We’ve seen cryptocurrencies hit all time highs. With the price of bitcoin skyrocketing to its highest ever in 2021 at $64,863. Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency, without a central bank or single administrator. It can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries. Crypto is one of the most effective ways to transfer payment across borders with little to no cost. It is almost impossible to ,predict ,with everybody having a different opinion, what crypto will look like 50 years from now. Ivory Johnson ,a very successful financial planner, says, “ 50 years is a long time and bitcoin could either become the world reserve currency or the next AOL that made a lot of people wealthy until it was unseated by better technology.” In 50 years from now there’s no telling where technology will be, but a virtual escape sort of virtual universe isn’t unlikely with VR tech improving and facebook working on one. A sort of crypto currency would be the most ideal and likely currency for something along those lines.

The dangers of crypto are also very immense, and this is why governments need to get involved. Crypto is still new to the world with many not understanding it, and the technology and cryptos are wildly unregulated. The technology is empowering criminal groups, terrorist organizations, and rogue states. With bitcoin being untraceable, it’s the popular currency of the dark web, because it’s not regulated by any government or linked to you in any way. It is the best way to buy anything illegal, this is why some countries are banning crypto. Many countries are trying to make their own crypto currency that is controlled by the government. This kind of ruins the fascination of crypto being this globally accessible currency that is not printed but mined by normal everyday people with their computers or ASICs. The more powerful the computer the more they can mine per hour and sell for real money. Originally a niche medium of exchange for the technology community,  according to the IMF “Bitcoin emerged in 2011 as the currency of choice for drug dealers conducting transactions on a dark-web site known as the Silk Road.” 

Bitcoin was only created 12 years ago in 2009, and it has been exploding ever since. It is now collectively worth trillions of dollars, says CNBC. Throughout the years, Crypto has grown extensively, originally being more of a digital novelty to being worth trillions with the potential to be a global financial system, or a global currency. Many see crypto as an investment. Which it is but bitcoin is now more of a currency with it being unlikely to skyrocket again. People are putting some of their money into crypto like the stock market. With the attitude they are making more passive income than in their savings accounts. The price of crypto ,if given a legitimate reason for everyday people to buy it, could sky-rocket exponentially. If the government or a trustworthy business like Apple for example created a safer crypto with an easy simple way for it to be purchased it could be the new debit card.