is virtually no cost associated with making and pushing digital money, when compared to physical currency notes and coins.
One of the biggest impact it has made is financial inclusion. The ability to on-board more and more people with money, thus increasing the trade activity of an economy and reducing viscosity of money movement.
The effects have just started. The majority of the world still does not have access to digital money (again, be it fiat or crypto). The deep-rooted penetration and usage of the mobile phones is slowly but surely setting the rails and the ecosystem for the movement and trading with digital money.
For any naysayer, first I ask them to think beyond their neighborhood or the developed world. 3/5th of the world population lies in the developing world or emerging markets.
Go to such markets and simply ask a person who has a mobile phone what it means to be banked and be part of the financial inclusion - having the ability to trade, send / receive money seamlessly. Entire economies have grown and flourished because of such a small inclusion. Nearly 20 years ago, we could not fathom what the browser would do for us. I think we are pretty much in the same boat today, we cannot fathom at present what digital money will do for us, and more so how digital currencies (be Bitcoin or some other crypto currency that comes out of it) will shape us.
The one thing everyone does agree to, it will be for the betterment of society.
If you are referring to digital fiat money, that is already in play and it is improving lives (look at Kenya as the classical example of how moving digital money improves an entire country's eco-system).
Did email improve lives over the traditional physical postal letter? Of course it did. In ways we did not imagine.
Did a mobile phone improve our lives versus the limited radius landline? Of course it did. Again, in ways we did not fathom.
Digital money is doing the same. It is easier to push out digital bits (of assigned value, i.e. money, be it fiat or bitcoin, etc.) There is virtually no cost associated with making and pushing digital money, when compared to physical currency notes and coins.
One of the biggest impact it has made is financial inclusion. The ability to on-board more and more people with money, thus increasing the trade activity of an economy and reducing viscosity of money movement.
The effects have just started. The majority of the world still does not have access to digital money (again, be it fiat or crypto). The deep-rooted penetration and usage of the mobile phones is slowly but surely setting the rails and the ecosystem for the movement and trading with digital money.
For any naysayer, first I ask them to think beyond their neighborhood or the developed world. 3/5th of the world population lies in the developing world or emerging markets.
Go to such markets and simply ask a person who has a mobile phone what it means to be banked and be part of the financial inclusion - having the ability to trade, send / receive money seamlessly. Entire economies have grown and flourished because of such a small inclusion. Nearly 20 years ago, we could not fathom what the browser would do for us. I think we are pretty much in the same boat today, we cannot fathom at present what digital money will do for us, and more so how digital currencies (be Bitcoin or some other crypto currency that comes out of it) will shape us.
The one thing everyone does agree to, it will be for the betterment of society.