Is the willingness to embrace contradictions, and using them to seek new ways forward. eg: Einstein asking how an object can move while being still. Apple, an innovation powerhouse, with a CEO focused on "operational efficiency."A 2017 study showed the employees who embraced the mindset, who thought it was not just challenging but even a little fun to overcome constraints, were the better performers -- especially where creativity & problem-solving was concerned.

The Paradox Mindset

<figure><picture><source media="(max-width:600px)" srcset="https://www.incimages.com/uploaded_files/image/970x450/GettyImages-1256969659a_452042.jpg"><source media="(min-width:601px)" srcset="https://www.incimages.com/uploaded_files/image/1920x1080/GettyImages-1256969659a_452042.jpg"><img src="https://www.incimages.com/uploaded_files/image/1920x1080/GettyImages-1256969659a_452042.jpg" alt="Want to Be More Creative (and Successful)? Science Says Embrace the Paradox Mindset" width="635" height="357"></picture><figcaption dir="auto">Credit: Getty Images</figcaption></figure>And eventual failure.Unless you embrace what social psychologists call the&nbsp;"paradox mindset."&nbsp;In a&nbsp;<a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amj.2016.0594" dir="ltr">2017 study</a> published in Academy of Management Journal,&nbsp;researchers asked employees to rate their willingness to embrace contradictions using statements like:<UL><LI>"When I consider conflicting perspectives, I gain a better understanding of an issue."</LI><LI>"I am comfortable working on tasks that contradict each other."</LI><LI>"I feel uplifted when I realize&nbsp;two opposites can be true."</LI></UL>The researchers then asked each employee to rate how often they experienced resource constraints at work: Limited time, limited funds, limited resources, limited supplies, etc.&nbsp;In the meantime, their bosses rated each person in terms of overall performance, creativity, and innovation.You've already guessed the result. Employees who ranked on the low end of the paradox mindset scale struggled with constraints. When they felt resources were insufficient, their performance&nbsp;sagged.&nbsp;The employees who embraced a paradox mindset, who thought it was not just challenging but even a little&nbsp;fun to&nbsp;overcome&nbsp;constraints, were the better performers -- especially where creativity and&nbsp;problem-solving was concerned.Better yet, constraints often caused&nbsp;their performance to&nbsp;improve.And here's the best part.&nbsp;A study <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0021886319888267" dir="ltr">published last year</a> in Journal of Applied Behavioral Science&nbsp;found that "leaders'&nbsp;paradox mindset strengthens the relationship between employees' paradox mindset and thriving at work ... and&nbsp;is positively associated with employees' innovative work behavior."Or in non-researcher-speak,&nbsp;the more you embrace a paradox mindset, the more likely your employees will&nbsp;too.<h2>The Paradox Mindset in Action</h2>Sounds great in theory, right?But also in practice. I know plenty of successful startup founders who early on had huge ambitions and no money; today&nbsp;they're glad they didn't have&nbsp;the money to throw&nbsp;at problems or challenges.&nbsp;Even after they could have. Like MailChimp, a company that began as a side hustle on the way to earning over $500 million in revenue and becoming <a href="https://www.inc.com/magazine/201802/mailchimp-company-of-the-year-2017.html" dir="ltr">Inc.'s 2017 Company of the Year </a>-- without&nbsp;taking a dime of outside investor funds.Or take companies that relentlessly pursue continuous improvement. While they embrace rigorous processes and best practices -- why seek to improve if you don't plan to codify those improvements --&nbsp;they also constantly change those same processes and practices.Walk through a Toyota automobile&nbsp;plant and it's instantly obvious you&nbsp;can say, "This is the best way to do it" while still seeking an even better "best."Or take Apple, a company long praised for innovation,&nbsp;but <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0090261613000132" dir="ltr">also praised</a> for "intense operational efficiency."Yep: For people with a paradox mindset, contradictory terms&nbsp;like "extremely efficient" and "highly innovative" not only make sense--the combination is&nbsp;motivating and even a little exciting.One more example: Kind Snacks.