5 Reasons To Use Cryptocurrency
If you were not living under a cave, you should have heard of cryptocurrency by now.
2017 is the year when the godfather of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was thrusted into the limelight and subjected to intense speculation and scrutiny. Many people was talking about how cryptocurrency is the future of money, yet not many people actually know how cryptocurrency functions, nor do they care about the the technology behind it, which is blockchain.
However, that did not stop the price of Bitcoin from rising by more than 800% in 6 months from about 2,000 USD (in June 2017) to almost 20,000 USD (in December 2017).
As a result, many people around the world, including central banks, financial institutions and even e-commerce sites have started to take an interest in cryptocurrencies. Giants like JP Morgan have created their own JPM coin, while Facebook is pushing hard for the Libra project. More interestingly, China may be the first country in the world to launch their own cryptocurrency.
So why are these parties gaining interest and pumping in large amount of investments into cryptocurrencies? That is because they know the immense potential of cryptocurrency that is built on blockchains!
BETTER NEWS IS: they are going to benefit individuals like you and me more than anyone else!
1) You Can Save Money
In 2018, Visa and MasterCard earned a staggering USD$60 billion in swipe fees — up from USD$25.9 billion in 2012.
For every $100 you spent, $4 of that has gone to credit card companies, even if you paid cash. You may not feel it because most of these fees are charged to merchants. However, most of them will pass on these fees to you in the form of higher product prices.
Imagine how much you can save if you could cut out the middle-man! Business can eliminate those fees by leveraging on cryptocurrencies, potentially saving up to 2–5% on each transaction. Transactions fees could be virtually zero depending on the cryptocurrency you use. Tron, one of the most popular cryptocurrency, sport an average fee of merely USD$0.0000901!
2) You No Longer Have To Trust
If you have read Bitcoin’s Whitepaper, you will know that Bitcoin was created as an alternative solution to counter the flaws in traditional banks and financial institutions.
“Commerce on the Internet has come to rely almost exclusively on financial institutions serving as trusted third parties to process electronic payments. While the system works well enough for most transactions, it still suffers from the inherent weaknesses of the trust based model.”
— Satoshi Nakamoto, author of Bitcoin Whitepaper
This problem may not be obvious to people living in first-world countries, but it is an ongoing struggle for countries with corrupted or incompetent governments. Short-sighted fiscal policies or unrestricted printing of money has plagued nations like Zimbabwe.
In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the Zimbabwean’s inflation rate is estimated to be an astronomical 79,600,000,000%! Similar events were observed in Venezuela in 2018, Yugoslavia in 1994 and many other countries. There is no guarantee that this will not happen to other countries but thankfully cryptocurrency can solve this problem.The limited supply in many cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin ensures that inflation will never happen.
Putting funds in cryptocurrencies also allows you to hedge against government mistakes especially when there is looming financial crisis
3) You Value Privacy
You might already know this — banks and financial institutions collect a lot of private data about us. While this data could be put to good use, it is also vulnerable to cyberattacks and misuse. A growing number of cyberattacks: the hackings of credit watch companies Experian (in 2015) and Equifax (in 2017), not to mention the likely interference by Russian government sponsored hackers in the 2016 US Presidential elections, are just some of the examples.
Cryptocurrencies can incorporate privacy-centric features that solve this issue. The usage of zero-knowledge protocols in cryptocurrencies like Zcash assures users that their identity and details of transactions are obscured from third-parties. This means that data analytics can be combined with blockchain to personalize a buying experience for you without divulging any of these information to anyone else.
4) You Appreciate Integrity
Blockchain technology is often tout as the solution to the double-spending problem. It is a problem unique to digital currencies because digital information can be reproduced relatively easily by tech-savvy individuals. As the name suggests, this means that the same dollar may potentially be used twice and above, and creates imbalance in the ledger. This spells trouble for financial institutions who then have to either waste time and resources to reverse these transactions or dip into their money reserves to cover the gap.
For cryptocurrencies, it is extremely difficult to duplicate or falsify the blockchain. For example, if we look at two of the most popular transaction consensus mechanism — Proof-of-Work requires immense amount of computing power to change information on the network while Proof-of-Stake requires attackers to stake large amount of their own capital, hence risking the value of their stake coins becoming worthless once the network becomes vulnerable and shunned by investors.
In addition, cryptocurrency transactions are programmed to be transparent on the blockchain. This means that to view a transaction, all you need is either the transaction id or the sender/receiver’s blockchain address . Rest assure that this address cannot be traced back to yourself and can only be viewed by people you share the address with.
5) You Believe In Inclusivity
Across the world, 2 Billion working-age adults do not have access to financial services. They do not have access to credits, loans or financial products, and financial inclusivity could change their lives for the better. By providing them with basic financial services, it can help to lift them out of poverty and creates more opportunities than ever before.
Not only does this benefits the unbanked, it also opens many doors for everyone else. Our economy is only running on 2/3 of its potential. Imagine the positive effect on our global economy if the other 1/3 of them are included to participate in international trade. It will definitely set off a ripple effect of multiple positive externalities and bring about a new era of prosperity and opulence.
Cryptocurrencies eliminate the need for building expensive banking infrastructures. All you need to participate in crypto-transactions is a smartphone with internet connectivity. From there on, instant and cost-effective transactions can be done across the world, transcending borders and overpassing complicated banking procedures.
Furthermore, blockchain and cryptocurrency is not limited to just pure money transactions. For example, some of the existing use cases includes micro-financing, insurtech, real-estate transactions and even tracking items in supply-chains.
Cryptocurrency and blockchain is going to disrupt the financial services industry and many others. Now is the time to get involved and invested, its not too late yet!
About Cobo
Cobo is a company that commits to supporting blockchain development and making cryptocurrencies easy to own and use. Our mission is to provide long-term security, reliability, and convenience, which is reflected in our products and services. Our key products include mobile crypto-wallet (Cobo Wallet), offline hardware wallet for advanced users (Cobo Vault), and custodial services for institutional investors (Cobo Custody). You can even earn passive income through our Bitgrow and Staking program.
For more information about Cobo, visit https://cobo.com
If you enjoyed the read, please make sure to:
- Clap for the article 👏
- Share the article with your friends 😎
- Follow us 👍
