5 Present and Future Case Uses for Cryptocurrency Beyond Investing
Many people purchase cryptocurrency with the express intent of investing, hoping to get gains if they hold onto their assets and wait for the coin’s value to rise. Beyond that, however, are actually various other uses for both cryptocurrency and the blockchain, the immutable digital ledger used to record cryptocurrency transactions.
To illustrate, here are just some other cases wherein crypto and blockchain can be utilized in ways that can still have positive effects in our daily lives:
1) Managing Personal Finances
Most people who invest in crypto are usually interested in the market, waiting to buy when prices are low and sell when they’re high in order to make a profit. But you yourself can utilize crypto for your personal finances even without a deep involvement in the trading market. After all, crypto is still a convenient digital currency that will eventually allow for a greater variety of quick and cost-efficient transactions. Over time, it will become even easier for ordinary people (and not just today’s most enthusiastic traders) to send funds across borders and deal less with traditional cross-border transaction methods, which are often costly because of high transfer fees.
Another good reason to use crypto for your personal finances is that it enables you to make private transactions. For example, when you make a transaction with a privacy coin like Monero (XMR) and a dedicated XMR wallet, you can rest assured that it will be confidential and untraceable.
Overall, you don’t have to invest your crypto assets per se, especially if you don’t want to allot time to constantly monitor your chosen coin’s rates. You can simply use it as another means of currency whenever it’s possible to do so.
2) Online Shopping
A greater number of people now choose to do their shopping online thanks to hassle-free e-commerce platforms that are able to accept digital currencies for payment. You, too, can use your crypto funds to purchase items online, now with the added advantage of each transaction being more secure and having lower transaction fees than before. More merchants now accept crypto as well, so you may easily facilitate your transactions through your digital wallet.
You may be asking: why shouldn’t I just use my credit card instead? Consider that crypto can be a safer option when online shopping because it doesn’t record your personal information, thus mitigating the risk of being compromised by cyber criminals who may steal your information or credit card details. Likewise, merchants who can accommodate this technology will feel assured that they won’t have to deal with fraudulent chargebacks because crypto transactions are final. In this aspect, crypto payments stand to be beneficial for both parties.
3) Supply Chain Management
Blockchain is a technology that is inextricably linked with cryptocurrency. One of the defining features of the blockchain is that its records are updated in real time as well as immutable, meaning that any transaction recorded on it cannot be modified anymore. It then comes as no surprise that this technology is also now being extensively explored in supply chain management.
Thanks to blockchain, every transaction or movement along the supply chain can be recorded accurately. There will also be added peace of mind among business owners that bad actors won’t be able to purposely tamper with supply records for their own gain.
Sooner than later, business owners and their suppliers may also be able to use the blockchain and smart contracts to automate payments depending on predefined conditions. If a business owns crypto assets and they would like to use these for their transactions, they can just set up a smart contract that will facilitate an exchange of these immediately after the conditions are met.
4) Government Functions
To meet the growing needs of their citizens, governments all over the world have readily adapted e-services that allow them to process documents, license requests, tax returns, and other important transactions faster. Blockchain technology can help governments improve their current systems by providing an efficient digital ledger to help out with prompt service delivery while still keeping all sensitive information secure. This, in turn, can save time and manpower, allowing government staff to do more complex tasks rather than be stuck filing and approving paperwork all day.
And while this is not yet the norm, governments may also consider the idea of accepting crypto payments for fees in the future. If they’re already using blockchain technology for other purposes, governments could facilitate wider acceptance of crypto in their respective countries.
5) Media and Entertainment
Crypto is already being used for various functions in the entertainment industry, particularly when it comes to providing support to content creators and as means for crowdfunding media projects. Artists looking to raise funds to bring their projects to life may even include initial coin offerings (ICOs), which is when a new coin or token is exchanged with other cryptos that have established value. Holders of the ICO can then get returns once the project launches successfully.
In addition, the blockchain may also be used more commonly in the future as a means to monitor piracy and fraud in all sorts of media. Blockchain technology can thus be used towards the legal distribution of authentic digital media that’s recorded in its system, with utmost security and transparency.
More than just providing traders with investment opportunities, both crypto and blockchain technology hold immense potential for applications pertaining to personal finances, business supplies, and even government transactions, among others. Indeed, the future seems bright for cryptocurrency, and it may become a more prominent part of our daily lives in the years to come.
