The Age of Having One National Currency Is Coming to An End
For people in the U.S., when we think about money, in general we think about the dollar. You won't find stores accepting Euros or Yen in the U.S. or even Canadian Dollars or Mexican Pesos, because there really isn't a need to use other currencies in our daily life. Though people in some countries grow accustomed to checking exchange rates daily, rarely would someone in the U.S. check the exchange rate for dollars against anything before going to the grocery store.
However in many countries, it's normal to use a local currency plus USD or Euro and maybe the currencies of one or two neighboring countries. In the future however, people in the U.S. and other super-power nations will have to get used to the idea of having many different forms of money. As big as Bitcoin will probably get, it is not the only option for decentralized electronic payments. From now on there will always be several forms of cryptocurrency available.
Tomorrow's Adults Will Have Lived Through A Lot of Turmoil Related To Currency
The banks and governments of the world will not go down without a fight. They will continue to attempt to suppress and demonize cryptocurrencies. People will be imprisoned and there could even be wars as an indirect result of the masses having access to currency outside government control. Recently it was even announced that the Federal Reserve is working on their own crypto. This will likely be forced on people as the only lawful crypto at some time in the future.
As this new paradigm shift toward decentralized money occurs, big banks and the government will "warn," condemn, sabotage and outlaw any and everything they can to prevent their banking system from collapsing, but it won't work. There just isn't time. They were already to close to the brink of collapse before Bitcoin even showed up. There is definitely a bumpy road ahead, but I am confident that there is nothing any government in the world can do to stop cryptocurrencies from taking over. It is inevitable and the genie can not be put back in the bottle.
The Next Generation Will See Money Much More Fluidly
When we purchase things now, we usually think about it in terms of how much it costs in our native currency. Or if we receive a payment from someone in another country, we often want it converted to our native currency immediately so that it is usable. However, in the future, I see a time when we will not only feel comfortable with multiple currencies but we will have certain types of currencies specifically for certain tasks and certain environments.
As we get more comfortable using money as both a tool and a store of wealth, we'll begin to see our assets and the assets of others more holistically. Rather than seeing someone just as a millionaire or billionaire based on one specific currency, we will begin to identify him or her by the types of currencies held which will further identify their circles of influence and the environments they contribute to. For instance, saying someone has 1,000,000 Steem power, 20,000,000 in PotCoin, 100,000,000 in Siacoin or 1000 in Bitcoin all imply differnt things and instantly tells more about the person and their interests than just saying those people are millionaires.
Everything Will Be Given A Value
I remember when the Neilson Ratings Use to actually put 3 one dollar bills in an envelope and send it to you to list the t.v. programs you watch in a week. As a kid this was my first experience with being aware that people are willing to pay money to know information about me and my family.
Google has taken this idea that, knowing about people's lives is valuable, to the extreme. They want to have their nose in everything you do and they get paid very well for sharing that information with businesses. Sites like Myspace and later Facebook and Instagram likewise capitalized on the personal information of others being valuable, not only to businesses but to the masses. In this way you have a captive audience that you have tons of information on and you can make ad revenue by placing products in front of them.
With sites like this one allowing content creators to directly profit from sharing information and the internet of things emerging, the general public is getting hip to the idea that their whereabouts, relationships, thoughts and activities are valuable information. The next generation of adults will very well understand the value a human being can create simply by interacting with others.
Precious Metals Will Likely Have a Huge Resurgence
Let's be honest. Cryptocurrencies can be a little scary. We've all heard horror stories and since most are difficult or impossible to trace, security is a huge concern. Also even with paper-wallets or hardware wallets, you don't have that same sense of ownership you do when you have a bar of gold in your hand or even a pile of money that you can touch. However, cryptocurrencies have beat fiat currencies at their own game, in the sense that in the same way value is created out of thin air by the 1% in the central banks to grow their wealth, cryptos create value out of thin air that is agreed upon by a consensus of the 99% of the general public to grow our wealth.
Just as gold is needed as a hedge against inflation against the dollar or other fiats, it may be even more useful with crypto-currencies. As technology advances we will likely see cryptos come and go and those whose value are based purely on speculation or outdated technology have the potential to lose huge amounts of value in short periods of time.
This is where precious metals come in as a complement to cryptos. When you want to take profits out of the volatile crypto markets but still want your wealth to remain semi-liquid, precious metals are a good choice.
We Have To Get Our Kids Ready To Roll With The Punches
My son is 8 but I've already gotten him to put Pokemon trading aside in favor of trading cryptocurrencies. It actually wasn't that hard after I showed him a few charts of cryptos that could have been bought for fractions of a penny that increased to hundreds of dollars and explained to him how much money he would have if he had put the same $5 for a pack of Pokemon cards into one of the most successful cryptos. At this point he's probably more excited than I am for the future of cryptos. He definitely doesn't understand all the technical aspects, but he understands it's digital money and that it's something he will probably be seeing a lot more of in the future.
One thing most people grew up without, is true financial education. We go all the way through school learning little more than how to "balance a checkbook" and then try to piece our financial educations together as adults. As the concept of money becomes more complex, financial literacy becomes more important than ever. Cryptocurrencies are a great way to get kids started thinking about investing and making their money work for them. Don't let your kids be left behind. They are in a great position to take advantage of the opportunity of a lifetime.