Question

Please typle down (easy for me to copy and paste) your thoughts after reading the paragraphs ie. agree or disagree and why? (Min 5 sentences 150 words + )

The talk given by Paul Kemp-Robertson was eyeopening and extremely revealing. Although he mentions the importance of cryptocurrencies and their rapid increase within society in the last years, I still do not believe that they will out date money, cash, debit cards or any of the payment methods that we currently use within our own currency. Robertson mentioned some interesting points in terms of examples that use this and how people react. For example, if we analyse the transactions in Starbucks in a day, more than 30% of them will be made with Starbucks Star points, meaning that they have created a currency that is staying within its ecosystem. Another example is the use of "Fakka" (meaning small change in Arabic) in countries of Africa. Since small change is a problem in these countries, Vodafone created a card that acts as a micro-recharge for their phones.

These advancements seem to be beneficial in many ways, such as the Fakka Vodafone cards that help countries in which there is very little change in circulation. And in many ways one can understand why people begin to trust these currencies and eventually lose faith in the institutions. However, I do not believe that this will cause our economic system as we know it today to dissolve in the emergence of cryptocurrencies. There are also many people who still do not trust in technology and these will also support the economic system we have today.

Answer 1

I agree that cryptocurrencies even though in trend now can never outdate physical money and various other payment methods because of the many facilities that are provided by the financial institutions and money which are as follows:

1. Certain cryptocurrencies can only be used for specific purposes or within the specific period specified and many other restraints (like Starbucks star points can only be used with Starbucks stores or other few companies that it is associated with) were as cash or debit cards can be used anytime and anywhere as long as your account holds sufficient money.
2. Cryptocurrency encourages fraud as the holder is not under any obligation to reveal his identity which can be used to manage black money if any further leading to tax evasion.
3. Cryptocurrency like bitcoins are not issued by government which raises a concern for security amongst many people.
4. Cash or money transfer is something than 99% of the people accept were as cryptocurrencies are not acceptable means of exchange everywhere.
5. Price volatility of cryptocurrency. Even though cryptocurrencies offer higher returns but its value changes period wise at a very high rate and one might incur losses if future predictions go wrong.
6. Because of the temptation of earning more people invest in cryptocurrency without much understanding of it works on the other hands if you invest through institutions they provide you with valuable insights about investing.
7. As stated cryptocurrency is to with digital technology is always faced with a risk of hacking.

All the above points state that cryptocurrency is not a smart choice to invest in.

Hope this was helpful :)