September 08, 2021

Imagining a global digital wallet and the future it can hold

By: Michael Greenwald

It is 2026, and Canada, the United States and Mexico are co-hosting the World Cup. Nolan lands in Mexico City from Denver, excited to watch the upcoming soccer match at Estadio Azteca. Prior to taking off, she’d already filled her digital wallet with digital Mexican pesos (PesoCoin) to supplement her usual stash of her USD in the form of a central bank digital currency (FedCoin), Ether and Bitcoin. She commonly keeps FedCoin for general transactions and because it’s her native currency, Ether for “gas” when she has to use decentralized applications (dApps) on the Ethereum blockchain, and Bitcoin for general cryptocurrency liquidity.

Nolan calls a car on one of her rideshare apps to take her to her hotel. The rideshare app she uses recently switched to a decentralized blockchain after countless cyberattacks and the subsequent demands from users for more robust data protections. Ironically, Nolan’s digital wallet and the rideshare app use the same borderless cybersecurity technology to protect from hackers.

Though people tend to think about conducting day-to-day transactions in a single currency, the financial landscape of the future is likely going to require ownership (and literacy) across several different types of money.

The multinational rideshare company that Nolan decides to use accepts payment in a variety of digital currencies and CBDCs — a concept that still raises hackles in many countries concerned about their financial sovereignty — so she can choose how she pays for her ride. However, local Mexican small businesses generally only accept PesoCoin, so Nolan came prepared. Of course, she could have waited until landing in Mexico to shift around her assets and make sure she had enough PesoCoin, but she prefers to take care of it in advance.

Nolan’s rideshare arrives at her hotel, and she decides to pay in PesoCoin. She thinks to herself: Our world becomes more connected every day, but why not act local when given the chance? Besides, her time in Mexico City will grant her plenty of opportunity to use the full capabilities of her digital wallet and the currencies within it.

Read the full article from Forkast.

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