Many countries have recognized the significance of cryptocurrency and its underlying blockchain technology and are attempting to establish themselves as global leaders by integrating this decentralized and revolutionary technology. The Smart Dubai program in the United Arab Emirates seeks to make Dubai the first city to be enabled not only by blockchain but also by AI and IoT by 2021, improving it all from education and health to transportation management and environmental sustainability. Smart Dubai also estimates that "by adopting blockchain technology, Dubai stands to unlock 5.5 billion dirhams in savings annually in document processing alone—equal to one Burj Khalifa's worth of value every year." After the Smart Dubai Office released an RFP, which included a large number of suitable candidates, ConsenSys was picked as a partner. Following that, the UAEPass was designed to work with blockchain networks. In July 2016, Zug, Switzerland, became the world's first city to launch a pilot program that ended the same year. It allowed residents to make bitcoin as well as ethereum transactions for taxes. On June 9, 2021, El Salvador became the first country to make bitcoin a legal tender. Although the US dollar remains the primary currency in El Salvador, cryptocurrencies can be used for all financial transactions. El Salvador intends to construct a bitcoin city at the Conchagua volcano's foot to fuel bitcoin mining. With its relaxed laws and license exemptions, Singapore is quickly becoming a hub for global crypto companies and executives. A regulatory storm looms over the industry in other parts of the world because of control getting away from governments’ hands and ponzi schemes. Thus, crypto firms like Binance and CoinDCX have found Singapore to be a sanctuary of opportunity. When the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed a banking ban on cryptocurrency transactions in 2018, CoinDCX, one of India's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, transferred its parent company to Singapore. Since then, Alex Pack, Coinbase Ventures, DG, Jump Capital, Mehta Ventures, Polychain Capital, and Uncorrelated Ventures have contributed more than INR 100 crores to the firm. Across all continents, Asia is expected to benefit the most from blockchain technology. In terms of individual countries, China (at $440 billion) and the United States (at $407 billion) may benefit the most from the blockchain. Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, India, and France are all anticipated to have net advantages of over $50 billion. The benefits differ by country, with manufacturing-oriented economies such as China and Germany benefiting more from provenance and traceability, while the United States would gain the most from its use in securitization and payments, as well as authentication and credentials.
Cryptocurrencies act as a medium of financial exchange for users across the world. It can be stored, transferred, and traded online. Crypto means data encryption, which ensures the security of blockchain transactions, where any transfer of value is immutable that is recorded on a public ledger. Cryptocurrencies are traded both through centralized exchanges and peer-to-peer (P2P) exchanges. P2P exchanges are decentralized interactions among groups and individuals, where users have access to their wallets and control of crypto holdings. Since crypto is decentralized, the world governments cannot completely control it. Therefore, it has the potential to remain stable even when there is a financial disorder in any country. In addition, P2P exchanges are more secure and offer more privacy than centralized payment methods. One cannot hack a decentralized exchange, while a centralized payment system is prone to exploits that would affect its users. Users can easily create a blockchain ID to send and receive cryptocurrencies by generating an alphanumeric blockchain address without the need to specify their real names. This is how the 'pseudonymous' feature of blockchain helps to protect the true identity of a user. These transactions are visible to the blockchain world through the public ledger, and the 'anonymous identity' feature makes them untraceable. Cryptocurrencies have high market value, and there are record-breaking price surges through which investors make a considerable amount of profits. The value of cryptocurrencies peaked at $2 trillion in April 2021 and $3 trillion in November 2021. The Economic Forum estimated that 10% of global GDP will be accommodated on blockchain technology by 2027. Only a few had strong use cases that stood out from the long list of over 4000 cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is the first and most popular cryptocurrency as it has the highest market cap worth $1.8 trillion as of November 1, 2021. It is the most actively traded cryptocurrency with a specific use case and has the highest number of users with 63.5 million users as of January 1, 2021. Some other examples are Dogecoin, Ethereum, Binance Coin, Tether, etc. FLO is another blockchain with a specific feature called floData that allows users to attach a message in plain English language of at least 1040 characters currently with a transaction, making it more convenient for the users to understand. Medici Land Governance uses the FLO blockchain to register lands in New York City. Cryptocurrencies are becoming more common these days since most companies are adopting them, thus increasing awareness and popularity. RanchiMall is a company that selected FLO to build a strong blockchain ecosystem. In their ecosystem of products, you only need a blockchain ID, called FLO ID, to interact with other decentralized users. One of their products is the P2P Content Collaboration app that allows multiple users to collaborate on articles using FLO IDs. The highest scored articles are further published on RanchiMall Times, where users can upvote them and join their web3 economic system. The former CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, launched a bitcoin payment ecosystem named Square (now, Block) that generated revenue worth $112 billion in 2020. He asserted, "Bitcoin changes absolutely everything, I don’t think there is anything more important in my life to work on." Other community tech houses like Reddit, Tinder, and Bumble are also joining the web3 system by incentivizing their users through crypto-based rewards.
