Currency and the exchange of goods have been a foundation of human society since its conception. From the earliest ages of a tribe where you could trade safety with food, hunting for the group while being protected while sleeping. Moving to the barter system, such easterners exchanged their spices for clothes or fine fabric. In the modern world, with our coins and paper money as the standard for exchanging goods and services. You buy a donut by giving a baker your money, and he or she gives you a donut. It has been an established method of communication, trade, and connection that money brings all around the world. Without it, everyone would be in disarray, having no way of exchanging things with a standardized system of fiat. 

With that in mind, the technology of the current age has expanded and exponentially improved the system of trade on the micro and macro scale. For example, bartering with other countries through spices and fabrics has now become loans, infrastructure, and national debt. Hunting for your tribe for security is now an elaborate government, with taxes to fund the police and local safekeeping. With that, the ways to pay have also become technologically inclined. With the rise of smartphones and the internet, every commodity has reached a level of convenience that you’d be able to reach out and buy something without even handing a single paper money to the store. 

Loans from the banks are now replaced with questions such as how to borrow money from Cash App and can your friend Venmo you for gas money. Both of these things are called digital wallets, and let’s get you up to speed on what the craze is all about.

What are digital wallets?

As the name suggests, digital wallets come in the form of apps on your phones that could hold your money. Instead of bringing about wads of cash everywhere you go, you could have it within your phones, locked with secure biometrics and pins that you could set up. In other words, digital wallets send electronic money to other digital wallets in order for you to pay up. This also means that you could top-up your digital wallet with real paper money and convert that with your electric or digital money. This brings a level of convenience that conventional fiat couldn’t just compete with.

What are the features of digital wallets?

There is a reason why digital wallets have taken over the world by storm. They just have overwhelming benefits over paper money, and let’s try to explore some of them in order to get you up to speed on why everyone seems to have a digital wallet nowadays.

• Security – The most amazing feature is, of course, the added security benefit. Aside from convenience, it’s quite difficult for robbers and criminals to steal your money from a digital wallet. There are different security measures for each digital wallet, but they all have a level of authentication that can’t be replicated with paper money. This means that even if your phone is stolen, these people can’t access your money without your fingerprint authentication or confirmation through a call service. There are just so many layers of security that a simple bill couldn’t have.
• Availability – With every person that subscribes and uses a digital wallet, the more its reach grows. With that, everyone could use the same type of money and could pay for things and services wherever they go. This also means that it’s more accessible the more people use it, so the effects of using a digital wallet just grow further. 

Of course, digital wallets aren’t meant to replace the current paper money altogether. They serve as a diversification tool which people could use whenever a conventional way of paying would be inconvenient or dangerous.