&nbsp;Making chewy and crunchy granola bars seemed like a contradictory goal, one the company solved by using better (and more expensive) packaging to seal in the desired texture. As founder <a href="https://www.inc.com/magazine/201312/jeff-haden/kind-healthy-snacks-uses-a-different-approach.html" dir="ltr">Daniel Lubetzky likes to say</a>, why settle for "or"? Instead of compromising, challenge yourself -- and your team -- to find a way to come up "and" solutions.Luxurious and affordable. Rigorous&nbsp;and flexible. Business objectives and social objectives.Embrace a paradox mindset -- embrace opposing demands, opposing perspectives, and seeming contradictions -- could result in looking at old problems in entirely new ways.And finding solutions you never would have considered.<figcaption class="caption">Inc. helps entrepreneurs change the world. Get the advice you need to start, grow, and lead your business today. <a href="https://inc.com/subscribe?cid=dan905:660:s00:CTA_&amp;utm_source=paidDisplayOn&amp;utm_medium=edit%20article%20footer&amp;utm_campaign=dan905:660:s00:CTA_" dir="ltr"> Subscribe here</a> for unlimited access.</figcaption><div>Dec 14, 2020</div><figcaption class="caption" dir="ltr">Like this column? Sign up to <a href="http://www.jeffhaden.net/" title="Subscribe to this Inc. author's newsletter for more great content" rel="noreferrer noopener" dir="ltr">subscribe to email alerts</a> and you'll never miss a post.</figcaption><figcaption class="caption">The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.</figcaption><div>Read Next</div><header>Taking Care</header><header dir="ltr"><h2 dir="ltr">The 6 Emerging Tech Trends That You Need to Know About Now</h2><h3 dir="ltr">Expect rapid advancements in artificial intelligence and augmented reality, as well as big tech diving further into health care and consumer finance. Don't get left behind.</h3></header><figure><picture><source media="(max-width:600px)" srcset="https://www.incimages.com/uploaded_files/image/970x450/amy_463798.jpg"><source media="(min-width:601px)" srcset="https://www.incimages.com/uploaded_files/image/1920x1080/amy_463798.jpg"><img src="https://www.incimages.com/uploaded_files/image/1920x1080/amy_463798.jpg" alt="The 6 Emerging Tech Trends That You Need to Know About Now" width="635" height="357"></picture></figure>Thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, 2020 saw a decade of digital transformation in the span of a few months. Don't expect the pace of change&nbsp;to end any time soon, says futurist <a href="http://www.inc.com/author/amy-webb" dir="ltr">Amy Webb</a>."There were tremendous aftershocks that started to reverberate and change many different segments of the economy," says&nbsp;Webb, who presented&nbsp;<a href="http://futuretodayinstitute.com/" dir="ltr">Future Today Institute's 14th annual Tech Trends Report</a>&nbsp;at SXSW this week. At roughly 500 pages, this year's edition is the bulkiest yet. Webb says&nbsp;that the length primarily was due to the impact of Covid-19 as barriers to the widespread adoption of remote work, digital payments, and artificial intelligence seemed to disappear nearly overnight. The report&nbsp;highlights nearly 500 new trends, up from 406 last year.So, what's on deck&nbsp;for 2021 and beyond? You can expect further advancements in <a href="https://www.inc.com/magazine/201703/coeli-carr/getting-real-with-ai.html" dir="ltr">artificial intelligence</a>, including for health care applications like drug discovery and improving patient outcomes, but also in forms of creative expression, like in the visual arts or music. The move toward&nbsp;<a href="https://www.inc.com/eric-mack/a-cryptocurrency-is-about-to-be-used-around-world-its-not-bitcoin.html" dir="ltr">cryptocurrencies</a> and decentralized finance will continue, and the demand for digital collectibles such as <a href="https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/what-are-nfts-why-one-nft-recently-sold-for-66-million.html" dir="ltr">nonfungible tokens (NFTs)</a>&nbsp;will boom&nbsp;this year. As more nations switch to 5G, a wealth of new technologies such as robots, drones, holograms, and augmented reality displays will show up in our everyday environment, from shopping malls to sports arenas.