Cryptocurrencies have grown enormously over the last two decades, growing from a concept to the thriving cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. While cryptocurrencies are still something of a mystery for the majority of the population, those familiar with the concept of blockchain are predicting that it will be the way we exchange information and money as the world becomes increasingly borderless.
Kenneth Mak, a 21-year-old aspiring technology entrepreneur from Singapore, believes cryptocurrencies are the future of the way we hold our money and wealth. Living in the most expensive city in the world, and an alumni of the Anglo Chinese School, he’s no stranger to the power of wealth. The Anglo Chinese School boasts alumni such as Kevin Kwan, writer of the phenomenon Crazy Rich Asians, Singapore’s first Olympic Gold Medalist Joseph Schooling, and former President S. R. Nathan, too.
Mak, creator of the URL shortening service URL.io and co-founder of a Web Development company that offers bespoke innovative web solutions for businesses (particularly in networking and communications), is naturally optimistic about all blockchain technologies has to offer.
Blockchain is a particularly difficult concept for those not in the tech sphere to get their heads around, but it is essentially a way to exchange data publicly. For cryptocurrency, it means that transactions using that currency are on public “blocks”, but can’t be intercepted and aren’t controlled by any one governing body, unlike the fiat currencies we use everyday to buy and trade in our home countries.
The problem with these currencies, is that we essentially put our faith in our governments to ensure they hold their value. As the inflation problems during the early 20th century showed, any country can hold itself to the gold standard – or depart, as best suits their needs. Cryptocurrency makes this unlikely because they aren’t controlled by any one governing body, and are built on a network of “nodes” which are computers that hold that information. While there is some doubt whether Bitcoin is truly untouchable, as many of its nodes are in China, cryptocurrencies on the whole have a huge potential to be the trustless system the world needs as we increasingly buy and sell goods and services globally. Moving money from one currency to another incurs significant costs, which can be eliminated with a wider adoption of cryptocurrencies.
In 2017, 6.2 billion dollars were invested into cryptocurrency startups alone, showing that many of the world’s top entrepreneurs and investors see a strong future for blockchain technologies and cryptocurrency in particular. Today, with increasing currency volatility and unrest, it’s likely cryptocurrency will be embraced even more heavily.
Cryptocurrency was not immune to the dip at the start of the pandemic – bitcoin dropped to almost $3,000 before rising back up to $10,000. The strength shown in bitcoin in this time not only shows that bitcoin is an ever-strengthening currency, but that all cryptocurrencies have the potential to be strong even in the face of global economic uncertainty.
Predicting the future of cryptocurrency isn’t easy, but Mak’s belief is that it has the potential to become the currency we use. In an increasingly global society, where most businesses work with customers all over the world, we need a currency that can eliminate the high fees we deal with now when converting from our customer’s currency into our own. While this can work in our favor if we’re working with clients in a stronger economy to our own, it can also be to our detriment.
To find out more about Kenneth Mak, his company, or his thoughts on the future of cryptocurrency, be sure to follow him online. You can find all his social accounts and anything else he has going on at http://kennethmak.com/.
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