Bitcoin Forum

In five years time, fiat currencies are no longer going to have any use as cryptocurrencies replace them. That’s according to venture capital investor Tim Draper.

At the WebSummit conference in Lisbon, Portugal, Draper was speaking with Forbes. Expressing his views on where he sees the digital currency market, he said:
In five years, if you try to use fiat currency they will laugh at you. Bitcoin and other cryptocurriences will be so relevant … there will be no reason to have the fiat currencies.

It is reality!

I disagree with Tim's statement here for one main reasons. Let me explain my point of views here. The first road block is the decentralization. A government may adopt crypto currency to be used on their soil, but they will never want it to replace their own fiat. They will receive strong push from the commercial banks for that because if fiat becomes obsolete, banks will become irrelevant. A majority of the industries are funded by banks so if banks become irrelevant, industries will be doomed, mainly the production sector. So government may adopt the cryptos but by not replacing fiat. They can co exist for sure.

I am crypto believer so I want cryptos to be adopted worldwide by the governments. But till the time governments can't trace or control the crypto currency, they won't be interested in supporting it. So what I see after 5 years is that, people will not use hard cold cash, instead they will use their bank cards for daily transactions. We will see an exponential increase in the usage of plastic money like debit or credit cards, but cryptos replacing fiat, is not gonna happen in next few decades. It will just become more adopted but can't replace fiat.

You have no idea about how powerful are country controlled moneys, just be realistic this will never happen in 5 years.

cryptocurrency will not replace fiat in 5 years. Most of the countries are not developing that much knowledge in cryptocurrency. But currently some of the countries are legalized in cryptocurrency. So it is not completely changed in future. Digital currencies available in all countries. But cryptocurrency is not possible in some country.

To say that cryptocurrencies will replace flat is a bit too much don't u think? Well without a doubt crypto is awesome for payment but don't forget when u sending those "cryptos" for payment, u have fees to pay. I know this fee won't bother rich man but not all of people is rich. You won't want to buy 4$ food with 2-3$ fees or more.

But there is still a long path to recover, it is almost impossible to replace fiat in just five years, banks will never dissappear from here and this is something that you should always think about.
Fiat is unreplaceable, no matter what, as long as people and banks, and of course, the powerful people who have all the money wealthy doesnt want bitcoin on their path, fiat will still be on here.
We are nothing to the governments, and we can not decide how long it will take to replace fiat, or banks.

I am less updated about the economy of other countries. In my country in the next 5 years fiat money will still be used. because my country is the 3rd country on earth whose technological infrastructure is still uneven, part of which is not affordable technology, so they can not use digital money yet.

Another Lisbon agreement. I hope this is going faster. People around the world have been exploiting paper money for hundreds of years. I'm very confident about the future of bitcoin and other virtual currencies! ;D

I agree with your statement, that the next 5 years crypucurrency will replace the fiat.
but I will slightly correct your statement, the next 5 years is a short time, I see from various challenges that can hinder it, that maybe not all countries will be like that, just some countries just like japan, USA. then what about developing countries and even countries left behind?

Do you think the Government will let it happen? No., though i respect Mr. Tim Draper but He is speculating too much. If Tim Draper's statement will become a reality, Regulation will be tightened just like how the Government Regulates the Fiat which will be more hard for the Commmunity to follow and that's for sure. The Anonymity and Security of using Cryptocurrency will not exists before of tightened regulation. In my opinion, Let Fiat exists and should not be replaceable by any CryptoCurrency, and Let Cryptocurrency be regulated and be an another option as a type of Payment.

Bold statement and while i dont disagree, i dont think either will replace the other in 5 years. I am guessing more like 20 + years but who knows

In certain area in Mexico there is one dissident  currency called TUMIN, people use it to buy and sale in the comunity except gas and electricity. I wonder if it can become a crypto since it is used regularly.

