Jan Granroth: This is why cryptocurrencies will change the world

One often gets to hear of the great riches that cryptocurrencies have brought to some individuals. The hopes to get rich quick undeniably are a strong driving factor in the world of crypto, but if one submerges deeper, there are great opportunities for increased justice and distribution of power to be found as well.

These possibilities include everything from giving people access to banking services to the fact that, on the long term, the whole global economy could change. This because an alternative to dollar and gold now is present in the form of bitcoin.

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Possibilities for the third world

People on the countryside in the third world often lack access to basic financial services, such as a bank account, and this is considered a big obstacle in the fight against poverty. Just the fact that anyone, with access to the internet and a phone or computer, nowadays is able to digitally store their funds is a revolution in itself.

Up until today, the possibilities to find financiers to projects in the third world have been very limited, so the opportunity to instead seek funding through an ICO (initial coin offering) constitutes an important method for countless start-up companies.

Fewer intermediaries

Furthermore, the opportunity opens up for anybody, despite limited funds, to invest in projects that earlier would have been impossible. Thus, the contemporary system of venture capitalists and business angels now sees competition. Restricting the mobility of capital is also a method used by totalitarian governments to keep control of their citizens, and cryptocurrencies also remedy such.

Even though many countries are moving towards increasingly liberal markets with increased freedom, a few industries are still characterized by a situation of monopoly or oligarchy, with the electricity sector being one. Also here cryptocurrencies could totally change the playing field since they open up to new stakeholders and brings together producers and consumers in a way that up until now has been impossible. Blockchain technology has shown to be advantageous when it comes to excluding intermediaries, with efficiency as an obvious result.

Power shift

Decentralization of power obviously isn’t desirable for the ones with power today. This goes for, not only states and authorities, but for many companies that currently, owing to centralized services such as Facebook, possess huge power and knowledge. The banking sector has, up until recently, enjoyed a monopoly on many of their services. These services play an immensely important role for all citizens and many can bear witness of the problems – and injustice – that this brings. All this will change with blockchain technology.

Neither the fact that many countries are completely or partly dependent on the US dollar, or that many dislike the centralization of power that this means, are news. Would, however, the price of bitcoin stabilize, it would pose an attractive alternative to the dollar. This could mean a big change to the current world order.

In other words, cryptocurrencies can play a role towards increased democratization and inclusion. All this freedom comes with responsibility and authorities are not too fond of giving us that just yet. Frankly speaking, given the amount of freedom that unwillingly(?) was given to the Swedish people in the current pension system (and all the billions it has costed countless people), this compassion does not seem too consistent.

Needless to say, the authorities do the right thing in proceeding forward carefully, and until the general level of knowledge among the population and, perhaps more so, among the authorities, has improved, meaningful reforms will most likely still be far away.

Cryptocurrencies are often described as a highly speculative asset class without intrinsic value or use case, but the truth is that they have all chances to be the key contributor towards freedom, self-determination, and distribution of power.

Jan Granroth,
Reporter at Trijo News

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