CryptoCurrencies: doomed future or mankind savior by 2050?

Nope, don't worry that wasn't a poor attempt to make a clickbait title for my article! Let me explain clearly and briefly, why both options can be possible within the next decades.

First of all, CryptoCurrencies are gaining unprecedented attention for the masses, not everytime in the best manners (DeepWeb Markets shutting down, Exchange Platforms hacks and others ICO's scams) but overall undoubtedly positive. The CrytptoCurrecies market hit the 100 Billion Dollars cap several times this year, will a all time high record for the Bitcoin, proving a huge spike in demand from the public.
Decentralized networks, Blockchain, Anonymous transactions and many others functions reinvent our daily exchange models in a disruptive way, but at this time, in 2017, CryptoCurrencies are still kind of located into a "grey area" where certain Countries are promoting them (South Korea, Russia) while some others are banning CCcies purely and simply (Bangladesh, Bolivia)

That leads us to the 1 Million Bitcoin question (yes there're less than 16,5 Millions so not bad right huh?) : Will Governments accross the World decide altogether to define a legislation for CryptoCurrencies? if so, will it be positive or negative? (legally recognized and tradable with FIAT, paying taxes on it, or the other way like tighening laws & stricter rules, banning them worldwide ect...) and finally, can the CCcies be a REAL alternative to our traditional currencies? And even better the savior from the next global Crisis that can hit the centralized institutions in industrialized countries? Which are massively overdebt and doing dozens Quantitative Easing (Printing Trillions of Dollars to keep the economy working)

So why maybe a doomed future?

Governments are like everybody knows empowering rules and laws, and they are the ONLY actor to really decide what to do with CCcies and to what extend they want to regulate them. So let's be them for 2mins (sounds sweet right?) what would YOU do?
Well, one of the first thing for a country is getting its financial stability via it's own currency system by organizing and centralizing the whole process (creation of the money itself, defining it's value to be usable at a fair and stable rate for your population, rules of do and don't, define a legal base ect..) and as their whole centralized institution creating it, the country population have trust into the money and can use it.

Seeing the emergence of using an alternative method of payment, especially not government controlled nor approved, by it's own population can be seen as a threat for your domestic economic stability. The other actors (banks, companies involved in the whole process with FIAT currencies) are also strong lobbies to push for a stricter regulation as they also fear their profit dropping drastically with the CCcies resolving one major disadvantage from a centralized network: the fact that only a small part are controlling the transactions so they charge more fees than if the network was decentralized

The security argument is widely used by officials, they mention that, because it is not regulated nor controlled, it can be used for outlaw purpose such as terrorism, buying firearms, drugs, stolen or counterfeit items, money laundering, tax escaping (of course they want their slice of the cake..) ect...
The other side of the coin (too easy I know... I'm not proud ether... lol) is that people are more at risk of an attack, or a hack and get their money stolen on their wallet, and more frequently, one exchange and trading platforms.

The last argument commonly heard is that because it's not regulated, the price isn't stable, so by definition people CAN'T trust the value of the money if it's keep going up and down for one day to another, then it needs to be framed by laws and rules to be trustful

So as mentionned earlier, some countries have already banned CryptoCurencies invoking several reasons but mainly that it wasn't state regulated/approved and that only the currency approved by the Government is the One that people must use inside the country while others have already accepted mainly the Bitcoin as a valuable asset to invest, normally taxable when converted back to FIAT currencies. and even some are planning to legalize the biggest and mostly used CCies such as Bitcoin & Ethereum (South Korea double thumbs up!)

Even some Banks are using the Blockchain now to validate some part of their transactions, so there is definitely something to do for the traditional actors, IMHO they are still wating to see the risks and rewards and trying to figure out if that this new kind of money doesn't "escape" their "control" (that they don't have anymore de facto because of the decentralization itself)

The worst case scenario here is a complete shutdown on CCcies arround the world, which is unlikely to happen, even though still possible (especially India and China, 2 big markets in terms of global population potential obviously).
Putting high taxes and limitation of exchange/transactions would be an other bad hit to the CryptoCurrencies, same thing with too much regulations and centralization of power going back to the states. That would just be counternatural and damage the market very deeply as the core valuse would be modified in a way that the initial project is no longer the same as it was invented at the beginning.

