How Cryptocurrency Can Change The Future of The Economy

One of the technologies that will potentially bring the greatest impact in the next few upcoming years has arrived. It’s not the social media, it’s not robotics, nor is it A.I, but rather the underlying technology of Cryptocurrency called the blockchain. I believe that this is the future of the internet and that it holds vast promises for businesses, society, and all you! For the past few decades, we have been surrounded by information about technology. Analogy: Now when we send emails, photos, pdf files, we are actually not sending the original but a copy of it. But when it comes to things like assets such as cash, votes, contracts, and loyalties, send you a copy is a really a bad idea… When I send you a hundred dollars, it’s important that I still don’t have the money, and I don’t send it to anyone else. This problem has been called the “Double-Spending” by cryptographers for a long time.

To prevent this, we rely on big intermediaries like banks to establish trust within our society. These intermediaries perform all of our business transactions from record keeping, identification, and authentication. But the biggest problem is that it is centralized, meaning that it can be hacked. Which big companies like Equifax, Target, and Home Depot learned the hard way. They exclude people from the global economy who don't have enough money to open up a bank account. They slow things down when it comes to transferring money from the city, as well as take a huge portion of 10-20% for transferring money to a different country. But what if there was a technology that is available to everyone that all kinds of asses could be moved, transferred, and making transactions without involving and big intermediaries? Well, in early 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto developed the first and still most important Cryptocurrency to date called Bitcoin. Definition: It is a peer-to-peer system where transactions take place between users directly without a middleman. There is no central authority controlling over the bitcoin network or your funds, you have complete ownership of your wallet, and can make transactions wherever and whenever you like, without any interference.

In other words, it’s decentralized. How does this change the future? Bitcoin, like any other cryptocurrencies on the market, is used to facilitate payments of any value, in real-time, with very little-to-no transfer fees. It runs on a technology called the blockchain which is a decentralized, digital ledger, run by miners whose computers the main purpose is to crack codes to “receive” more Bitcoins. Its popularity is solely based on the concept that it is entirely free from the government or authority interference, and because it can facilitate anonymous transactions. Cause-Effect: This means that Cryptocurrency transactions cannot be fake or reversed.

Also, due to the low cost of using it, it makes it more reliable and efficient than global currencies. The fact that it is decentralized means that they are available to everyone, whereas banks can implement limits on who can open an account, and how many can be sent or received and from where. Eliminates Remittance Rip-Off We are all aware of the ridiculous fees to transfer money between banks, especially if the transactions take place across the border. These transfers can usually take up to a week, and sometimes even more. It also involves clearing houses and correspondent banks making the process much more complicated and longer. Using Cryptocurrency, on the other hand, eliminates all of these obstacles, and both national and cross-border transfers can be made instantly with very little cost.

Furthermore, the technology used to execute the smooth transfer of Cryptocurrencies, called “The Ledger” can be used to transfer fiat currencies such as the US dollar, in the same way, meaning that the need for bank involvement becomes obsolete. This also helps migrants from the third world and developing countries that moved to the western countries to send home remittances to their families. Example: With international transfer fees going over 10%, this is a tremendous burden to those who are less privileged people.

Cryptocurrency and the ledger technology can solve this problem and save them a fortune by allowing to make instant transactions with a flat fee of 0.0007 USD. 2. Eliminates security risksEquifax is a multi-billionaire company specializing in credit monitoring and fraud-prevention services, and yet it was still caught up in a Cybersecurity breach, revealing social security numbers, credit card information, and other data of more than 19,000 Canadian customers, and around 150 million customers in the U.S. This just shows how vulnerable and dubious the security of the companies are outside of the blockchain technology. Because of these concerns over credit card fraud, many online merchants are being forced to turn away from the good business.

Fraud related problem is such a common one in global transactions, many firms do not accept international payments. With digital payment such as bitcoin, the transfer cannot be undone once it has been made, eliminating the risk of fraud and thus allows them to sell worldwide. This also protects your personal identity as it is not attached to any financial identity and uses pseudonymous information when making transactions. 3. Gives power to people allowing the common men to invest. Finally, the power of the blockchain can bring a large percentage of the world’s poor in the 21st century by allowing them to participate in the global economy through Cryptocurrency.

Allowing the common men to invest in Cryptocurrency can solve one of the greatest problems people in the third world countries are facing. People in some countries are poor because their money is not worth anything, and is usually due to the corrupt government mass printing money. This is the current situation in Venezuela, which is suffering from over 1600% inflation and hyperinflation. Their money is worth so little that it can almost half a month of wage to buy a big mac at McDonald's. This results on some of the citizens of these countries to lose faith in their currency, and often resort to converting their cash into a more stable one, like the U.S. dollar. Cryptocurrency like Bitcoin gives those in unstable economics another option to protect themselves against these problems. So while these currencies continue to depreciate in value due to unstable economies, Cryptocurrency give a much better stability, that raises in price.

Conclusion

All in all, Cryptocurrency as a whole has shown itself worthy as a new paradigm that can change the future of our economy for the better. Whether it be enabling real-time remittance worldwide with low cost flat fees equaling fractions of a penny compared to today's traditional 10% - 20% percent fees off the entire amount, eliminating security risks by allowing people to separate their financial identity with their personal identity and not have their sensitive information stored in vulnerable centralized servers, or something as profound as giving the common man the rights he deserves to be able to invest in companies for profit without strict regulations, Cryptocurrency is truly what can be seen as a game changer for our economy comparable to how the industrial age and the beginning of the internet greatly enhanced and changed our lives forever.

Ted Talk Summary Sheet Topic: Cryptocurrency Title: How Cryptocurrency can change the future of the Economy Target Audience: bankers, public sector, government, people in finance, migrants Why did you choose this target audience? How does the talk benefit them? I chose this target audience because they are the ones that can benefit the most out of this information. This can help them broaden their ideas towards financial solutions to many businesses and economic problems. Also because it can help them financially, by saving money through these methods. Purpose (What idea are you spreading?) I am spreading the idea that Cryptocurrency is the solutions to many economic problems ongoing in different parts of the worlds, as well as everyday problems.

Methods of development: DefinitionCause-EffectExampleTypes of Appeal: PathosLogosWhy did you choose them? I chose those types of appeal to first give my audience an understanding of what a cryptocurrency is before I get into my points, and make them realize the importance of the future of Cryptocurrency.