As much as I would like to see this one day, I don't think it's gonna happen in 5 years, maybe 20 or 30 years from now we will see a mainstream adoption in some countries. But honestly, the goverment will not allow to have a decentralized system replace fiat currency (especially if they can't profit from it), Central Banks will do everything they can to stop cryptocurrencies from going mainstream (they need to keep their fiat ponzi alive no matter what), and without regulations, the use of cryptocurrency in the economy of any country could have catastrophic results.
I can see cryptos becoming a method of payment in some countries, but replacing fiat in such a short time? its just impossible.

Well maybe he's right but I think it will still depends on the country. Some country are now being so delayed on technology development and were lucky that we are not. In my country development is not that quick compared to America, China etc. technologies but we are not being that so late on it still. So I guess before that happened in my country maybe 8-10 years from now. Not that yet too far from evolution.  ;D

I think that we have many more years to wait that to be happened. Because, still there are large number of poor counties in the world which are having areas without even internet connections.

Nope, it looks more like a joke. Implementing cryptocurrencies to the economy of a real country is very risky from the political and economical side also there is no crypto that realy suitable for it. It may take decades to implement cryptos to the normal daily usage.

No, five years later FIAT currency will still exist, and I don't agree with him.
How can he say that fiat money will be replaced by crypto within 5 years? while the bank has been prepared to deal with blockchain and cryptocurrency.
And you know? not everyone in the world has used cryptocurrency for their savings.

Not a chance!

FIAT will be there forever. Crypto could take it's share, but it can't replace FIAT.

If your prediction in the next 5 years bitcoin will replace the fiat, maybe you're too fast. It could happen tens of years, but seen from virtual money enthusiasts, it could happen the next 20 years.

I disagree with his statement because of some reasons. One is bitcoin is not well knowned in some of the countries in the world. Next is bitcoin has been banned with some of the countries. If you think of it, if crypto will replace fiat what will be their currency if fiat will be gone. And some parts of the countries don't have internet connection. How can they pay if fiat money will be gone? FIAT is very hard to replace since we have been using it for many years already so i DISAGREE with his statement.

Its right but I think will use cryptocards for daily transactions. I am crypto believer also and I think that the time, when will possible to pay by card with main crypto coins will comes very soon.

That's too early to think about the replacement of fiat with bitcoin. Just in five years time we'll be experiencing a large scale growth in the value. This growth won't lead to the replacement or overcoming the usage of fiat. This will serve as an path for an advancement in the everyday activity and to fulfill the requirements of growing community as it is not possible to fulfill the needs with the traditional system.

No way, Crypto will replace fiat but it will take several decades. Most of the countries are still in such economic framework where the primary stage of digital transactions is still a dream. I agree with Tim Draper, cryptos will replace fiat, but it will take several decades.

He's going to be fired by Jamie, is Jamie even reading this? Yes I agree with Tim it's almost a reality crypto currency are killing the market left and right. Plus even Google acknowledge that people are finding how to buy Bitcoin more than how to buy gold. People are coming wildly to Bitcoin and other crypto market and this will be a crazy years down the line. It's only a matter of time, we can see this happening right now.

but progress does not stand on the one spot, now exist meny new projects which allow to send crypto without fees, its the nearest future.

progress is so fast, that we really dont know have it will improve in the nearest future, but I think in the many area of the economy crypto will replace fiat .

I don't think crypto can replace totally fiat in next 2 decade. As there is alot of people in the world who are technological backward and not even have an internet connection (say Africa or rural area of south Asia). Even literacy rate is quite low.
In that scenario, saying crypto can totally replace fiat is vague statement.

you can pay with banks plastic cards its globally why people can not to pay with crypto plastic card at the same time.

lol, it must be a joke  ;D, world war could make his prediction true but I don't see there will be a world war soon. :D. My prediction even in 10 years crypto will not replace FIAT.

To replace fiat with crypto, first thing that is most important is the people awareness and its acceptance. Right now in my country only a few people say about 4-5% have heard about crypto currency and i don't know how much among them exactly believe it!!!
So replacing Fiat with crypto is not possible for atleast next 10-15 years. It may be possible, in next five years some part of the economy may shift on crypto transaction.

