How cryptocurrency and blockchain will change our lives in 10 years

Cryptocurrency is digital money. This means there are no physical coins or banknotes — everything is online. You can transfer cryptocurrency to someone online without intermediaries, such as banks.

And the way blockchain works in cryptocurrency transactions can be compared to the digital version of a ledger used in a library, where you can see who lent a book and who returned it.

Cryptocurrency payments work the same way as cash. The owner keeps his coins in a secure wallet, to which they have a "key" — a digital signature known only to the owner.

The wallet can accept payments without being opened, but to make a payment, the owner must open the wallet with a key. To make things even more secure, some wallets have multiple keys: for example, a wallet might have three digital signatures: one held by the owner, one held by a trusted third party, and the third stored in an offline ("cold") storage.

Making a B2B payment from one of these multi-signature wallets requires two or more keys, not one. This is not unlike business checks, which must be signed to be valid for payment.

Thus, a global cryptocurrency-based payment solution will work in a completely different way than credit cards and other online transfers. Instead of the payment being authorized by the owner and then withdrawn from the account by the recipient, the owner transfers the coins directly to the recipient — a "push" model instead of an "authorize and pull" model. To make a payment, of course, the owner must have enough coins in their wallet.

When Bitcoin had been introduced to the world ten years ago, it was supposed to revolutionize the financial ecosystem. But this revolution has hardly happened. The cryptocurrency's turbulent first decade was marked by scandals, mistakes, and price swings.

The cryptocurrency market, which did not exist less than a decade ago, is currently valued at 540.62 billion dollars. Earlier in 2018, its value exceeded 800 billion dollars. Since the debut of Bitcoin, over 1500 cryptocurrencies have been created and are currently traded on exchanges.

The next decade may prove to be important in the evolution of bitcoin. Aside from the financial ecosystem revolutions, there are several areas in the bitcoin ecosystem that investors should be paying close attention to.

Cryptocurrency is currently balancing between a store of value and an environment for daily transactions. And institutional investors strive to be in time to participate in this process and profit from the volatility of cryptocurrency prices.

According to Chakib Bouda, CTO at payments company Rambus, "... perhaps the biggest disadvantage of bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies in previous years has to do with security." Bauda expects bitcoin to go mainstream in 10 years and earn a completely different reputation.

Bitcoin's adoption as a payment mechanism won't happen without technological improvements in its ecosystem — that's a fact. Besides, to be considered a viable investment asset or form of payment, the bitcoin blockchain must be able to process millions of transactions in a short amount of time.

Despite the flaws in the security of crypto payments, for residents of third-world countries, their appearance was salvation in terms of being able to transfer money abroad.

Almost a third of Nigerians said they use cryptocurrency transfers. According to Bitcoin.com, the high cost of sending money across the border has led many of them to turn to local cryptocurrency exchanges that serve foreign workers and their families. Nigerians also often use their phones to send money to each other or to pay in stores. Recently, companies in the country have been adding crypto plugins to their phone payment methods, adding yet another way Nigerians can use cryptocurrency in their daily lives.

This opens up a rather vast market of potential consumers for investors in cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies.

The second and third highest levels of cryptocurrency usage in the study were recorded in Vietnam and the Philippines, respectively. Again, money transfers play an important role in the widespread use of cryptocurrency. According to bitcoin.com, the Central Bank of the Philippines has approved the operation of several cryptocurrency exchanges in the country as "money transfer and transfer companies".

Besides Africa and Southeast Asia, Latin America is another region of the world where there are many cryptocurrency users.

Blockchain technology may become a part of your investment. However, it should be understood that the speed of implementation of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies into everyday life will mainly depend on 4 conditions:

1. Suitable technology
2. Consumer demand
3. Corporate leaders
4. Favorable regulatory environment

However, blockchain technologies are already present in such areas as:

• Banking services and financial transactions.
• Storage of large amounts of data in the scientific industry.
• Logistics and transportation of goods.
• Accounting.
• Medical databases and customer service technologies.

Forecasts are difficult to make. Change takes time. Cryptocurrency can be good or evil. Cryptocurrencies empower people to be their own bank and payment method, to move away from the traditional system of money exchange, which puts the financial hegemony of banks at risk. One disadvantage is the possibility of cybercrime or cyber-attacks against the protection and safety of investors.

We should expect widespread adoption of cryptocurrency, as the emphasis is not only on popularity due to speculation and digitalization trends but also on overcoming current challenges without undermining the fundamental prerequisites for their existence.