What the Rise of Digital Currency Could Mean For You

Jeff Opdyke

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Say goodbye to George and Abe. Andrew and Ben, too.
After nearly 1,400 years of use, paper-money is fading away. That means the men who populate your wallet – George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Andrew Jackson and Ben Franklin – are on their way out.
In their place, a new kind of currency is emerging – digital currency.
You don’t see it yet on a widespread level, but digital currency is spreading rapidly across other parts of the world and will soon hit a wallet – and a cell phone – near you.

Living Your Financial Life Through Your Cell Phone

Consider Africa, for a moment. What Americans think of as a cauldron of famine, pestilence, corruption and genocidal war is also the birthplace of a financial revolution. You can see it in action every day at the Flomu General Store, in a village near Kenya’s border with Uganda.


Each morning, when the shopkeeper opens the doors to his cinderblock stall, a group of local villagers is already standing in line.
They’ve not come for the flour, the sugar or the water.
They’ve come to do their banking … because while Kenya ranks among the world’s 30 poorest countries in terms of per-capita GDP, it has become the epicenter of a digital-cash revolution on the verge of spreading globally.
Everyone in front of the Flomu General Store carries a cellphone and the store has become their ATM. Through a technology known as M-Pesa – M for mobile; pesa, the Swahili word for cash – the villagers are able to spend, receive and save money simply by sending a text message from their phone.
More than half of the country now uses mobile phones to complete some or all of their banking needs, and they are zipping among themselves a sum of money equivalent to as much as 20% of Kenya’s annual GDP.
The company behind the M-Pesa technology – a company we own inside The Sovereign Individual portfolio – hired the man running the show in Kenya to take the platform global … meaning that digital banking could invade India – one of the world’s largest cell-phone markets – as early as this summer. Egypt is up after that … and then the world.
Effectively, M-Pesa technology – and others like it – allow you to live a financial life through your cellphone, safely, securely and conveniently … even when you’re in the middle of nowhere in Kenya.

Technology that’s Roaring Across Underdeveloped Nations

I first wrote about the digital currency phenomenon in June of last year, and today various media outlets like the BBC are picking up on the trend. The British news agency reported just last month that “whether you want to pay a friend or your window cleaner, [digital cash is] laying that foundation to enable mobile payments to become a mainstream option.”
In short, digital currencywill girdle the globe and become a service embedded in just about every cell phone in just about every country in the world. By 2015, global mobile transactions could exceed a projected $3 trillion annually.
As in Kenya, the death of hard currency has already begun in some places. Payment by cell phone has existed for years in countries such as Norway and Japan – where with a mobile phone held against a vending machine you can buy a soft-drink without ever touching a coin or a bill.
And though most Americans still rely on currency, even in the U.S. most of the cash is digital already. Just one of every $10 exists as a paper bill. In other words, the vast majority – 90% of the dollars created – are purely digital.
Even the money the Federal Reserve has been “printing” in recent years is more ethereal than physical. Ben Bernanke recently told CBS News: “People talk about the printing press. That’s not what this is about.” It’s about creating virtual money that can be created and erased with keyboard strokes.
And, in a darker context, it’s the ability of government to track money flows.
For instance, one of the biggest challenges Europe faces with its current financial struggles is that Greek and Italian individuals and businesses are notorious for shirking their tax obligations. No one can easily trace the all-cash transactions that are commonplace in both countries.

An Enormous Investment Opportunity

A digital currency makes that much easier. Prying government eyes can see exactly how much a consumer spends and at which store – allowing tax authorities to compare an individual taxpayer’s spending pattern with reported income, and comparing a business’s reported income with the electronic receipts created during the year.
Like it or not, though, digital cash is the future.
It’s a global phenomenon, and an enormous investment opportunity.
Until next time, keep a global view…

Jeff D. Opdyke
P.S. Digital currency is just one of the trends I see reshaping global markets in the years ahead. For investors in the companies behind these “micro booms,” huge profit potential awaits. Not only are these companies poised for massive growth, they are also a critical step in diversifying your portfolio away from the dying US dollar. To learn more about the mega-trends I see on the horizon, simply click here.