Is bitcoin poised to gain acceptance as an electronic currency?

Digital currencies such as bitcoin are about where the Internet was in 1993, shortly before it went mainstream and altered human business and communication forever, says Ajay Vinzé, associate vice provost for Arizona State University’s Graduate Education international initiatives, and an associate dean and professor of information systems at the W. P. Carey School of Business.

Vinzé commented on digital currency and the future of bitcoin in a recent article published in the Arizona Republic newspaper.

Everyone is testing bitcoin now, says Vinze, and he believes it has the potential to become the first truly global, democratic form of currency. Young adults who are comfortable with the digital world and change in general are among the strongest proponents of bitcoin use, he says.

Most people are unfamiliar with bitcoin and only a few mainstream businesses are accepting them as payment. “But once you see 100 million people using it, you’ll take a look, too,” says Vinzé.

“Methods of payment that would have sounded absurd generations ago have become mainstream,” writes reporter Russ Wiles in the Arizona Republic article. “The transition from barter to coins was the giant leap, and that was followed in later centuries by a monumental shift to paper currency. Recent decades have seen the rise (and, in some cases, fall) of checkwriting, ATMs, credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, prepaid cards, automatic bill payments, rewards points, point-of-sale swiping, banking on cellphones and more.

“People adapt, and they might just be ready for bitcoin.”