Imperial College London recently released a research paper that points to the imminent adoption of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in mainstream finance. The report’s authors believe that Bitcoin already exhibits the core properties of money, and thus could become the de facto currency for global commerce within the next decade.

Despite the immense potential inherent in cryptocurrencies, experts at the university believe the crypto movement needs to return to its roots. These researchers say that cryptocurrency is shrouded in a “considerable collection of confusing terminology,” which creates a considerable barrier to entry to laypeople. Commenting on this problem, Professor William Knottenbelt said:

“These decentralized technologies have the potential to upend everything we thought we knew about the nature of financial systems and financial assets. In this context, we wanted to get back to basics: clarifying the nature of cryptocurrencies as a new kind of asset class, contrasting them with traditional forms of wealth, and classifying the main challenges that need to be overcome in order to drive their success forward.”

In recent months, both Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square and Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak have declared that Bitcoin is the future of money. As part of their study titled “Cryptocurrencies: Overcoming Barriers to Trust and Adoption,” the researchers concluded that Bitcoin and other cryptos were the next steps in the evolution of money.

Commenting on this conclusion, Knottenbelt also said:

“The world of cryptocurrency is evolving as rapidly as the considerable collection of confusing terminology that accompanies it. There’s a lot of skepticism over cryptocurrencies and how they could ever become a day-to-day payment system used by the man on the street. In this research, we show that cryptocurrencies have already made significant headway towards fulfilling the criteria for becoming a widely accepted method of payment.”

The researchers however tempered over-optimistic projections by declaring that proper regulations were required for Bitcoin to achieve mainstream adoption. Iqbal Gandham, the CEO of the eToro U.K., the firm that sponsored the research, said that Bitcoin still has a long way to go. He reminded people that the technology was only less than a decade old but that the regulatory problems weren’t insurmountable.

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