I believe very strongly in cryptocurrencies and the more time goes on, the more of a believer I become! However! I cannot see this happening, at least not in 5 years, I think the governments and establishment players will put up a hell of a fight before that will be allowed to happen - there is simply too much for them to lose. You can see a backlash happening in some countries, it might happen - but bit 5 years is not realistic.

Even though such claims might be still good for the moral of some people, they are obviously false, and even a great fool would realise it. In fact as long as there will be states, there will be fiat money. So except if he plans to overthrown the European Union and the United States, his claim is false.

I think fiat will always have a place. Governments and tax agencies simply will not accept payment in currencies other than the government owned currency. I don't think that will change ever

Same here, I disagree on what he said because there are still countries that are poor and can't adopt those things, if you think about it can poor people use this kind of tech? What if they just wanted to buy a small amount of goods/stuff? They will be doomed by the transaction fee if they have a small amount of coins in their digital pocket ;D additionally, the banks, there's no way banks will come into the end with just that after so many hundred, thousand years of existence haha

I agree with you. Governments don't want to lose their control on transactions made by people. They want taxes and they also want to be able to prosecute buyers and sellers

this is an extraordinary optimism

I think that a much longer time will be needed

It is one more report that should call up interest to cryptocurrencies. But this words more fairy tale than reality. Too many think we don't know about bitcoin and altcoins, too many data and info about all its benefis and ploblems.

AS minimum, there won't be such count of electricity to transfer all world's money via blockchain) Sounds great, but  unrealistic.  

I don't think that it's going to be true. Crypto will never be worldwide accepted, we will still need fiat in 5 and in 50 years as well

I think this will not happen. First there are to many billionaires that will disagree with this idea. Billionaires are to influencial that they will ask our government to avoid these from happening. Also not all people are open to this idea not every country has an internet connection and not everyone has a device that can access crypto.
 

Once my parents can go to the store and buy food without knowing how Cryptos work. That is when they will replace fiat.

Just like how most people don't understand the difference between credit and settlement networks (Credit Cards vs ACH transfer), yet they still use them on an everyday basis.

The only thing holding back Cryptos is user experience, but that's improving quickly.

It is possible! But I would wager that in order to maintain their own economy, countries will adopt the blockchain technology and create their own coin for their own country. This way, governments will still have some control like regulations. Coin conversions will simply be interchain exchanges.

I'm sorry, but this is impossible. Fiat currency will maintain its supremacy and never gonna be defeated by cryptocurrencies, I'm saying this as a big fan of all the coins and blockchain.

I agree.We may say that cryptocurrencies are popular to almost all of the countries but replacing fiat with it would may be impossible i think.Cryptocurrencies are not yet totally adapted by the government unlike fiat currencies who had already strong foundation and a strong bond between the people and the government.And people would still prefer to use paper money than cryptocurrency because they are used to before they were born.

Functionally, that is no different than the current system of fiat money. That's the whole point of the proposed "Crypto-Ruble" (Russia) and "Crypto-Yuan" (China). They might be moving tokens onto a "blockchain," but it's still the same dirty old fiat money, with no limit on money printing. They are trying to trick people into thinking this economic transformation is about "blockchain technology" when it is really about financial sovereignty and decentralized money.


That's my view. Governments would need to be completely abolished for fiat money to disappear. Governments can simply require debts and taxes to be paid in fiat money, forcing you to trade/sell assets for it.

I don't think it will happen. Do you think the government will agree that the fiat will replace by cryptocurrency. There are so many thing to consider before it will happen. Like the poor how can day adopt to this changes.

i think so these cannot replacefiat currencies

Everyone can only hope that happen!
It will be so difficult that fiat disappear totally anyway in such sort time..

Both curriecies in my opinion will live together in same time.

To destroy the fiduciary have to destroy governments, it will not be in 5 years, but in a few decades.

why would I need to have my simple grocery shop transaction verified by mining rigs in Russian and China?

No this will not happen. At least not in 5 years. It would take a lot of fundamental changes and i think it's simply not doable in such a short period.