Ironically, regulating CryptoCurrencies at governments levels (by definition that would means you fully "accept" them) will be the only way that they can survive and get the trust from entire populations to use them, and that will imply several things to me:

• Regulating the rates to avoid versatility and instability of the market cap, and especially the biggest CCcies currently operating (Bitcoins, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Dash, Zcash ect..) (making CCcies more like a real ceurrency with it's method of payment rather than just a way to make quick profits) (maybe getting exchange platforms getting state approved/controlled by a minister or a department? )
• Investing directly at state level into the CCcies, that will increase the trust from the populations, and with a big share in the market but without getting too dominant, that might bring more stability on the rates but with the risk of getting back to too much centralized state control
• Promoting and "teaching" the masses on what it is, what the benefits are, and how to use it properly
• Developping a fully working infrastructure for the global use of CCcies (from ATM's to modify cashiers, being able to carry CCcies safely on you and being able to access it rapidely like for FIAT currencies, updating softwares, putting double pricetags, and so on)

-"Ok sounds good, but why saying Mankind savior by 2050? What's your point? Isn't it a bit too exagerated?"
Well that might sound like it, but let me explain why without being too technical

Conflicts and tensions are rising around the World, while Natural ressources scarcity and global warming are getting bigger concerns amid the principal countries Leaders (well except some... but are they real leaders after all?)

Economies are still struggling inside overdebt developped countries, some plagued with massive unemployement rates as they are unable to compete in a more and more globalized and technology-related market.
As previously stated, Countries Debts by GDP % is alarming, certains countries have bought a tons of obligations from others and that can lead to pressure and more tensions. Keep printing money won't solve the problem as we saw for the first time on Mankind History, NEGATIVE Rates due to a too much offer of money on the market, the situation just looks like they hold the dike as long as they can before another Crash, this time much worse than 2008...

Another point in the future is that some governments are starting to talk about taking off purely and simply notes, coins and checks (Sweden, Dannemark and other countries are starting to evoke the idea) and the EU even proposed to limit cash amount for transactions as the first element of transition towards a cashless society.
That sounds just perfect for CryptoCurrencies right? That could... again if they don't ban or regulate them too strictly.
Cashless wouldn't mean valueless for FIAT currencies (unless tomorrow everybody take all of their money from their bank accounts which won't probably happen, or if it does, it will be probably shutdown like in Greece or Spain before being too important). But will people accept that pretty radical change in their life? Especially countries with populations using a lot notes (Germany for instance) even though they are already used to the credit/debit card system, the fact that you would no longer being able to physically "own" your money can be a major problem (security issues, hacks, bugs, abuses from governments)

With the few last ransonware attacks launched in 2017, even reaching states computers (Ukraine, France),banks, universities (China), hospitals (UK), and public administrations, concerns from the public are much higher about centralized datas hacks and leaks. So if we project ourselves in 20 years within a cashless but still centralized economic model, what would happen if a big team of hackers would launch (and succeed) a massive-scale hacking operation on Banks? It already happen in Bangladesh where hackers (arrested since) succesfully hack and stole 80 Million Dollars.

So more than ever security will be a the center of all debate. And that's the good point of CryptoCurrencies: they are already decentralized, so less risky to hack the network (while technically still possible on small CCcies by for instance the attack 51 type, where someone own 51% of the currencies and power of calculation to create false transactions in order to fraud the system and get money) Using the Blockchain for the Government with an extra security layer will reduce the risk to be hacked inherently.
If several hacks happen in a centralized network with big consequences + all the reasons of instability mentionned above, people will look by themselves to protect their asset, and use CryptoCurrencies like they did with using Gold with normal currencies back then.

The technological transition in less developping countries is also a factor to take into account. Internet access is constantly developping accross the Globe (4 Billion people at the end of 2017) so how to implement all the tecnhology for the whole population? Especially that we know the World population is increasing fastly and is estimated to be 10 Billion people in 2050, so 6 Billion needs to be "covered" in 33 years with represents almost 182 Million new people covered each year or 500000 each day and being able to use it daily, what a Challenge my Friends!

With all those informations provided, my conclusion is mixed between my probably utopic ideas about how we should let the CCcies appart from our governements and really develop a stable, long-term viable alternative way to use money in our daily lives and the actual fact that we live currently in a centralized system run by governments, and that in one way or another they will regulate the CryptoCurrency usage in a close future (by 2050).

Will the outcome be positive or the total contrary? Will they be ban or will have we a new Monetary System where CryptoCurrencies will be used daily with FIAT Currencies? No one knows yet, but there is one thing for sure: these questions are exciting, so are CCcies!
Consedering that we are just at the beginning of a new era (Bitcoin was created in 2009 just as a quick reminder), the journey is passionating, and the new perspectives that CryptoCurrencies would bring to our lives are letting me conclude here on this proverb:

"It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that they can't see the problem."
— G.K. Chesterton

SelfmadeInvestor