We live in a world where you can move without carrying a single note or coin in your pocket, thanks to credit cards. If you go back to the past and explain to someone that in a piece of plastic you would store your money and use it anywhere, would they have believed you? Do you think the same could happen but with cryptocurrencies?
Origin of credit cards
The modern use of the credit card began around 1914, although it was not a recognized practice until the end of the 1940s. It was in this year that Western Union devised and offered a card only to its most select customers.
Then, in the late 1940s, various companies officially started creating their own credit cards. However, they did not have much in common with the ones we currently have, since these were only useful in the establishments of the companies that gave you the card. It was simply a method of attracting more customers by facilitating the ability to “buy without physical money.”
Despite this, in 1950, New York witnessed the invention of the first credit card as we know it: Diner’s Club by Frank X, McNamara, Ralph Sneider and Alfred Bloomingdale. If you want to know more details about this story, you can enter here and read more about it.
Since then, credit cards have continued to evolve. Business transactions became much easier and faster with the card by eliminating factors of mistrust or lack of funds.
Will cryptocurrencies be able to replace plastics in the future?
Many of us ask ourselves the same question, since every invention takes time to become popular and common. In addition, as happened with credit cards, adaptations are needed to facilitate the use of cryptocurrencies.
Even, there are those who take as a fun reference to the episode of The Simpsons in which they assure that cryptocurrencies are the money of the future and that Blockchain technology also. However, we will not know if this will happen until it happens.
For now, cryptocurrencies seem more like an investment and speculation asset than an exchange asset. However, there are those who have faith in stablecoins to fulfill this task.
The truth is that before this change can be made, some things must change and improve in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. For example, coins like Bitcoin are designed for a pre-set production limit. Therefore, if you plan to use it as a currency, some people probably do not have access to it.
In addition, there are parts of the planet where electricity is not guaranteed, much less access to the internet to make digital transactions. Then we have some validation processes are slow and even though they are being worked on, for now the system would not support worldwide transactions every second.
However, not everything is negative. If we consider the increase in popularity and diversification that cryptocurrencies have had since the creation of Bitcoin, we will see that this has only grown. Now we have to see how they can be made more accessible until the coins that will replace credit cards can be properly named.
