Consumer spending heavily relies on digital currency and perhaps someday paper money will be obsolete. It might sound fantastic but consider how often you yourself use a credit card to buy things, go online to shop, or receive gift cards preloaded with a specific amount of money. Most likely you pay your bills via internet banking, pay-at-the-pump with a credit card, and even purchase movie tickets online. Once you consider the frequency of which you actually use digital currency on a day-to-day basis, we aren’t really that far off from going fully digital with our currency.
The Bitcoin revolution?
Did you realize there is an increasingly popular digital currency currently in “circulation?” Bitcoin, first seen in 2009, is an “unhackable” peer-to-peer digital currency that’s recognized worldwide and can used to purchase goods and services.
Of course, Bitcoin is not really a worldwide digital currency. For one thing, it is not legal tender. So most retailers, even in the online world, don’t accept it, and there’s no guarantee that Bitcoin won’t simply disappear. Entrepreneurs could create an alternative digital currency that proves more popular, and consumers could instead flock to that. This might render Bitcoin valueless.
The digital currency model
The advantages to moving away from paper-based currency are numerous. Apart from misplacing a gift card, it is not easy to lose digital currency. You don’t have to worry (as much) about not having enough cash on you to cover an expense. Digital currency is also more eco-friendly, as the need to replace damaged or outdated paper currency is removed.
Digital currency can be more secure than paper money, too. When you are robbed as you are walking down the street, you have little possibility of recouping the money. However, if someone steals your credit card, you can quickly cancel the card, protecting yourself financially. The identical scenario could easily exist with your digital dollars.
Holdouts
Of course, not everyone will be sold on digital currency. There are still consumers today who don’t use credit cards and who have never banked at an ATM. They prefer to take care of their transactions the old-fashioned way with paper money that they can see and feel. Then again, paper money?