Money changed its shape through the history. As from non-monetary exchange to the need of having money. Fast forward to our current banknotes which are in my opinion slowly dying with bitcoin taking over. Many discussions are being held if bitcoin can be the primary currency in the world. Let's assume it can be. Everything has an end so what do you think will come after bitcoin? What will money look like hundreds of years from now? I predict its gonna be digital of course but I'm interested if its going to be a cryptocurrency or something else.
Back in the days where the medium of exchange was through the barter system, it slowly evolved until countries decided to have a universal currency and its value is determined by the number of gold reserve the country respectively has.
Currently, cryptocurrency is being used as an alternative payment to some products/services to merchants. But people are misunderstanding the hidden potential of cryptocurrency- which is the blockchain itself. The system of fiat may still remain the same but what makes it different is the adoption of the blockchain into our daily transactions.
Change is inevitable. We can never predict the future of the next forms of money. Bitcoin is still beyond the beginning, there might be upgrades and some changes on its mechanism but I assume that it will take a very long time for it to be replace by a new platform. We are really seeing a revolutionary phase of money form right now.
People argue that the next phase of money would be towards the e-cash system (which cryptocurrencies are the medium used). But this would take a significantly amount of time until it becomes implemented due to the economic discrepancies among countries of different financial state.