Before going into detail about the future of cryptocurrencies, let's make clear their concept...
A cryptocurrency is a type of currency that has several fundamental aspects that differentiate it from "traditional" or "fiat" money in digital jargon. As a first measure, it is a cryptographic currency. Of course, you will be "laughing" to yourself and saying: "Thanks Alejandro, now it is clear to me! HAHAHA".
What does it really mean to be cryptographic?
Well, it is unforgeable, it gives security. Cryptography is the "art" -I would say- of being able to "hide" or "mask" something from others, from third parties.
I recommend you see the movie "Enigma" about the life of Alan Turing, the "modern father" of cryptography -which was invented thousands of years ago, going through the Egyptians, Spartans and improved by Leon Battista Alberti, who was the first "Western" practically in 1467 in arming him a frame.
So I was telling you, the cryptocurrency then has that "inviolability" characteristic.
I send you a payment / information - where the value of that payment / information is "encrypted", which is what cryptography does, by "hiding" that value from any person; and only you, and the recipient to whom you send it can see it, and the latter will see it "reflected" in their digital wallet.
The next interesting thing is that we do not need a banking network. We can, through an Internet connection, send us cryptocurrencies without having a third party (banks), and anywhere in the world, in a matter of seconds - minutes for final confirmation.
And all these transactions, which are always made between digital wallets, are "settled" in a large accounting book, the "blockchain".
Finally, another great "achievement" of cryptocurrencies is that they can be issued in a decentralized way-that is, by ourselves, human beings directly-based on a certain "agreement" in what we understand that generates us a "Value" to the Company or Community that participates.
Is not this, wonderful? There are more issues to talk about, but I think that as a first approach to a cryptocurrency, it is more than enough to "absorb", do not you think?
The banking system is in danger before the advance of cryptocurrencies?
The Banking System as we understand it today will change. The banks are already known and know. There is not much time left for it to continue to exist or function as it does today.
What initiatives do countries take against the advance of cryptocurrencies?
Singapore is using the Ethereum platform this year - with a private version for the issuance and management of its digital "dollars". And surely others join in not much longer, perhaps with other platforms - similar to Ethereum - that allow it.
South Korea, for example, has recently given a legal framework to cryptocurrencies; The Philippines also added another legal framework for the sites -exchanges- that allow trading / exchange of cryptocurrencies.
On the other hand, there are countries that are opposing this, especially in Latin America, such as Bolivia, where they are prohibited, or Colombia, where although there is no prohibition like the previous one, there is much "distrust" and doubts still on the part of of your government.
I think that in the next few years, this will no longer be a topic of discussion; and on the other hand, there will be other more important ones that will be how to promote or what is the best way to promote a "genuine" decentralized creation of cryptocurrencies that trigger innovation and jobs.
How will the future of cryptocurrencies in the coming years?
I see them, as I said, as something very promising for all of us as Humanity. For the first time in history, we can tie the creation of value - in real time - to the monetary issue and as a "reward".
You will no longer need a labor market, a third party that employs you. We will have "rewards" as a way to promote what we want to produce, do or participate.
It is difficult to glimpse all the implications that this has for what today, still, we call "economy".
Let us think that "economy" is synonymous with "scarcity". That's why we've never done so well. We have to "distribute" this "shortage", by taxing the "richest", to give to the poorest. That has always been the case and that is why "never reach" or "reach".
It is very difficult for our head, and for how we have been educated; to be able to glimpse a different, different system and not to think it as "utopian".
I think that what the cryptocurrencies and the blockchain are showing us is that. It is to be able to design a very different system. A system that will no longer be "economic" (scarce), but a system of "abundance" that points to it. With other totally different rules of the game.
A decentralized system, where the "notions" of inflation, monopolies / oligopolies, economies of scale, corruption no longer apply, lose meaning. Even the finest spinning, thoughts of "liberal", or "left", will not apply either.
It is meaningless. New laws exist and await us to understand, in that "disintermediated" world. All this I am explaining with Economía PHI, so that we can understand it, investigate it, apply it and provide it with a new conceptual and theoretical framework, to what all this proposes in the future.
