There is great fear traveling through the crypto space… Fear that somewhere down the line, bank-issued cryptocurrencies will somehow replace bitcoin and its altcoin counterparts.Will Bitcoin Be Replaced?But is that fear valid? We need to look at a few facts before we can make an official decision. For one thing, these cryptocurrencies issued by financial institutions will be centralized, meaning the banks will be in control of who receives the crypto units and what they can be used for. This is the exact opposite of bitcoin, which is a decentralized currency.Bitcoin and its uses are left up to the people that own it. They can use it to pay for goods and services, they can forward money to friends and family via remittance platforms, or they can simply hang onto it for speculative
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Nick Marinoff considers the following as important: Altcoin News, Bitcoin, Bitcoin News, Bitcoin Opinion, centralized currencies, China, News, OpEd, Opinion, petro
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There is great fear traveling through the crypto space… Fear that somewhere down the line, bank-issued cryptocurrencies will somehow replace bitcoin and its altcoin counterparts.
Will Bitcoin Be Replaced?
But is that fear valid? We need to look at a few facts before we can make an official decision. For one thing, these cryptocurrencies issued by financial institutions will be centralized, meaning the banks will be in control of who receives the crypto units and what they can be used for. This is the exact opposite of bitcoin, which is a decentralized currency.
Bitcoin and its uses are left up to the people that own it. They can use it to pay for goods and services, they can forward money to friends and family via remittance platforms, or they can simply hang onto it for speculative purposes.
Bitcoin and most cryptocurrencies were originally designed to give financial independence back to the people. With banks in charge of so many aspects of one’s monetary life, it can be hard sometimes to garner access to the tools and services one needs to survive.
For example, if your credit or job history is weak, a bank can potentially turn you down for a checking or savings account. It can also reject your applications for credit or debit cards, preventing you from making everyday purchases.
However, bitcoin is the exact opposite. You are in charge… You decide how you use it, and much of the decision-making process is left in your hands.
As time has gone by, we’ve seen several individual nations either announce plans to release their own centralized forms of cryptocurrency or have already done so. Venezuela, for example, is a socialist nation in South America. The country introduced the Petro currency back in early 2018 as a means of combatting U.S. sanctions. President Nicolas Maduro is consistently pushing a Petro-based agenda to little avail, though now that the currency exists, these pushes will no doubt continue.
China, on the other hand, has announced that it is working on a digital form of the yuan, the country’s national form of fiat. While the currency is not yet released, laws have been passed designed to make its development easier.
It’s Still Got a Solid Following
So, with all this knowledge on the horizon, is there reason to be worried? Probably not. Despite the influx of centralized currencies, most people who use bitcoin use it specifically because it is not controlled by any single governing system. They want their monetary activities kept private and safe, and it’s unlikely they’d seek any other environment.
So even though we’re seeing several plans for centralized digital currencies come to fruition, it’s likely that bitcoin and many of its altcoin cousins will remain in play and potentially grow over time as people seek further privacy options and stronger control.