The Democratization of Globalization

From Wikipedia we learn that globalization is “the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture”. Nowadays, from an economical point of view, it means that trade and exchanges in the world, interact and integrate as never before. Goods and services produced in one particular country are now easily found all over the world and multinationals own offices in many regions around our globe.

But multinationals have access to a financial infrastructure that not everyone has. Small and medium businesses have to function in an environment with trade barriers among markets, while the differences in currencies make international trading even more difficult.

That mean that we, ordinary people, can purchase easily a standard Big Mac, no matter where we are on this world, but things change the moment we really would like to buy products with a small regional market. Let’s face it: buying THAT special bottle of Tuscans wine is not quite simple yet. If you don’t live inside the boundaries of Euro countries, such a purchase will mean transferring money over at least 2 continents, 3 banks and a lot of forms that have to be filled in.  Not really an enjoyable activity.

It’s true. The development in communication technologies of the last few years make possible to know within a “mouse click” that such Italian wine producer has really a tasteful wine in his small cellar near Florence, you could even mail him in real time to ask its price, but then life gets really complicated.

Demoralized by the quantity of paper that you have to fill in to transfer your money to Europe, you will probably give up your purchase and start a financial savings program for buying  the flight ticket to Italy for your next holiday.

At the moment, the developments in communication technologies make it possible for information to be accessible for almost everyone in real time. In other words, the increased use of Internet among people supports the democratization of information. E-mail facilitated the communication between economic agents, but we do not have a similar tool for money value yet. Or better, we did not have yet….

Bitcoin made its entry into this world sometime back in 2009 as a digital currency. Many stories are told about its mysterious founder, but one thing is sure: Bitcoin is a concept as revolutionary as the Internet itself. Bitcoin opened the possibility for the last step towards full democratization of the Internet and of money transactions. Bitcoin is a useful vehicle to transfer value. It can move fast and safe, from one side of a continent to another by a simple click. It is easy to understand now that THAT bottle of Tuscan wine gets a lot easier to get. If small and medium firms will make the effort (like some of them already are doing) to accept Bitcoin in their marketing and payment strategies, than the chance to reach markets otherwise too far will become a concrete possibility. Democratization of the Internet will not just mean easy access to information, but also easy access to economical markets for every “man in the street”.