The Future of Money: Where We Are Headed
Money is a complicated topic, as it is something that is wholly created and perpetuated by society. Over the centuries, money as we know it has changed to become something so much more than a simple exchange of goods.
This poses the question, where will money go next? While we don’t have an answer for you (sadly, we don’t have a crystal ball), we do have some ideas. Read on to learn what we think the future of money is.
Where Did Money Come From?
Money started as bartering, back in caveman times. Once upon a time, if you wanted a new pointy stick for hunting, you would have to trade something else for it, maybe some fresh berries or tasty leaves you had on hand. But what happened when you needed the pointy stick now, but didn’t have the berries just yet?
When humans used to live in small nomadic tribes, everyone pitched in and no one was all too worried if you would produce the berries for the exchange right now, as they knew you would get them someday. Plus, you probably slept next to them in the cave, so they knew where they would be able to find you for their future berries.
As society evolved and grew to live less nomadic lives, it became harder and harder to barter. After all, the cities were much busier than the former nomadic tribes, and suddenly, you couldn’t trust that someone would be good to their word on a future trade. Plus, it was a bit difficult to always carry around a pointy stick in the hopes that someone would be willing to trade something you needed for it.
This problem made societies realize that they needed a way to store value so that exact trades wouldn’t be a requirement, and you wouldn’t have to worry about someone paying you later. The first forms of stored money were valuable items, like shells, pretty stones, and of course, precious metals.
Eventually, governments began stamping these metals, and thus, money was born.
Related: The History of Money: From Barter to Crypto
How Money Has Evolved
How much precious metals do you have on your right now? Chances are, unless you have a gold coin in your wallet, the answer is none. And even if you have a gold coin, it probably isn’t worth enough to make a purchase.
As the world expanded even more, governments found it harder and harder to acquire the precious metals they needed to make money. Not only that, but a larger purchase was hard to pay, especially if you needed a cartful of gold. As such, governments began using materials other than precious metals to make money, such as cheaper metals and paper.
Even this paper money eventually became inconvenient. The world grew more and became more dangerous. Suddenly, it became much safer, and more convenient to have numbers on a screen that represented your money and a piece of plastic that could allow shopkeepers to take the amount they were owed when you made a purchase. Thus, plastic and digital money was born.
Where Money is Going
While individuals all over the world are hesitant to get involved with cryptocurrency, it’s important to remember that digital money already exists. The only difference between your current bank balance and Bitcoin is the person guaranteeing that money.
Currently, the money in your bank account is backed by both your bank and the government that governs the currency. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is governed solely by supply and demand and a fancy computer algorithm.
We may be biased, but we think that cryptocurrency will eventually be the only money used for exchange of goods—for several reasons.
First and foremost, trust in government is waning around the world. Conflict after conflict arrives due to poor government decisions, and major governments collapse every day. People are beginning to turn away from government sponsored currencies when it comes to saving for a rainy day. But gold and precious metals are still bulky meaning they need a more lightweight and secure option.
Cryptocurrency is this option. Not only will it stay safe in a government collapse, but you can carry thousands of Bitcoins in a flash drive size device—how is that for convenient?
Of course, we have to tackle the fact that currently much of society is afraid of cryptocurrency or thinks that it is only used by criminals. But this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Honestly, we think that as education increases, cryptocurrency adoption will too.
Either way, the next step for money will probably be a bridge step, and full cryptocurrency adoption will come later. A bridge step could be something like a stablecoin or a government-backed cryptocurrency. No matter how you look at it, something like cryptocurrency is truly the future of money.
We don’t think cryptocurrency is the last step however, but it’s hard for us to see beyond that. Think about how someone in the 1890s felt, the idea of digital money was incomprehensible to them. Now 130 years later, we feel the same way about the next step after crypto—whatever it is, it’s something we can’t even think about with our current knowledge.
That, or the apocalypse will come, and we will all go back to bartering—take your pick.
Related: Bitcoin Adoption Expands in South America
What You Can Do
Even though cryptocurrency isn’t the main type of currency on earth right now, it likely will be someday, which is why it is important to start furthering your knowledge now. Sign up for a cryptocurrency news site, or consider taking a couple of classes to help you understand.
Or you can just keep following this blog as we post educational cryptocurrency content on a weekly basis.
We hope this article has helped open your mind to the future of money, as we have come so far from trading a pointy stick for some berries. If you consider that, moving from digital government money to digital non-government money doesn’t seem like such a big leap after all—as we humans have always had money, even before governments existed.
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