Cryptocurrencies are the “next natural step” for the global economy, academics from Imperial College London have claimed in a new report that suggests people could be paying for their weekly shop in Bitcoin within a decade.The study, commissioned by cryptocurrency exchange eToro, presents research from Professor William Knottenbelt and Dr Zeynup Gurguc, who claim that digital coins like Bitcoin or Ethereum have already passed one of the three fundamental tests to become a bona fide currency: acting as a store of value. They suggest that it is possible that digital coins like Bitcoin could soon fulfil the two remaining roles necessary to become a legitimate currency,  such as becoming a medium of exchange by making it easy for people to exchange goods and services and also prove it can be used as a unit of account, acting as a measure of value in the economic system.