Trends. That’s what the world runs on and right now the trend that is taking up our collective consciousness is Articifial Intelligence. How will it change the world? Will it take all of our jobs? Can it be used for good or have we gone too far toward our doom?
These are the questions currently being asked with burning eagerness in newspapers, on television shows and around social media. It’s easy to forget though that before AI there were other trends monopolising our attention, one of which was cryptocurrency.
Little over 7 years ago when Bitcoin exploded onto the mainstream news, questions abounded as to whether it signalled the death knell of traditional currencies and how exactly cryptocurrency would either revolutionise the world or kick-start it’s downfall.
The truth of course, lay somewhere in between those two extremes; we are neither living in a world where you have to pay to get on the bus with ethereum or one in which anarchy reigns supreme and financial institutions are in flames.
But, what exactly has crypto gone on to do in the past 7 years? How is it making a difference in various industries? Read on to find out.
Becoming a Gimmick
The online gambling industry is one of the most innovative and forward thinking industries on the planet and it is always looking for a niche. In 2017 it found one – cryptocurrency. Whilst the world was busy working itself up into a frenzy about bitcoin, the online gambling industry was thinking of ways to exploit Crypto’s popularity.
It did so by creating crypto casinos that allowed users to enact everything they had learned about blackjack strategy and make wagers with the crypto currency of their choice. Not only did this allow the gambling industry to cash in on a global phenomenon but it allowed them to cut cash processing costs as well.
Retail
Despite the pleas of everyone’s Mum and Dad on Facebook about using cash, relatively few of us still buy and sell with physical currencies. Whether it be buying a car for $16,000 or purchasing a can of soda for $1.60, most of us pay using our cards or our mobile devices.
The benefits of this are almost all uniquely for the customer and not the retailer. The retailer you see has not only to pay to rent the card machine terminal that you’re tapping, but also they have to pay a percentage of every transaction to the card company.
This means that retailers are losing out and that big companies like Visa and Mastercard are, ironically, cashing in on our new cashless society. One way that people are fighting back is through cryptocurrency and in particular, local currencies.
In East London for example, the Local Pound Initiative provides a free smartphone app that allows people to buy goods and services in independent retailers using the ‘East London Pound’, which is tied to Sterling.
There are no operating costs and no charges, so people using this cryptocurrency are cutting out the middle man and putting more money into the pockets of local retailers.
Finance
The final industry that we are going to cover in this article is a far-reaching one – finance. Unsurprisingly cryptocurrency has had a huge impact on the financial sector, but not perhaps in the way that you might have been thinking.
Crypto hasn’t killed the financial sector, instead it has helped to provide it with more stability and greater potential to grow. Blockchain technology and crypto currencies have provided global financial institutions with a decentralized system free from government and banking controls.
This has allowed for easier transferring of funds without the need of intermediaries which has led to a dramatic reduction in transaction fees. Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), which a crowdfunding campaigns in which companies issue digital tokens in exchange for future funds have also allowed business to raise capital more easily and efficiently than ever before.
In Summary
In short, crypto may not have had the impact on the world that many predicted it would in 2017 but that’s not to say that it hasn’t hugely influential to a number of industries. It’s just that the impacts it has had have been slightly less glamorous than those predicted.
Disclaimer: The statements, views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the content provider and do not necessarily represent those of CoinChapter. CoinChapter will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same. Do your research and invest at your own risk.
