Our generation does most of our shopping now virtually, through websites and online vendors and everything can be purchased and delivered to us in a click of a button. But what if we could do the same with our money? Cryptocurrency works a lot like stocks where a user can buy and then eventually sell their purchase of cryptocurrency back onto the market. However, like most things when it comes to technology as beta as this, will it catch on or crash? As a generation who’s focused more online, our privacy is already being invaded. So would this threaten our privacy even more? Having to switch our currency being from only online to now not being a physical form. But having digital currency isn’t new, in fact before 2008 was there were multiple attempts in creating a digital currency, credit card companies creating ways to have your cards digitally.
Technology always links to the word privacy and our fear of whether or not technology will be secure enough to protect it. While Cryptocurrency isn’t a physical form of currency, many fear that this is also a way our data can be leaked. To start with, in order to have Bitcoins or to exchange them you must have a “wallet application” using your fingerprint. Even though Bitcoins is said to be anonymous you’re still giving out information like your fingerprint when you confirm the transactions. Greenfield talks about how data is essentially compiled facts. By leaving information from a bitcoin integration we are essentially leaving a data footprint; a collection of facts containing what we were doing and when. Buy owning Bitcoins you are also allowing for companies to access this data much like Facebook. From what I understand is that Cryptocurrency still poses a threat to privacy of the users, especially if it is asking for physical data to verify the transaction. With a generation basically all online, information like this isn’t hard to hack or leak to the general public. So in many ways, there could be room for improvements or updates to this new way of money. As for now, I still don’t think we have caught on to using only Cryptocurrency, and most of it can be a threat to having more cybercrimes.
There are different controversies linked with having Cryptocurrency. In Ed Finn’s What Algorithms Want and Adam Greenfield’s Radical Technologies both talk about the implementations of Cryptocurrency. Both use the popular example of Bitcoins although now the examples of Cryptocurrency is now growing. Finn argues that the use of Bitcoins is now more “mainstream” and how companies can start seeing more in “programmable money”. He also goes into how Bitcoins can be more popular if more people use the digital currency. However, Bitcoin hasn’t been that mainstream yet, Greenfield argues that Bitcoins “has never been all that useful”. A digital form of money that is currently mainstream is Venmo (Sraders). The company Venmo is one of the mainstream companies in charge of creating an app to allow people to make micro transaction of cash. Like bitcoin, Venmo isn’t physical it is all digital, but due to the demand in wanting a physical form of money. Venmo started a debit card program, instead of transferring the Venmo balance to your bank, you keep it in your Venmo account and just spend from there. (Welch). Nothing is safe when comes to online usage and money, there are still plenty of targeted scams towards users. In fact, companies that use this way of transaction still try their best to protect your data.
The value of consumption is the exchange market that is dependent on it’s own users. Bitcoin is a fluctuating market much like how gold’s value drops and raises in price. Bitcoins are known to have a specific value instead of having a set price to it and a design value as well has an effect on Bitcoins. In comparison U.S money is determined by the exchange rate. (Forbes). From what I understand it is only entirely dependent on the market rather than a set price for Bitcoins as well. Much like the basics of Economy, if there is a rise in demand the price is higher, and if there is a lower demand than the item becomes cheaper. There is also the dependency on how much information a coin can store, that is what sets the the value amount.If a Bitcoin can’t hold enough storage or information then the demand for that coin usually goes down.
In conclusion, the popularity of this type of currency seems to slowly become mainstream as there’s more cryptocurrency types. Especially with the use of companies like Venmo or Paypal it may become more popular to have that kind of service also be used with Cryptocurrency. Which in turn, makes Bitcoins rise when the demand is higher and more popular. It is possible that like Christian Pulver mentions about Marx’s theory in capitalism, this theory could also apply to cryptocurrency. Because there is a limited regulation on what can and can’t be done with the company. Capitalism reliant on the idea that the more people buy the better it will be for the buyers and the best product will ultimately rise to the top. The same could probably go towards cryptocurrency with amount of variations there are on the market, companies could go with a capitalistic approach. As for now, personally I wouldn’t jump in to invest in Bitcoins so soon, at least not until there is a more secure version and more knowledge.
Resources:
Brown, Chalmers. “The Value of Cryptocurrency Today And What The Future Might Hold.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 25 Aug. 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2016/04/13/the-value-of-cryptocurrency-today-and-what-the-future-might-hold/#780e0e1a2e90.
Finn, Ed. What Algorithms Want. The MIT Press, 2017.
Greenfield, Adam. Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life. Verso, 2018.
Sraders, Anne. “Venmo vs. PayPal: What’s the Difference in 2019?” TheStreet, 7 Apr. 2019, www.thestreet.com/technology/venmo-vs-paypal-14916417.
Ivancsics, Bernat. “Blockchain in Journalism.” Columbia Journalism Review, www.cjr.org/tow_center_reports/blockchain-in-journalism.php.
Horner, Bruce, et al. Economies of Writing: Revaluations in Rhetoric and Composition. Utah State University Press, 2017.
Welch, Chris. “Venmo Is Officially Launching Its Physical Debit Card.” The Verge, The Verge, 25 June 2018, www.theverge.com/2018/6/25/17501074/venmo-debit-card-mastercard-now-available.