&nbsp;What's more, algorithms will continue to score and rank areas of our life, from our sleep to our fitness to our "social credit score,"&nbsp;which measures your online activity. In other words, the videos, the pictures, the links, nearly everything you post online will continue to be measured by big tech.&nbsp;"Everyone alive today is being scored," wrote the authors of the report.&nbsp;Here is a look at some of the most notable predictions for 2021.<h2>1. Smartphones will be a thing of the past.</h2>The pandemic hit the smartphone industry especially hard, with global smartphone shipments <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/03/global-smartphones-shipments-expected-to-rebound-11-this-year/" dir="ltr">declining</a> in 2020 as both demand and supply took a nosedive. While smartphone sales will likely rebound in 2021, they will also have to compete with a new breed of smart eyewear and wearables that are entering the market. These include Apple's yet-to-be-released smartglasses, virtual reality&nbsp;headsets such as Facebook's Oculus Quest 2 and Microsoft's HoloLens, and a growing industry of wearables and "hearables" like the Apple AirPods.&nbsp;Webb notes&nbsp;that people are holding on to their old smartphones for longer, and are less excited by new features.&nbsp;"There are&nbsp;just not a lot of compelling new features or functionality that are coming and are all in one smartphone device. So we're transitioning away from that. It's a different paradigm, from a single phone to a new constellation of devices that we will either wear or embed," says&nbsp;Webb, who is a former Inc. columnist.<h2>2. The tech exodus and newly remote workforces aren't temporary.</h2>While Silicon Valley isn't going anywhere, there will be an impact as companies like Facebook, Shopify, Twitter, Square, and Slack <a href="https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/this-ceo-just-brilliantly-explained-how-remote-work-will-change-world-by-2030-its-next-level.html" dir="ltr">promise</a> to let their workers continue to work from home past the pandemic's end. Startups and smaller companies will likely follow suit. This will result in a high-skilled tech workforce now being more equally distributed across the United States, instead of just the Bay Area and New York City.&nbsp;<h2>3. Health care is the next battleground for big tech.</h2>The tech giants will make further advances in <a href="https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/digital-transformation/11-recent-big-tech-partnerships-in-healthcare.html" dir="ltr">health care</a>, including through wearables such as smart glasses and wristbands, and the growing smart fitness industry. There's already been ample evidence of this in recent months, including Apple <a href="https://www.imore.com/apple-fitness-plus-review" dir="ltr">unveiling</a> its Fitness+ service, Amazon launching a <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/27/21402493/amazon-halo-band-health-fitness-body-scan-tone-emotion-activity-sleep" dir="ltr">Halo band fitness tracking wearable</a>, and Google's acquisition of Fitbit. Webb predicts that big tech is influential enough to force established pharmaceutical companies and the health insurance industry to evolve. These changes are already in the making; for example, major insurers are already offering to reimburse wearables like the Apple Watch.&nbsp;Covid-19 accelerated the adoption of telehealth and smart fitness, so expect more advancements in this space from both big tech and startups. Also in the pipeline are&nbsp;further growth of at-home lab testing and remote patient monitoring tools.<h2>4. The "home of things"&nbsp;industry is expanding.</h2>The rising popularity of smart home devices and <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-smart-home-security-systems" dir="ltr">home surveillance systems</a> such as Amazon Ring and Google Nest has created a new "home of things," or HoT, industry. Google, Amazon, and Apple will be the major players in this space. But also forthcoming are a growing number of connected smart&nbsp;home appliances and devices, from vacuums to drink makers to a trash can that can detect an empty milk carton or box of cereal and automatically order a replacement.&nbsp;<h2>5. Antitrust action may fail to keep up with big tech's moves.