In this previous article, I explained how we will see a new generation of services built around their own monetary system. But throughout the crypto ecosystem, another kind of organization wil thrive: the Exchange Platforms.
The role of exchange platforms:
These platforms have 2 goals:
- Make the link between fiat currencies and cryptos.To the extent that the majority of users won’t mine cryptos, these platforms are the main gateway into the crypto ecosystem .
- Make the link between all cryptos. The other role (much more interesting to analyze as you’ll see) is to allow the exchange of cryptos without having to go through the fiat currencies.
What these platforms replace
✪ They replace the role of the stock exchanges. It’s the most obvious thing we can see. A simple look at these platforms allows us to monitor in real time the evolution of any crypto and place buy and sell orders. But this is the not the most interesting part because…
✪ They replace the role of money. This statement may seem surprising, because we have seen that it is the crypto-currencies which replace fiat currency. Truth is cryptos allow everyone to create a specific monetary system backed by a given service (Steem/Steemit). Nevertheless, it is still necessary to have a "common interface” between all these services/monetary systems.
But until now it was the fiat money (backed by nothing*) that played this role. In the crypto ecosystem, bitcoin and ether play the role of this intermediate currency among the other crypto. But it is quite possible to see cryptos being trade directly on these platforms without going through bitcoin or ether. Such a situation will appear when other services take the same magnitude as Bitcoin or Ethereum.
✪ They introduce a new form of digital barter. If the ecosystem evolve in this direction, these platforms will constitute a form of barter market where cryptos backed by goods/services would be exchanged directly. This would be a completely new type of marketplace. One example would be the exchanging of PokemonGoCoin against AmazonCoins to access services from Amazon, or the exchanging UberCoins against the AirBnbCoins, or PokemonGOCoin against the UberCoins, etc…
Decentralized exchanges platform
Currently, the main platforms are centralized like Bitstamp, Kraken, Poloniex, Coinbase. They all have the know disadvantages of centralized services: more vulnerable to attack, trading fees. But the future will be built with decentralized platforms based on blockchains of course. Bitshares is at the forefront in this area.
At the core of the "Internet of money Revolution", the cryptos ecosystem challenges everything we take for granted: our way of doing business, work, collaborate, organize, share, buy and sell. And while industries perceive it as a specific threath according to their area of expertise, this ecosystem doesn’t compete with anyone of them but compete with the very own structure of our society.
EDIT: As 
Thanks a lot for reading! This was the third and last articles about my analysis of the Crypto-currency Ecosystem!
