IoT Cloud Drive
As interconnected consumer devices become increasingly common, it’s only a matter of time before commerce follows. While entertainment typically moves the market, monetization is often quick to follow. This has held true in every internet-based movement so far, and there’s no reason to suggest that the trend is going to end now.
When mobile Internet was in its infancy, companies like Google, Facebook and Apple were the driving forces behind a push to speed up connection speeds and connect more devices worldwide. Revenue is a powerful motivator for change, and without it, the status quo would remain indefinite. The IoT (Internet of Things) is no different. As profit motive increases, adoption and roll-out will as well. In a future dominated by mobile technologies, interconnected devices, and the need for on-the-go payment solutions, the IoT could be the movement that nudges everything in the right direction.
Alternative Currencies can become viable
For all alternative currencies such as BitCoin, the one thing that remains a key roadblock to consumer adoption is accessibility of technology. Altcoins have real value in the consumer marketplace if the barriers to entry are lowered by ensuring safety, ease of use, and retailer adoption. The problem currently is strictly technological, but as wallet makers begin the slow process of integration, digital wallets could be the key to unlocking the potential held by alternative currencies.
Digital wallets for altcoins isn’t a new idea. In fact, several of them already exist. Bitcoin Wallet, Mycelium, and Hive are just a few of these technologies that allow consumers to store altcoins on a mobile device. The problem is, outside of a payment network that allow customers to use them, they are essentially worthless. While the technology exists, it’s a hard sell to get consumers to move to a single technology in order to store alternative currencies that they aren’t using in the first place. This is why digital wallets made by trusted companies such as Google, Apple and others could spur real innovation as well as viability in the altcoin space.
Linking alternative currencies to well-known wallet makers not only lends trust to alternative currencies, but gives retailers the option to process all of these different methods (credit, debit, loyalty cards, alternative currency, and others) through one piece of point of sale technology. This is how we can bring altcoins to the mainstream.
Reference: http://Reference: https://sites.google.com/a/utexas.edu/digitalwallets/secur
Alternative currency, or altcoins as you called it, is giving economists such a spin for their money. You’re totally right in that the problem with a full adoption of digital currency lays in the accessibility of technology. It would be interesting to see an analysis of how quickly first world countries would adopt a digital currency versus how quickly third world countries would. In a blog post that I made, I commented on how India is moving to digitalize their currency as well – which begs the question of still, how accessible can technology be in this day and age and how cost-effective it would be to implement this system everywhere.