The Most Disruptive Aspect of Cryptocurrency
The most disruptive aspect of cryptocurrency might be one that both investors and critics overlook: Cryptocurrency’s ability to monetize almost everything and turn aspects of daily life into sources of income.
A perfect example of this is a company called BitMinutes. Its’ BMT Ethereum-based “Smart Token” would be based on something hundreds of millions of people all over the world buy and use each day: airtime for phones and other mobile devices.
BitMinutes’ business plan is to base credit ratings on the amount of airtime people buy for phones. Then use that offer a variety of financial services to those people including loans, money transfers, and person-to-person (P2P) payments. The hope is to turn phone minutes into a sort of bank account.
Massive Expansion of Financial Services System Possible
This might be huge because BitMinutes’ target market is the two billion people worldwide without bank accounts. The so-called unbanked, most of whom live in developing nations where there are no banks but mobile phone service is a part of everyday life.
Over 60% of Kenya’s population of 50.95 million people or 30.57 million people own smartphones, Business Daily Africa reported. The number of smartphone users in India was estimated at 299.24 million in 2017 and was projected to grow to 442.50 million in 2022 by Statista.
What BitMinutes is planning is a massive expansion of the world’s financial services system with the help of cryptocurrency. BitMinutes is harnessing the power of one altcoin; Ethereum (ETH) to create its’ token and is experimenting with another Ripple (XRP) to speed up money transfer.
Systems like BitMinutes would enable the direct transfer of tens of billions dollars to average people in developing nations. That would trigger a massive economic boom that would completely disrupt the economies and political systems of those counties.
One result would be the rise of a middle class, which can lead to revolution. The American and French revolutions broke out because the rising middle class felt left out of the political system.
Turning Everyday Things into Income
BitMinutes is just one of several super-disruptive uses of cryptocurrency out there. At least two companies, Power Ledger and Restart Energy are peddling Ethereum-tokens based upon electrify.
Both firms want to disrupt the utility industry by selling electricity and gas service like phone minutes. They also want to sell electricity as an investment through Tokens that represent electric service.
If successful, this would make it easier to market electricity in developing nations and transform electricity into a commodity similar to oil. That would create a massive market that has the potential to pull the rug out from under the utility industry.
One side effect of tokens like Restart’s MWATT and Power Ledger’s POWR would be to enable average people to invest money or build up credit by paying their electric bills. Another would be to make electricity service cheaper, and potentially to lower costs.
Turning Your Computer into Extra Cash
Then there are tokens like Golem (GNT) and IAGON (IAG) that allow people to convert excess computer power into income.
Golem and IAGON are building global supercomputers in the cloud that are actually interconnected networks of processors all over the world. Anybody who owns a computer with extra processing power can join the network.
One result of this would be to give almost anybody anywhere in the world access to massive amounts of computing power. This can provide powerful solutions to almost any business anywhere, and let almost every researcher anywhere in the world have access to the kind of computing once only available to governments and large universities.
A result of this would be to give every garage inventor on earth access to a supercomputer. Just imagine the havoc that 10,000 would-be Edisons and Teslas can wreak with access to global supercomputers.
Blockchain plus IoT equals Super Disruption
Golem and IAGON are just two examples of what can be done when the Internet of Things (IoT) meets the blockchain the technology behind cryptocurrency. Another example of what can be done with the IoT is SyncFab.
SyncFab plans to revolutionize manufacturing by entire corporate departments such as procurement with a blockchain solution that would directly connect manufacturers and supplies. The hope is that will allow any business with the right IoT enabled equipment to fill orders for manufacturers.
Beyond SyncFab there is Aitheon which wants to make artificial intelligence (AI) and digital robots available to everybody through the IoT. If successful, Aitheon’s platform would give small businesses access to the same accounting and back office capabilities as large corporations, and let anybody have access to AI-controlled robots.
Cryptocurrency Monetization will disrupt everything
Cryptocurrency’s monetizing capabilities will lead to economic upheaval. One result might be inflation because average people will be given the ability to generate unlimited amounts of currency.
This can lead to catastrophe as the 2007 and 2008 economic meltdown in countries like the United States and Ireland demonstrated. That upheaval occurred because average people were given access to practically unlimited amounts of mortgage credit.
A potential problem here is that Central Banks would have little or no control over the situation. They would not be able to stop citizens from turning on their personal printing presses whenever they need cash.
A taste of the future is already available in Venezuela where some citizens are able to escape the effects of hyperinflation and generate several hundred dollars a month by mining cryptocurrency. That makes cryptocurrency miners practically millionaires in a country with an inflation rate of 440,000%.
One result of that will total chaos, another effect will be class warfare as cryptocurrency owners and persons stuck using government money fight it out in a lawless economic frontier. The end game that will be a new economy which will be vastly different from what we have now.
We are only scratching the surface of cryptocurrency’s potential. The disruptions this seemingly humble payment technology will create will be vast. Everybody needs to pay close attention to cryptocurrency because it has the potential to disrupt everything.
