Will Bitcoin replace Money? Let's have a look at some example were technological innovation made some previous products / services obsolete or pushed it into a niche market.
Audio Cassette vs CD vs Streaming
Audio cassette (Compact cassette) firstly introduced in 1968. It had a long run from the 1970s and the early 2000s along firstly LP records and later alongside the CD (compact disk) it was the most popular format for music. The first CD (compact disk) was released in 1982. Development continued in MP3 technology and eventually evolved in platforms like iTunes and streaming services like Spotify.
Videocassettes vs Digital Video (DVD & Blue-ray) vs Streaming
When the First DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) was created in 1996 it took the new technology 6 years to catch up with the Videocassettes market. In the year 2002 DVD sales surpasses Videocassettes for the first time. After this point was reached the videocassettes became more or less obsolete. Innovation continued and DVD evolved in Blue-ray disks. With the introduction of platforms like YouTube, Netflix and other Video content streaming solutions the physical DVD/Blue-ray disks were becoming less important.
Smartphone vs many products / services
It is hard to pin down an exact moment that Smartphone, a smartphone is an evaluation from a mobile phone. Let's take Apple's first iPhone in 2007 as a starting point. The Smartphone as we know it affected many existing markets. With a smartphone you don't really need a computer anymore. Nor do you need a camera anymore. All those features are available on the smartphone.
Some products / services that became obsolete or became a niche market:
· Telephone cells · Fixed land lines · Cameras · Video cameras · Computers
Mail vs E-mail
Sending mail (letters) was already done in early Rome. It was the best way to share information and communicate for decades. Fax (short for facsimile) was looking to take over most of the traditional mail, it was quite popular in the 1980s till early 2000s. Then came e-mail (electronic mail). The story of e-mail started with the first e-mail send in 1971, which was a test message from computer engineer Ray Tomlinson. It took decades of development and finally in the mid-1990s it got really mass adopted. Email did not totally replace regular mail. But it really affected postal services which saw declining income.
Money vs Bitcoin
Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a particular country or socio-economic context (source: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money#History). A brief history of money: Money started way back in the form of valuable metals such as gold, silver and copper. Then banks created bank notes and those notes were backed by Gold. After World War II there was the Bretton Woods Conference. Basically fiat money became in existence and currency backed by gold became less important. In 1971 U.S. suspended the conversation from paper dollars to gold. From here on it really goes down the drain. Money is being created out of thin air.
Then came Bitcoin. It all started back in 2008 when Satoshi Nakamoto released his paper: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. A decentralized protocol with a fix amount of Bitcoins to be in existence.
Will Bitcoin destroy money like the CD made the Audio Cassette obsolete? It is more likely that Bitcoin will not replace money as we know it. Like the example of Mail vs Email, they could exist next to each other serving different purposes.
Another important difference with all the other examples is that Money is created and controlled by Central banks (governance). Therefore a better more innovative product or service will not necessarily become the dominant force in the currency space. It is clear that governances and banks all over the world see Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a threat to their power.
I hope you enjoyed this post!
Peace out.
-creddy