GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

The Future of Cryptocurrencies

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Ksenia Semenova
Board of Contributors

Aug 21, 2019 | 19:28 GMT

A visual representation of bitcoin on display on April 3, 2019, in Paris.

Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, visually represented in this photo illustration, hold tremendous potential as an alternative over traditional banking, but they deeply concern many governments.

(CHESNOT/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • Cryptocurrencies hold tremendous potential as an alternative over traditional banking, but they deeply concern many governments, including lawmakers in the United States.
  • Growing geopolitical instability will increase the desire for a decentralized nonsovereign digital currency no matter what the United States wants. And interest in digital assets can increase when a country such as Zimbabwe is undergoing economic upheaval.
  • But as developments in the Marshall Islands and elsewhere indicate, cryptocurrencies need not be nonsovereign, nor have benefits limited to individuals.

More than 10 years since the first bitcoin transaction in January 2009, and almost two years since a speculative spike pushed the price per bitcoin to almost $20,000, cryptocurrencies are moving beyond cypherpunks and anti-government culture into the world of governments and traditional institutions. The transition is impossible to ignore. While some governments, central banks and financial companies see cryptocurrencies as a threat, others want to harness the advantages they offer. And some governments see cryptocurrencies as a way to save their own struggling economies. To understand whether nonsovereign currencies can serve as a default currency and what threat they pose to governments or how beneficial they might become, it's useful to examine some of the most interesting geopolitical and corporate use cases available....

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