5 years is a short time. But within 10-20 years it is quite realistic

It depends in which country. If the government of some country issued their own national cryptocurrency maybe yes. But there would still be a lot of problems. Can you imagine how difficult it would be for someone who doesn't know anything about cryptocurrencies, and maybe doesn't even like them to start using them on a regular bases? And in some countries there are people who don't even have regular access to the internet.

Saying cryptocurrencies will replace fiat money is a very big statement to make.

As I own a bitcoin this kind of topic is a music to my ears and would really love this to happen in 5 years, but the big question is will that crypto currency be bitcoin or just a crypto currency that every government will create just for the sake of using a crypto currency instead of a physical money? What will the difference be with the existing one?

I don't think bitcoin will ever replace fiat although there is a big chance that bitcoin will be consider a legal currency but maybe just an additional currency and not to replace or eliminate other currencies because of the fact that there is limited supply of bitcoin that will make it impossible for it to sustain the demand of the world unless only few or certain country will take bitcoin as their main currency but so far that's impossible for now.

if everything is set up, i think we can see crypto currencies will replace fiat and its not take too long to see this. the main problem is not every country is ready for the infrastructure that will back up crypto currencies itself and they need to build some properties to support it. there are many things that we need to prepare before crypto currencies can replace fiat and i don't think that the government will giving approve with easy before they understand about crypto currencies world.

Lol no.  This is just not going to happen. 

In 5 years it might be considered an actual currency(Probably not though) but it won't even be close to replacing fiat, that is about 150 years away, unless the coin doesn't make it that long then of course it never will replace fiat.

If confirmation is fast and cheap, why not? Bitcoin was always meant to be usable this way. The problem is cheap transactions are not fast, and fast transactions are not cheap.

It's too early for this case. In my opinion it'll take at least 10 or 20 years for cryptocurrency to replace fiat totally worldwide cause to replace fiat Bitcoin need to be legalized but there are a lot of problems that make Bitcoin still not legalized yet so I think 5 years is not enough for Bitcoin to be able to replace fiat.

That won't happen. He's right on cryptocurrency will be so relevant, though, but not to the point of replacing fiat completely. Not in 5 years.

I'm sure most cryptocurrency enthusiast also shares the same optimism as him on this matter. But replacing fiat, an official currency of a country, won't happen when crypto is not even regulated yet pretty much everywhere in the world. I understand that he probably just exaggerating on this.

What will happen in 5 years, instead of replacing fiat, is crypto getting somewhat regulated. Regulation is not a 100% good thing for us. Some country may regulate it loosely, supporting and paving the way for crypto and blockchain development. While the other ones will regulate it strictly and limiting development of cryptocurrency. Let's see how it unfolds in the coming year.

I am not sure about this, To replace the Flat by the cryptocurrencies all people should be using crypto but you can only use crypto if you have internet if that is the case. What will happen to the poor people who cannot afford buying gadgets and internet? They won't be able to buy foods because there are no flat money anymore. This is still impossible to happen.

you are right, cryptocurrencies aren't so widespread to replace the fiat, and it isn't comfortable for everyone...but as an additional currency - it is excellent)

I don't think that anything like this is going to happen but I can bet on the digital form of payment. Fiat currencies won't be limited to cash and cheques but it will change form over the years. It won't be any surprise if the governments launching their own blockchain based fiat currencies to take the advantage of the blockchain system. I also believe that in the coming years, cryptocurrencies will be mainstream payment options but it won't be replacing fiat in any way.

Five years? It might be too short. The government will not easily give up the pricing power of paper money. No country will ever. Maybe a few decades later, this will happen. Let's hold the coins first.

In the sense that countries wil start issuing their own state issued cryptos, I don't expect it to only take 5 years, that would be a dream scenario, in a more realistic sense I'd say 20 year for total replacement, we're still a long way from mass adoption.  