There has always been a gap between supporters and critics of cryptocurrencies, but the truth lies somewhere between these two groups. The government of the United States and India are still more suspicious of valuing cryptocurrencies and they refuse to consider them as legal tender. Cryptocurrencies make it possible to undermine state authority by avoiding capital restrictions imposed by national citizens. A centralized system of cryptocurrencies could dismantle the financial markets of any country. Its network eliminates elements of intermediaries and government systems. Central banks will not be needed because anyone can create cryptocurrencies wherever they are. Therefore, the financial structure could be decentralized and the authority to either increase or decrease the money supply is not given specific group authority. The ability of cryptocurrencies to avoid financial authorities in any country can be a hidden benefit to criminals because it allows them to cover their activities. This acts as a loophole in the system, as it is difficult to keep track of every transaction on the network. A famous example is the Silk Road, where the Silk Road was a market for weapons and drugs. It allowed users to pay with Bitcoin. It was almost impossible for the police to track transactions, as only blockchain addresses were available for identity verification. Governments around the world are still trying to regulate cryptocurrencies. Over a decade later, no one has found the right way to regulate it in the free market. No one knows if it is the currency used for everyday transactions or primarily for investment purposes. Is it safe when we are in financial distress, or, is it not at all safe? Neither experts nor the government has answers to these questions. It raises questions about the usefulness of cryptocurrencies to governments around the world. After all, it may be immediately answered whether it is acceptable, but the main reasons for being rejected are as described above. There may be some answers to some of these questions, but a clear answer has not been found yet. If that doesn't happen, it will be difficult to predict the future of crypto for both the government and its users. However, there are also some positive aspects of cryptocurrencies that many governments and tech companies are aware of. In early 2018, Facebook introduced Facebook Protect and Brand Rights Protection to protect users from hackers. Facebook prohibits crypto companies from promoting crypto-related advertisements under the Facebook Project program. However, this ban was lifted in 2021. Cryptocurrencies like the Government of El Salvador, which announced that they will build twenty new schools, have several other benefits and this is done with the help of the profits generated by Bitcoin. El Salvador's decision to make Bitcoin a legal tender was controversial. More and more El Salvadorans are experimenting with digital currencies, resulting in a few dollars being funded by immigrants from other countries every day.
The crypto industry is growing at a fast pace with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Binance Coin being the leading crypto coins based on their market cap. Although the crypto industry is only a decade old, investors are interested in it as they see a quick way to earn profits. The crypto market does not have any regulations due to which its value rises and falls now and then. In January 2021, Bitcoin raised to $40,000 continuing its bullishness, it reached an all-time high of $65,000 in April. Then in July, it fell below $30,000 and currently it's being traded at 48k. This shows the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies. This market thrives on speculation but the increasing pace of adoption is a sign of industry growth. Many companies are gaining direct exposure to the cryptocurrency sector because financial giants such as Square and PayPal are making it easier to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. Companies like Square, Inc., and Tesla have invested $170 million and $1.5 billion in Bitcoin respectively. Apart from the good news, there are risks involved too. In August 2021, approx $252m of Binance coins, $267m of Ether currency, and $85 million in USDC tokens were stolen from Poly Network. Later a letter was posted on Twitter by Poly Network, that urged the thieves to "establish communication and return the hacked assets". A few hours after the hack, the attacker started returning the funds first in small amounts and then in millions. These security issues have led to ample losses for investors who have had their digital currencies stolen. While investing in cryptocurrency is tricky, but the good thing is that price movements are no longer unexplained or without logic. If one believes that cryptocurrency usage will become widespread over time, then crypto can be brought for a diversified portfolio. It is advised to have an investment thesis before investing in any cryptocurrency. Unlike other financial instruments, cryptocurrencies do not derive value from any asset and one cannot seek compensation from authority for any loss. Cryptocurrency is extremely volatile and gets impacted by even some tweets. If buying cryptocurrency seems too risky, one can buy the stocks of Coinbase or invest in an exchange like CME Group, which facilitates crypto futures trading. Investments in these companies may be profitable because they do not have a volatile nature like cryptocurrency.
The legal status of cryptocurrencies oscillates significantly from country to country. Some countries have placed limitations on how decentralized finance can be used in the virtual asset market and hence proposed regulations drafted in the crypto legislation. India is about to propose a bill related to cryptocurrency soon. This financial and regulation draft seeks to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India. However, it allows for certain exceptions to promote the fundamental technology and the uses of crypto. The PM of India also said that it is important that all democratic nations work together to ensure that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin do not end up in the wrong hands, which can spoil the youth. Though India has the largest number of cryptocurrency investors in the world, yet the value of their investment could be smaller than in other western countries. Cryptocurrencies have so far been regulated by the countries of the European Union. Recently, In September 2020, the European Commission released a draft titled Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) which states cryptocurrencies will be treated as regulated financial instruments like any other firm holding or trading. Moreover, the draft also adopts comprehensive legislation on different types of crypto-tokens, including crypto-assets, e-money tokens, etc. Unlike other countries, the United Kingdom does not have a complete framework for crypto regulations. However, under the current law, the Financial Conduct Authority(FCA) is the supreme body that grants licenses to authorized digital currency-related businesses. Although the UK gains taxes from crypto-trading as it would gain from other currencies, FCA is completely aware of the potential risks of cryptocurrencies and hence it periodically issued warnings to the crypto investors. In February 2020, The Financial Services Regulatory Authority expanded its guidance of crypto-assets regulations in Abu Dhabi. The amendments change the terminology used in the framework from “crypto-asset” to “virtual asset,” a change that aligns with the descriptions of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The FATF recommendations are an international standard for regulation of crypto assets such as KYC requirements, fraud prevention rules, anti-money laundering, sanctions, and screening, etc. Moreover, On November 2, 2020, The Reserve Bank of Australia (the RBA) announced its partnership with two private Australian banks and a blockchain technology company, Perpetual and ConsenSys Software, to research a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) using blockchain. The Assistant Governor of RBA, Michele Bullock said that the goals of the project are to explore efficiency and mark digital currency to be subject to regulation in the country. Likewise, different countries have their way of adopting cryptocurrencies.