The first big wave of mass adoption of Bitcoin will come from developing countries (common people, not corporations).
This is called technological leapfrogging.
It's a phenomenon where developing countries skip the intermediary steps in technology (due to lack of infrastructure and other reasons) and move directly towards the final step much faster than industrialized nations.
This is the reason why many African countries went directly from using telegrams and letters to using cell phones (they skipped the intermediary step of using telephones).
It's the reason why countries like Kenya and Zimbabwe went directly from being largely unbanked to using digital banking.
Right now, digital banking is much more widely adopted in Kenya and Zimbabwe than it is in the United States.
Countries like Kenya and Zimbabwe are far ahead of most western countries when it comes to adopting digital payments.
This was possible because it was far simpler to implement than expanding the banking infrastructure in a country that’s largely unbanked.
Once implemented, adoption came quickly.
In Zimbabwe for example, within a few years, 90% of the transactions happened digitally.
This is far more than any western country.
Similar trends can be seen in Kenya as well.
Currently, there are 1.7 billion unbanked people around the world.
Most of these people are from developing nations. Since these people don't have access to the banking system, they don't have access to credit which is essential for the growth of businesses.
Cryptocurrencies are the greatest innovation in the history of fintech.
Recent innovations in the space such as decentralized finance have shown that the modern banking system is nothing but an intermediary step.
It's outdated and will eventually be replaced by Bitcoin and other similar technologies. Developing countries where most of the population is unbanked will be the first to adopt this technology.
Yet again, they will leapfrog industrialized nations when it comes to the adoption of technology.
Mass adoption will start from there and spread all across the globe.
By the end of this decade, bitcoin will be as well adopted as the internet is today.
If you think of the current Banking system, the current monetary system or fiat currencies as anything but transient, then think again.
We humans have this tendency of viewing everything in terms of our lifespan.
So, if something lasts more than the average human lifespan, we tend to think of it as something permanent.
This is a fallacy.
If you zoom out and take a longer-term perspective, you will see that this system is relatively new.
Feudalism lasted longer than this and we got rid of it (for the most part). Slavery lasted longer than this and many nations got rid of it (for the most part in the form it used to exist in the past).
We will also get rid of the modern banking system, fiat currencies and the current monetary system all within most of our lifetimes.
They'll all be replaced by decentralized digital currencies like Bitcoin and other similar technologies.
We are witnessing history. Are you watching closely?
The author is a freelance contributor.