We don't need to expect so much for the cryptocurrencies because we can just have both of fiat and cryptocurrencies and have no problem because what is the sense of having no fiat or replacing it if we can just use both of them and get benefits from those two and have no problem because cryptocurrencies have their specific usage and as well as fiat.

not really sure about this.

theres my 2 cent about that
1. this time (until 5 years from now) not all people use internet
2. not all people who use internet use cryptocurrency

there so much time to integrate the cryptocurrency on daily life
but I think blockchain technology is so much powerfull for future of finance, theres why I am here.

just my 2 cent.

Frankly, I think in order for Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency to go
mainstream, it would take more than 10 years or more from now as
Bitcoin is still in its EARLY STAGES and still has a lot of issues to deal
with.

The total market cap of cryptocurrencies is only $240 billion, which is
nothing compared to gold with $8 trillion and and fiat at $30 trillion.

So in short, we have a long way to go in order to replace fiat...

it is not easy to leave Fiat currencies and replace it by cryptocurrencies, even after 50 years,
may be in the farther future will exist corporal banks.
 for cryptocurrencies by several law.

I agree with him on this. I dont think there will be so many coins though. Some will slowly die to 0 USD, and be removed from all exchanges. The coins that survive the next altcoin slaughter will rise a lot. Bitcoin is a different story, it'll just continue to be store of value...

I'm not sure that will be completely the case. fiat is still needed to run transactions with a small amount of nominal and also areas that are still limited by bitcoin infrastructure. 5 years is a short time and I still really do not believe that we will fully use Bitcoin in that span of time. it might rationally roughly 20% to 25% of the world's financial transactions use Bitcoin. Everything takes a process and we all know that Fiat has such an incredible power in influencing the financial system in the world. I am as one of the people who always pay attention to cryptocurrencies then it will be speculated that digital currency can be fully accepted in no less than 15 years from now. It is the most rational value to achieve the full growth of Bitcoin transaction users.

I think governments and banks will star their own and more efficient cryptocurrencies, suitable for specific needs, regulated. nitcoin will be a store of money for the rich people or perhaps not. And fiat will still be used, though digitalized. or more efficient government issued crypto with unlimited supply. crypto may be the future of digitalization. Not bitcoin as such. Bitcoins 80% is owned by 0.1% of the population, it is unreasonable for it to become global currency. Majority of people and countries would be left to starve. Like petrodollar.

Blockchain technology will be able to change the way current fiat system works, but it will take time to adopt cyrpto currencies by government and banks. People fear things they don’t know about, or are uncertain of. So they may resist this change for a while, however just as smartphones have become a part of our everyday lives, cryptocurrencies will someday become part of our everyday lives as well.

It might be, for now there are a lot of online shop and market that accepted Bitcoin for payment already. Amazon, the biggest retail online market is going to accept Bitcoin soon so I think after Amazon accept Bitcoin, all other online market will do the same and people can use Bitcoin to buy everything they need online. But to totally replace fiat maybe it'll take a little bit longer than 5 years.

You are right its not going to happen because its matter of not only poor peoples its matter of many countries which have not access to this technology and its going to take very long time even in developed countries if some one give statement its going to happen in next 100 years then still we can say its difficult and in five years its not possible

I don't think so,It will take more time to adapt into crypto but large portion of the world will use crypto currencies as governments are planning to create their own crypto currencies.

Their are lot of chances are there that to happen.Today the price equivalent to dollar of bitcoin is around 8300$,If it's further continue means,the bitcoin will replace the dollar.

I think that is being rather (too?) '"cryptoptimistic". Whilst the pervasiveness of cryptos is starting to be felt around the world, there is still some way to go for the futuristic view of a complete demise of fiat for the following reasons:

1. not all countries are at a stage of technological development that every human being on the planet will be using cryptos as this requires some form  of technology for acquisition and usage

2. a number of countries are resisting and will continue to. Even if the resistance will be swept away eventually, it is not going to happen in 5 years

3. even in more technologically advanced, forward-loooking, and change-embracing nations, the governments and regulatory bodies will not allow fiat to go away without a 'fight'

So yes, fiat may be museum items over time but not just now and not in 5 years.

why? because its so expensive?

