A new revolution is upon us as cryptocurrencies grow mainstream. In October 2020, PayPal officially announced they’ll be supporting the buying and sending of cryptocurrencies on their platform.
This raised a lot of eyebrows from investors as now there is a major public company supporting the usage of cryptocurrencies, which were once uncommon. You might not understand what makes cryptocurrencies beneficial for you and for everyone that uses them, so below are five reasons why you should adopt crypto.
Own your wealth
With the introduction of central bank digital currencies, clients may feel like they have little control over their money. Central banks will have the ability to instantly apply negative interest rates, incentivizing users to spend their money and not save. With the impact of COVID-19 on the macro environment, there has been an incredible amount of cash printing in 2020 which will either see deflation or inflation. Of course, many have their own opinions on which will happen, and there is no way to know for sure.
Owning cryptocurrencies means that you are outside of the traditional financial system and your wealth can be preserved and owned solely by you. Purchasing bitcoin, now seen as a currency of value and inflation hedge, is a great way to start. You can store it in a private hardware wallet like Trezor, Ngrave, or Ledger. These are all good ways to protect yourself from government money printing.
However, there will be some banks that actually adopt cryptocurrency and will allow purchasing and custodial services for it. Many potential investors in crypto will not want to facilitate the security measures of a hardware wallet and will opt for a bank or an ETF. For example, hop on Google and search “banking in Greeley,” to see which banks are thinking about offering crypto.
Peer-to-peer transactions
Transacting peer to peer changes the game. No longer do you need a middle man to move your money around. If someone shares their wallet address with you, you can send them any kind of cryptocurrency they support — this makes the transaction process seamless. You can settle any amount of money without the authority of anyone but yourself. Imagine having the ability to send $1 million without the need to consult anyone about it — this is the high level of freedom cryptocurrencies and peer to peer transactions offer.
Low transaction fees
Sending money internationally can cost a lot and global settlement services like Western Union cost a lot in fees. This is because the middle man will take a percentage of the transaction for themselves. With crypto, the fees are much lower for global money sending. With bitcoin, the fees that are paid are to miners but they’re a fraction of the cost of a service like Western Union. Other cryptocurrencies like XRP settle much quicker and are virtually fee-less.
Opting for cryptocurrencies is a good idea if you plan on sending money internationally to a family member or a friend. Just have them download a digital wallet for crypto on their mobile device or computer, and get them to send you their address for the respective cryptocurrency. They’ll want to ensure they copy and paste it properly, because if one letter or number is incorrect, the crypto will be sent to someone else. With that being said, there are evolving technologies like Unstoppable Domains or PayID that enable users to send crypto with human-readable addresses. Just connect your crypto addresses to your newly created human-readable addresses and receive crypto without the headache of you or someone else incorrectly inputting the wrong address. As the innovation around crypto improves, it will become easier to transact with.
Proof of ownership
You own your money and you own your crypto. The blockchain, which is a technology that facilities transactions over a tamper-proof distributed public ledger, means there’s a definitive truth in who owns what. Your public address will show all of its ins and outs so there’s proof that you own a particular crypto asset. Yes, there are many who don’t like the fact that their transaction history is public. However, wallet addresses are only legible through scanning, so as long as you don’t go sharing your address with people’s phones then there’s no way for them to find out which one is yours. This is what an Unstoppable Domain or PayID is good to use. Regardless, the proof of untampered ownership is interesting as cryptocurrency is cryptographic. This means that it would take more computing power than the world is capable of producing to change transactions on the blockchain, giving you unrivaled security.
Accessibility
The ability to access your funds any time of the day without any worries is a paradigm shift for society. Most have to operate through a central authority whereas with crypto, and your private keys, you have access to everything in the palm of your hand. You’re able to access your funds 24/7 without anyone telling you what you can and can’t do with your money. Often, there’s much concern about the transactions of crypto, since they were once harder to trace, but that’s a huge misconception.
Soon, crypto will become even more accessible. Online banking in Greeley services could one day offer cryptocurrencies on their platform for purchase. Additionally, using business banking in Greeley can also be a good way to integrate cryptocurrency into your establishment, which will probably require some form of regulatory clearance. As we adapt to this new method, banks will soon start to offer cryptocurrencies so they don’t fall behind with innovation.
Takeaway
The cryptocurrency market is an evolving one that will take time to mature. There are over 7000 cryptocurrencies at the moment, however, Cathie D Wood of the popular capital investment firm Ark Invest predicts cryptocurrency adoption will reach an exponential growth phase where bitcoin leads the line and thousands of cryptocurrencies will become worthless. That’s not to say all cryptocurrencies will, but bitcoin has shown resilience over 10 years as the default asset in the crypto space.
This is not financial advice, but if you do your own research on innovation in the space, there are a number of interesting cryptocurrency startups working with big corporations like Google, Oracle, Microsoft, Daimler, BMW, and others. Tech investors are buying these tokens early on in the hope that they appreciate in value due to their potential adoption and interesting use cases. However, bitcoin has proven itself as the #1 and holds many properties that make it unique. It is seen as digital gold — there will only ever be 21 million bitcoin, which means that it’s an asset that can’t be inflated.