HOW BENEFICIAL IS CRYPTO TO THE ECONOMY?
There exist so many advantages of cryptocurrency to the economy of the nation and the global economy at large. These benefits will further enhance global trade. The benefits of cryptocurrency cannot be over-emphasized.
Some of the many benefits include
1) Avoidance of fees by third-party banks: When sending money across orders a lot of fees are charged by the third-party banks as off-shore charges. This is aside from the normal exorbitant fees charged as commission, with cryptocurrency the huge fees can be avoided. The time and amount it will cost me to send value to someone directly in front of me are the same for sending to someone 1000 miles away from me, no third party is paid.
2) Access to all: The use of cryptocurrency is available to all. There are no barriers whatsoever to trading cryptocurrency, there is no age restriction, gender bias, religion, race, colour, tribe, or any personal bias or inclination. Just anyone can interact with the blockchain transfer value from one address to another
3) Access to a wide range of investments: As a result of the access-to-all feature of cryptocurrency, people living in any part of the world can invest in a wide range of investment options that accept crypto as a payment option. Some years ago, PayPal was the major payment gateway, if any country is not registered or blacklisted, investing from such countries was almost impossible. Now a lot of businesses have crypto as a payment option. This gives a whole lot of people access to invest in different business
4) No third-party seizure: Governments around the world have often seized and closed the bank account of citizens who protests against them. Cryptocurrency cannot be seized, on 20th October 2020, the #ENDSARS protest by the Nigeria youth was brought to a bloody end. Afterward, the government seized and froze the account of the individuals who sponsored the protest. Similarly, in February 2022, a series of protests and blockages were held in Canada. After the protest, the bank account of the leaders of the protest was frozen. However, funds transferred via crypto cannot be frozen.
5) Transparency of financial transactions: A lot of government officials have suggested that cryptocurrency makes it easy for money to be laundered. This is not entirely true. Money laundering existed before the existence of cryptocurrency. Tracking cash is not as easy as tracking cryptocurrency, the transparency of the blockchain has made it easy for funds to be traced from source to their destination
6) Countries that are crypto-friendly and have made bitcoin a legal tender has attracted foreign investment. This has brought about an increase in the country’s GDP and a boost in the economy. This means developing countries seeking foreign investment can create a crypto-friendly environment to attract investors as seen in the case of El-Salvador.
7) No more creation of fake currency: The creation of counterfeit currency is a major crime globally. Counterfeit currency is a currency produced without the legal sanction of the state or government, in a deliberate attempt to imitate that currency so as to deceive its recipient. As of 2020, the CBN revealed that over 56 million naira worth of counterfeit notes is in circulation. While the US Department of treasure revealed that an estimated $70m-$200m in counterfeit bills are in circulation. Bitcoin and cryptocurrency cannot be counterfeit. If a fake coin is created and sent to the blockchain it can never be confirmed which will lead to a failed transaction.
8) Identity theft is impossible with crypto: Identity theft happens when a fraudster uses another person’s identity to commit fraud. Identity theft scam happens a lot when people try to make a purchase on a fraudulent website. They input their details such as name, date, credit card details, etc. these details are used by fraudsters to commit fraud. Crypto transactions are not susceptible to such. When making payment no personal information is revealed, no name, credit card, pin, etc. only the person with the private key has authority to spend the cryptocurrency and this is not revealed by any fraudster
9) Direct control over investment: users who invested in cryptocurrency can have direct control over their investment. They can choose to spend all, invest, send, stake, and sell without permission from any person or government organization.
10) No inflation: Neither political force nor corporation can change the order after deployment. The unlimited supply of fiat currency has created the problem of inflation. This has led to the gradual decline of the purchasing power of fiat. Bitcoin however has a finite quantity and the quantity of coins created reduces by half every four years. For other cryptos with so much volume and unlimited supply features such as staking and burn mechanism has been introduced to constantly reduce the total quantity in circulation making cryptocurrency a deflation currency with huge potential to increase.
In conclusion, the benefits of cryptocurrency in the economy will provide a lot of opportunities and wealth creation channels for citizens of any country that embraces it.