Is Digital Currency Going to Work?

A lot of people are ready to state that digital currency will not replace hard currency.

Is digital currency going to work? Or, better yet, is digital currency going to work as a replacement for hard cash? The debate over this is being covered by numerous sites that all have their own opinion on the matter and are more than ready to report on the facts. The truth though is that a lot of people are going to be resistant to the idea for several reasons. A lot of those reasons are personal. There are, after all, plenty of people who can remember when there wasn’t any such thing as digital currency.

At one time, getting anything on credit still meant writing down that you would pay something back in a certain amount of time. With the advent of technology, however, the currency that people deal with has been leaning heavily toward this idea for a while. At this time a person can still convert their digital currency into cash if they need or want to. But the idea of digital currency, in its truest form, is that it will never convert to hard currency and will remain in its digital state.

It’s not hard to imagine this since so many people work with debit cards, credit cards, cryptocurrency, and other methods that allow them to shift their money back and forth. It’s fair to say that a lot of people out there only deal with hard cash when they absolutely have to. There are plenty of situations where people require hard cash since there are vendors out there who haven’t gone entirely digital. But the day is quickly approaching when digital currency might be the only thing left, as the world is already being blanketed by technology, with only a few holdouts here and there that have stuck to hard currency.

But the big question is whether digital currency will work. Well, let’s talk about it.

There are pros and cons to digital currency

Some of the pros and cons of digital currency are easy to label and discuss as they feel like common sense. I know, in the world as it is today that’s not quite as comforting as some might think. But here are just a few points that are worth mentioning.

Pros

1. Transaction times are much quicker: People can’t really argue against this since heading to the ATM or the bank can be troubling at times. A lot of folks know the experience of needing a bank at the most inopportune times or dealing with an ATM that doesn’t want to cooperate. True, it’s usually human error, but it’s still irritating.
2. There’s no need to have a large amount of physical currency on hand: Be it coins or paper, having a lot of money on your person is kind of a burden. Coins are worse since they tend to weigh a lot after one starts carrying a few dollars in their pockets. Cash isn’t much better since flashing it around is never a great idea, and it gives others less favorable ideas of how to get their hands on it. That sounds like paranoia, but seriously, carrying rolls or wads of cash is more of a pain in the neck than many would admit.
3. There’s no need to manufacture physical currency: The metals and paper needed to produce the desired currency are rarely spoken of since the circulation of money no doubt eases a lot of minds when thinking of how many resources are dedicated to making currency. But there’s still the idea that at some point funds will need to be replaced, meaning that new bills and new coins will need to be minted.

Cons

1. Accounts can be hacked: This is something that many people still worry incessantly about. The unfortunate fact is that no matter how secure a system is, there will be someone who figures out how to break into it. This has been true since banking began. Thieves don’t just stop when they hit a wall of any type, they keep working until they find a way around every security measure.
2. One needs the internet: Digital currency doesn’t really work like hard currency. If one wants to build and maintain a digital wallet, one NEEDS the internet. It’s not an option that can be debated since like it or not, your money can be online, but if you don’t have access to the internet then you’re effectively broke.
3. The value of said currency can shift wildly: A lot of people might snicker at this or wonder how in the world it can happen. But look at it this way, the value of hard currency shifts now and then and isn’t set at all times. With digital currency, however, one can easily guess that the value of one currency or another is going to shift without warning at times. Unless one is plugged into the world of digital currency and knows what they’re doing, or even if one is, it’s tough to predict what a dollar is going to be worth from day to day.

So, what will the future bring for digital currency?

There are still folks out there who are of the mind that digital currency is more of a flash in the pan than another stage of financial evolution. But as technology continues to deepen and people continue to become convinced that their money is safer in a digital wallet, it’s not tough to think that more countries will embrace this idea fully.

There are reasons why it could it work, and why it might not. But when all is said and done, the balance between digital and hard currencies feels like it might need to remain. The hard currency that’s still circulating around the world is what keeps some people comfortable, while those who want to keep their funds online and in what they consider to be a safe place can do so.

Whether digital currency will be the new thing that will take root in every country is hard to say. There are plenty of people who are going to remain resistant to it. But there are plenty more that will advocate for this change as entire countries are seeking to make this the norm. Is that a good thing? Truthfully, it’s tough to tell, but at this moment it does feel as though many countries are going to at least consider it.

WTR? (Why’s That Radass?)

It’s not hard to wonder how digital currency is going to affect the human race. We all need money in one way or another to survive, and a lot of folks don’t feel they get enough of it. But thinking of how it’s going to affect society if money becomes a series of numbers online and nothing else feels a little far-fetched.