I don't think it is that easy to replace fiat with crypto and that to in 5 years is tough ask but one thing that i am sure will happen in 5 years is that crypto would be as famous as fiat and would have double the investment that is happening today.Which itself is a great achievement.

I do not agree with your statement that fiat five years into the future will be replaced with bitcoin. Because the current bitcoin has not circulated completely, and is still plagued by unstable prices, some countries ban bitcoins. In the next 5 years fiat currency will still exist, there are still people who will use it.

I am in absolute disagreement with him. I think he will be the one at whom people are going to mock after some 5 years. Cryptos are just too inefficient to be used as prime method of settlement. Problems begin with transaction fees and end at transactions times. Who is going to wait for around 3 hours while making a deal to ensure that they have received their bitcoin. Moreover I am still not taking into account problems like deflation and lack of control on supply in Economy. Moreover Illiteracy rate around the world is still around 80%. What are the remaining 20% people going to use?

I totally disagree with Tim as it's next to impossible to replace fiat with crypto.But we can achieve legalization to most part of the globe and that will increase popularity and stability of the crypto. one thing which is also impotant is replacing fiat with crypto means losing control over crypto world and either government will handle or one community and both the cases will be dangerous.

While crypto might replace fiat money,  I'd just like to say that with the current fees on bitcoin it will likely not be the one that replaces fiat.  Several altcoins seem to have much lower fees and much faster confirmation times,  so they're probably more likely to do it even though they're altcoins.

In my opinion we need more than 5 years to replace paper money with cryptocurrencies. We have to persuade people and help them with configuring payments. Also, educating is quite important in order to prevent thefts and stupid mistakes.

I support bitcoin with all my heart; however, with all honesty, I don't think it would reach that point. Bitcoin has been every increasing in value, in marketability, and it's potential has really been off the charts. However, money, or fiat, for that matter has been in the market for years and years. Many people have come to use it on their daily lives in all transactions they make. Therefore, it would be hard to phase it out the circulation. I would rather see both crypto and fiat being used both.

cryptocurrency is the future of the world..

this may be true in some other countries but I think it wont replace Fiat in the near future because its too early for this to happen.

Theoretically this is possible, but clearly not in 5 years...it's too early...and in general the idea of repressing fiat sounds strange, I don't believe in it

No I don't think so, as time passes more and more people are having interest on cryptocurrency and more countries and establishment are adapting this coins on their day to day transactions yet still I don't see it has the ability to replace fiat as mode of payment due to restriction like the need of internet connection which would be quite hard for countries that dont have good ISPs.

That is not gonna happen in the next five years. Any governments would stand for their fiat currency no matter what. Your thingking is much too big. Things to consider to use cripto are fee and confirmation.

Right now cryptocurrencies represent a very small portion of the globaal economy, les than 0,5 percent. It is impossible to rise that much in 5 years. I think even 1% or 5% is very unlikely.

I think BTC will not replace fiat money. Probably criptocurrencies could replace fiat money in 50 years but it will be currencies like "criptodollar" ))

It is impossible since the people are used to fiat and bitcoin are just trendy to millenials. The concern will be the elderly that are used to it and it will be a hard time for them to learn bitcoin or other digital currencies.

in my country many do not know how to use bank cards)))
They can not understand what is a crypto currency
I think 5 years is not enough,  need more time

I am not sure that cryptocurrency will replaced fiat because these currencies never defeated and replace fiat, this will happened when cryptocurrency used as a official currency and legalized but this will take more time and support that’s why now time it’s not possible.

You are right this is much difficult that cryptocurrency will replaced fiat because this will take a lot of time to defeat fiat and fiat plays an important role to the people profit. 5 years is much time and i am sure this will take more time to replace.

No, I don't think this is real. The implementation of cryptoconversions in the economy of a real country is very risky from a political and economic point of view. It may take several decades to introduce a cryptocurrency into the usual daily use.

I am not in favor with Tim Draper. It is impossible to happen considering five years as a short period of time.  There are still many places that do not even reach by electricity and technology here in the Philippines.  That is only possible if all countries are already highly industrialized and it took many years to happen.