On April 10, 2019, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a tweet simply asking, “How do you think you will be paying for lunch in 5 years?”
The options were cash, cryptocurrency, mobile phone, and bank card. Which payment type do you think won? Take a guess before looking.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the 37,660 responders to the IMF tweet overwhelmingly chose cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency garnered 56% of the responses, far ahead of second place mobile phones.
The bottom two response, with just 17% of all responses, were bank card at 9% and cash at 8%.
Are you in any way surprised? If you think like the majority of IMF tweet followers, then the answer is no.
Transaction Demand Continues to Grow
Individuals that see cryptocurrency as a transitory fad may be surprised by the results. If you are a cryptocurrency skeptic, you might be surprised to see the following graph on cryptocurrency transaction demand across the globe and the following statement from Kaspersky.
In 2018, Kaspersky’s money report found that 13% of people have tried out cryptocurrency. That’s a large percentage, seemingly already surpassing the critical mass needed for mass adoption. Vitaly Mzokov, Head of Verification, Growth Center at Kaspersky Lab said:
“Despite a fall in cryptocurrency prices, there is still a strong desire for digital transactions amongst consumers. Our consumer research has found that 13% of people have used cryptocurrency as a payment method, which was surprising to see.”
And to confirm that cryptocurrency transaction demand is probably here to stay, the following map from Coinmap shows that more than 14,600 establishments are accepting crypto payments across the globe.
Facebook and WhatsApp
The rise in cryptocurrency payments and the fact that it is here to stay is confirmed by recent discussions that social media platforms Facebook and WhatsApp are potentially getting into the cryptopayments systems.
Conclusion
Overall, all the evidence to date indicates that cryptocurrency is here to stay. The rise in the demand for cryptocurrency suggests that Bitcoin, the pioneer in popularizing cryptocurrency as a payments platform, may be a perfect place for some allocation of one’s investment portfolio. It’s definitely possible that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies may be the method of payment employed for purchasing lunch in five years. The world is definitely changing, and payment systems are changing with it.
