
The next chapter in the cryptocurrency story will surely be a telling one. The explosion of interest in Bitcoin in 2017 drove it to the predictably-unsustainable value of £13,000-plus. The spectacular rise and subsequent fall provided dramatic opportunities for early investors and those trading in cryptocurrency and made the wider public sit up and take notice of this digital disrupter.
There may have been a drop-off since the crazy days of 2017, but the fact that one Bitcoin is still worth about half of that shows that the bubble hasn’t totally burst and that this and other cryptocurrencies have the potential to change our relationship with money.
IG has conducted research into trends that it expects to change the way we invest and interact with the markets by 2069.
Its future of trading guide predicts that cryptocurrencies will eventually supersede present day fiat currencies completely and that this will be part of a broader change in which blockchain – the system that underpins such currencies – will render exchanges obsolete. By then, it suggests everything could be bought and sold using blockchain, with transactions recorded instantly.
In the guide, IG states: “It may sound like lofty thinking, but the introduction of a global cryptocurrency and mainstream adoption of blockchain could be closer than we think.
“Through cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, ripple and litecoin, blockchain is already being used to store transaction data in secure, transparent and readily-available databases.
“Additionally, a number of cryptocurrency networks are already powering smart contracts and decentralised apps (‘dapps’) – including Ethereum, NEO and EOS.IO – suggesting that the popularisation of blockchain and cryptocurrency trading accounts may not be too far away.”
If that really is the case, the existence of individual currencies will seem like ancient history in 50 years.
For more on this – and the other trends likely to change the world of trading by 2069 – explore the guide in full below.