Paper money, central bank digital currencies, or cryptocurrencies? What are the trends to consider?
In Latin America, 96% of small businesses with a digital presence say they have maintained themselves in the last two years thanks to electronic commerce, according to data from the global survey “Visa Back to Business – 2022 SMB Outlook”.
For these entrepreneurs, accepting new forms of payment is essential for the business and digitization is no longer a means to reinvent themselves and survive, but rather a way to grow in a world of new realities. Still, in the same scenario, 58% said they are already operating or intend to go completely cashless in the next two years.
The study also revealed that 97% of Brazilian consumers intend to continue using digital payments as much or more than in 2021: fifty percent said they intend to completely abandon banknotes and coins in the same period.
Based on this scenario, Visa pointed out some market trends that have been consolidating in recent years and that will define the future of money, including cryptocurrencies.
“Cryptocurrencies have caught the attention of consumers, investors, and developers, and their adoption is expected to increase. Among Brazilian small business owners, 32% stated that they intend to accept cryptocurrencies in 2022,” according to Visa.
So does this point to the future of money being digital? Will paper money continue to exist in the future? Several experts share their opinion on this.
Jeff Watney
For Jeff Watney, CEO of USM Metaverse, cryptocurrencies will help shape not only the money of the future but also the future of finance. Smart Contracts, Decentralized Finance, NFTs, Daaps, among other applications that have come to life with cryptocurrencies, are already helping to redefine traditional finance, including CBDCs currently built in countries like China, Brazil, Estonia, among others, using Smart Contracts and DeFi.
“This leads us to a certainty: the money of the future will be digital. In addition, as digital money, we can imagine that its different forms will continue to interact with each other in the future. Alongside all this, we will have a new digital economy that will take place through the metaverse and the interactions between the physical world and the digital world, which will also mean a change in the very concept of money, and NFTs also played an important role in this new economy,” he pointed out.
Mani Thawani
Mani Thawani, CEO of Mundo Crypto, highlights that the concepts of cryptocurrencies and CBDC have gained strength in recent years, pointing out that the society of the future is heading towards decentralization, thus recovering the freedom that centralization stole from our lives.
On paper money, Thawani said that money has been a crucial part of human history for more than 2,000 years. It evolved from basic representations of money, such as raw materials, to complex representations of money, such as paper money (bills or coins). Paper money helps a country in the transactions involved in buying goods and services, but it requires printing by a central bank or treasury that regulates the flow.
Dan Khomenko
For Dan Khomenko, CEO of Sidus Heroes, now we are at a historic moment, witnessing tectonic shifts in the global financial system. In his view, cryptocurrencies around the world are increasingly subject to regulatory action. This is to be expected, and if governments find a way to accept this new form of money, cryptocurrencies, including CBDCs, could replace fiat currency in due course.
Serge Baloyan
Serge Baloyan, Co-founder of the X10 Agency, an agency that works with web3 and crypto projects, points out that both types of digital currencies will exist: crypto and CBDC. Regarding paper money, he stressed that at some point it will be completely withdrawn from the market; however, he added that “obviously” it would not happen any time soon.
By Audy Castaneda
