The New Economy of Technology: How 1s and 0s Will Soon Rule the World

To say we’ve well and truly entered the digital age is a bit of an understatement. The truth is we passed that threshold many years ago, but it is only now that we’re beginning to fully understand and appreciate just how much digital technology has invaded every single aspect of modern life. Still, nowhere has it had a bigger impact than in the world’s economy, and without a doubt, this is also the area where it is poised to have the biggest impact in the future. In fact, the only real question is whether this impact will have an overall positive or negative effect on the average individual and the world economy in general.

You only need to take a quick glance at what has been happening on Wall Street over the past year or so to understand just how much technology is already driving the world’s economy. The world’s five most valuable publicly traded companies in terms of market value are all tech companies. Apple is still in lead with a total market value quickly approaching $1 trillion, but Microsoft, Amazon and Google’s parent company Alphabet are all fairly close behind. Even Facebook still comes in at number five despite recently seeing its stock drop by 20 percent in a single day resulting in a total market value loss of over $120 billion. Tech stocks also continue to be among the year’s best performing stocks—with companies like Amazon more than doubling its value and Netflix seeing a gain of more than 90 percent.

Moreover, it is now easier than ever for the average individual to use technology to their advantage when playing the market. Whether it is finding an online stock broker or signing up with a valuable and reliable spread betting platform to enable you easy access to the market—technology is dramatically changing the number and makeup of investors.

Still, it’s not just on Wall Street that tech is rapidly transforming the world’s economy. In fact, you’ve probably been living under a rock if you’re not at least partially familiar with Bitcoin, Ethereum and other so-called cryptocurrencies. Despite some rough times for the digital currency market over the past few months, there is no doubt that cryptocurrencies are finally beginning to go mainstream. Already more and more countries are beginning to regulate their investment, and some governments have even begun considering investing in the digital currency market themselves.

As this digital currency revolution continues, it will only help to certify technology as the true driver of the world economy and financial markets. Nonetheless, this slow creep of digital technology looks set to transform not only finance, but potentially world governments as well. The blockchain technology behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies promises great things in terms of accountability, and already Russia, China and other countries have been discussing implementing blockchain into their own financial systems in an effort to combat corruption and money laundering.

Only recently the Agricultural Bank of China, one of the country’s four major banks, issued its first loan using blockchain technology. The bank has plans to further implement blockchain into its loan issuing process over the next few years with the goal of streamlining the process by ensuring both the bank and borrower are constantly kept up to date. As well, the use of blockchain should hopefully help prevent individuals from applying for multiple loans using the same piece of land or other property as collateral.

Blockchain could also soon be used to help make digital voting more secure and also in countless ways that haven’t even been dreamt of yet. All of these factors definitely show the huge impact technology will have on the world’s financial markets, economy, government, etc. Unfortunately, hacking remains a huge problem in today’s world and likely will remain so going into the future. In this sense, one has to wonder if things aren’t potentially moving too fast.

After all, many tech stocks continue to perform well without having many real gains to show, but how long can this last? Similarly, the dramatic drop in Bitcoin prices has shown that digital currencies are just as volatile as many experts have long warned. Still, there is no stemming the tide of technology, which means that these are just a few of the questions that we need answered before it becomes too late.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes.