The world has seen a lot of change over the last few decades. Overnight, the world has become connected in ways that it never has before. With the Internet, it doesn’t matter where you are; you always have access to a wealth of information. This has impacted a lot of areas of life. And, money is one of the biggest that it’s changed. Money is always evolving, and the Internet has promoted a wave of healthy growth. But, what exactly does the future hold for the money we spend? There are some different ideas out there; and, this post is going to be going through a few of them for you.
- Regular money
Near enough every country on Earth has it’s own currency. This means that they have a system in place for their own money, with names and symbols to represent different denominations. For example, the US has dollars and cents. And, the UK has pounds and pence. In the past, this would be used to represent a physical resource. So, if the resource was gold; a pound would be worth the same as a pound of gold. Most countries don’t have their gold anymore, though. So, how do they have money? Nowadays, the value of a country is based on a number of factors. Natural resources, thriving education, and high wealth residents will make a big difference.
The amount of money that is spent everyday is vast. But, only a tiny fraction of that money actually has a representation as paper. Instead, this money is purely digital. In the past, money like this would only be on financial records in banks. As time goes on, the gap between physical and digital money widens. Money is generated in vast quantities by dodgy transactions and code malfunctions. So, there’s more money floating around than there should be.
Our current reliance on traditional money can cause issues. The money that we use is centralised, which means that they are controlled by a group of banks. If these banks fail and have to close down; money can’t be used anymore. We rely so heavily on money in our day-to-day lives that it would be hard to get by without it. This has already caused issues in several countries. And, it will only get worse as time goes on.
- Cryptocurrencies
For some people, the answer to this problem lies with cryptocurrencies like Litecoin. These sorts of currencies work differently to normal ones. They’re decentralised; so, they don’t have a single organisation controlling them. Instead, they operate on a peer-to-peer network, where anyone can opt in to help to maintain the currency. The money is generated by computers solving complex algorithms. This gives them value. And, it makes them very hard to get.
Cryptocurrencies have gotten a bad name in some areas. They’ve been used on the notorious deep-web to allow people to buy things like drugs and weapons anonymously. And, they’ve even been stolen in great quantities. This doesn’t mean that they can’t be used for good, though. In 2014 a Jamaican Bobsledding team sent out a plea for people to donate to help them compete. In a sterling effort, members of the Dogecoin community raised over twenty-five thousand dollars. They also provide a great way to buy and sell things with ease. Some shops are even accepting these coins, nowadays.
A lot of people will shrug off things like Bitcoin, saying that they will never work. But, there is a strong chance that these sorts of currencies could play a much bigger part in the future of finance. Loads of websites have picked up these unique currencies. And, some have even been found in physical businesses. With the need for privacy becoming more and more real; people will be looking for more ways to spend their money securely.
Understanding cryptocurrencies can be hard. But, thankfully, there are loads of people out there who can help with them. Each currency that’s worth looking at has a dedicated community behind it. People want as many people using their currency as possible; because, this will increase it’s value. Resources like Minting Bitcoin can be great to help you understand exactly what’s going on with these digital currencies. And, it may even inspire you to start using them yourself.
- No money at all?
Some people like the idea of a world without money. Instead, they would like to see humans using older methods, like trading. This would be very difficult to manage. The value of items would completely depend on the people trading. Water could be worth it’s weight in gold. Or, it could be worth as much as grass. So, a method like this would be very chaotic. And, it would make it very difficult to live in modern cities. Some people would argue quite strongly that humans don’t need money. But, with the modern population being some large; it’s important to have a solid system in place that dictates the value of things.
Thankfully, the likelihood of people going back to something like this is very slim. If you did, though; there would be dire consequences. In all likelihood, people would stop progressing with scientific and technological feats. Instead, people would have to focus on usable skills that could be traded for things to live. For most people, this would have to involve making something that can be physically traded. So, we would start to see a massive decline in all skilled fields. This would leave us with no way to keep our cities and towns running. And, it would leave us in a disaster.
Hopefully, this will give you an idea of what to expect from money in the future. We’re living in exciting times. And, a lot is changing. It’s always worth making sure that you’re ahead of these changes. Especially when they’re related to finance. Keeping up with things like this can be a challenge. So, it’s a good idea to do plenty of research to make sure that you’re in the know. If this sort of thing confuses you; it could be worth getting some professional advice.
