Over the past decade, companies with almost no physical assets have turned out to be the most successful businesses in their respective industries. Bitcoin is leading the digitalization of the global monetary system and is en route to competing against existing fiat currencies and the finance industry.

Uber, Airbnb and Amazon

Amazon, the second largest technology company in the global market with a $544 bln market valuation, has been criticized as a bubble and for its supposed “unsustainable business model” since 1997, for more than two decades.

Eventually, Amazon evolved into the leading service provider in the international e-commerce industry surpassing the growth rate of Alibaba in the past few years.

Businesses like Uber and Airbnb that are structurally similar to Amazon in terms of their tendency to limit holdings of physical assets have greatly exceeded the expectations of investors. Similar to Amazon, Uber does not process many automobiles to operate the world’s most widely utilized ride-sharing and transportation network. Airbnb does not hold much real estate to sustain a network in the hospitality marketplace.

Despite their lack of physical assets, the three above mentioned companies have completely transformed their respective industries with innovative and truly revolutionary technologies.

Bitcoin’s digitalization of money

Bitcoin is leading a nearly identical digitalization process in the global finance industry and of money. While Bitcoin users can choose to hold the cryptocurrency in the form of physical money, the vast majority of Bitcoins are stored in wallets and trading platforms. Bitcoin transactions are settled in a peer-to-peer manner without the existence of intermediaries.

As prominent author, entrepreneur, and trader Stephen Burns stated:

$AMZN has almost no stores ?$Uber owns almost no cars ?$FB creates no content ✏️$BABA has no inventory ?$AirBnB owns no real estate ?

Bitcoin has no physical coins ? — Stephen Burns (@SJosephBurns) November 10, 2017

As of current, Bitcoin is being increasingly recognized and acknowledged as a robust store of value, a safe haven asset and digital gold. Hedge funds, institutional investors and retail traders have been rushing into the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets to engage in Bitcoin investment, which CME chairman Leo Melamed described as a “new asset class.”

In the long-term, Bitcoin will compete with fiat currencies and existing monetary, financial and banking systems that dominate the global market, and ultimately solidify itself as the global digital currency.