If we look at the history of money, the transition from 'Barter System' to 'Commodity Money' to 'Gold Standard' to 'Fiat Currency' to 'Digital Currency' and even 'Crypto Currency' to some extend is very interesting. Though it appears value is a form of perception, we were 'relatively' good from beginning to assign a value to something regardless the mode of payment involved. Often the case is that at group/person with higher worth in a transaction dictate the terms mostly due to the fact that they intend to keep the status quo. As part of globalization and the established popularity of Fiat Currency system, it could appear like a bias considering the markup received for high valued currencies. Existing geopolitical landscapes might have accelerated that thought. So, it is slowly becoming a need to transact without paying such mark ups where in everyone involved itself is becoming a stakeholder rather than customer of the transaction. Hence the becoming 'power to everyone' style of transactions becoming much relevant.
I do believe that Crypto Currencies can contribute to this to a deeper extend, may be even become the currencies of the future. Mostly system itself is in the path of rolling it out at scale. The scepticism regarding this might be similar to that of any new adoption. It could even be lobbying considering that fact that many big sceptics themselves are investing heavily considering the advantages of a first mover / disadvantages of a late adopter. Until the rollout is fully realized across the world with prompt regulations from regulators without hampering the original idea of decentralized money, risks associated are also immense. Does this risk outweigh the existing risks of 'Fiat Currencies' like devaluation, inflation, insolvency of big banks etc? I would like to think so, especially over the time with enough regulations and diversification of risk. Over time there could be a consolidation rolling up to few stable players like we see in any markets.
Looking at the advantages there are numerous opportunities. It is said that at present out of all adult population in the world 23% have access to no banking of any sort. Crypto currencies could be the beginning of unlimited banking across world, without banks. It could create access to financial services to unbanked, also with the access to global markets. And it will enable cross border transactions with much ease if alone treated as an asset class. It could be a boon to low-income countries with high currency volatility (especially inflation related using currencies with fixed supply cap, stablecoins etc) to transact with low remittance costs. Financial Corruption is something this could tackle in a big way, like influence of black money, bribery etc. Above all this could turn the financial world to a fair playing field by altering the necessity to hold large foreign currency reserves. Early adopters becoming whales is something to be worried about, but it appears just like a necessary evil.
Often sceptics points out facts like funding terrorism and loosing centralized control as primary negatives. That is something the root cause points to biases in our society. Without fixing these won't go away, period. System will always find a way to balance. May be Crypto itself is part of a solution to remove such biases. Lack of Digital Literacy and Internet Access is one major road block to wider adoption. Also, the power consumption for mining some currencies (process of digitally validating transactions) is also projected high. Over time there could be secure currencies of lesser overheads with energy efficient mining or even other alternatives altogether. Tackling Cybersecurity risks and implementing price tags considering the variability of currency pricing (without asset backing) could be trickier as well. This could become a perfect use-case for Quantum Computing which is emerging in terms of improving efficiency and security. But all these existing challenges might get resolved itself after a worldwide adoption. To add further, the innovations that can happen around 'Blockchain', the core technology that powers crypto is also numerous like smart contracts, digital record keeping etc. Excited to see how this tech is emerging and spreading.