

While it has found a place in niches such as supply chains and digital IDs, problems like price volatility and the need to comply with the existing regulatory framework have prevented mainstream adoption in currency. For all the hype around blockchain - the open-source digital ledgers that many have argued will do everything from make cash obsolete to remake the global economy - it can sometimes seem like a solution looking for a problem. For that to come to pass, however, four conditions need to align: appropriate technology, consumer demand, corporate champions, and an amenable regulatory environment.
The next big thing after bitcoin full#
Because just as Paypal and eBay (or Alipay and Taobao, if you prefer) revolutionized how people shopped online and Amazon changed how people shop, full stop, digital payment services - powered by blockchain technology - could be the next great upheaval in global e-commerce growth.

Speaking at Stanford, Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard noted that the “potential for digitalization to deliver greater value and convenience at lower cost” has piqued the interest of the traditionally risk-averse institution.įor now, the Fed’s interest in digital currency might be most notable as a sign of how the world has changed - and where the winds are blowing. But this winter, the Federal Reserve announced that it’s investigating the possibility of issuing its own digital coin. Digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, were the purview of speculators and coders, not stodgy central bankers. government might mint its own digital currency, you might have dismissed the idea as starry-eyed futurism - or, less charitably, a joke. A few years ago, if you had heard that the U.S.
