In a new research report, German multinational banking giant Deutsche Bank said that digital currencies have a huge potential to become mainstream in the next two years and to eventually replace cash.
“We believe a new digital currency could become mainstream within the next two years. In the long run, a digital currency could eventually replace cash,” the report read.
The study considered Facebook’s Libra and China’s planned digital currency among the main contestants for a mainstream digital currency due to the potential number of users that are expected to use these cryptos once they launch. Facebook has nearly 2.5 billion users or one-third of the world’s population and China’s population is already over 1.4 billion.
Facebook announced its proposed cryptocurrency and payment system Libra in June 2019. The launch was initially slated for early 2020 but the researchers believe it might not be ready until later or end of the year.
On the other hand, China is also progressing in its central bank digital currency effort. Just recently, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) announced that it has completed the top-layer design and joint testing of its planned central bank digital currency (CBDC). Deutsche Bank expects a pilot launch of the project by the end of this year.
“If this materialises as expected, China will become the first major economy to use a digital currency. That will pressure other countries to set up their own digital currencies. A government-issued digital currency could be a powerful political and economic tool for China," the report said.
The bank emphasized that we are currently in the early days of the change, but said that if this trend continues, there could be two hundred million blockchain wallet users by 2030.
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