</h2>The Biden administration is expected to ramp up <a href="https://www.inc.com/amrita-khalid/antitrust-tech-amazon-google-facebook.html" dir="ltr">antitrust enforcement</a> of big tech. But the report notes the ever-changing business landscape may be too fast for regulators to keep up with. Also, it's unclear whether some of big tech's most consequential actions (such as Facebook's <a href="https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/facebook-buys-instagram-for-1-billion/" dir="ltr">acquisition</a> of Instagram, or Amazon's acquisition of <a href="https://www.toledoblade.com/business/development/2021/03/13/amazon-quietly-began-building-a-grocery-chain-during-pandemic/stories/20210313012" dir="ltr">Whole Foods</a>&nbsp;or its moves to build out a digital payments, logistics, and delivery infrastructure) are illegal from an antitrust standpoint.&nbsp;"No U.S. laws prohibit being really, really smart," write&nbsp;the report's authors.&nbsp;<h2>6. Cryptocurrency and social payments will gain mainstream acceptance.</h2>The blockchain and digital currency made significant headway in 2020. Just this month, J.P. Morgan released a <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/jpmorgan-to-launch-cryptocurrency-exposure-basket-of-bitcoin-proxy-stocks" dir="ltr">report</a> warning that Wall Street is at risk of falling behind in digital finance, and also released a new debt instrument geared toward&nbsp;cryptocurrency companies. For 2021 and beyond, the report predicts that more governments and central banks will seriously explore cryptocurrency. Countries such as Ecuador, China, Singapore, and Senegal have already issued their own digital coins, and a number of other countries, including Japan and Sweden, are actively exploring the <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/sweden-considering-whether-to-switch-to-the-e-krona" dir="ltr">adoption</a> of a centralized bank e-currency.&nbsp;The pandemic encouraged more people to use Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other contactless peer-to-peer payment services. The growing popularity of online shopping has prompted a rise in "buy now, pay later," or BNPL, platforms like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/affirm-earnings-show-its-boost-from-bnpl-boom-2021-2" dir="ltr">Affirm</a>. Not only are people now more likely to shop or pay for things with their phones, they're also more likely to trust big tech with their finances. Big tech has already stepped up to the plate. Google last year partnered with Citi to launch mobile bank accounts and plans to add more partner institutions next year. Expect big tech to dive further into consumer finance, from offering loans to cryptocurrency.&nbsp;<div>Mar 17, 2021</div><div>Events</div><h1>Inc. Vision Summit: Future-Proof Strategies to Thrive in 2021 and Beyond</h1><div>A Virtual Event</div><h3>March 24 &amp; 25</h3>This gathering of entrepreneurial thought leaders will seek to help founders and C-suite executives from fast-growth companies looking for answers to today’s most pressing business challenges.

Research shows embracing seeming contradictions can make you even more creative--which could help you become more successful.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

Unless you embrace what social psychologists call the "paradox mindset."

In a <a dir="ltr" href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amj.2016.0594">2017 study </a>published in Academy of Management Journal,  researchers asked employees to rate their willingness to embrace contradictions using statements like:

<ul><li>"When I consider conflicting perspectives, I gain a better understanding of an issue." </li><li>"I am comfortable working on tasks that contradict each other." </li><li>"I feel uplifted when I realize two opposites can be true." </li> </ul>

The researchers then asked each employee to rate how often they experienced resource constraints at work: Limited time, limited funds, limited resources, limited supplies, etc.

In the meantime, their bosses rated each person in terms of overall performance, creativity, and innovation.

You've already guessed the result. Employees who ranked on the low end of the paradox mindset scale struggled with constraints. When they felt resources were insufficient, their performance sagged.

The employees who embraced a paradox mindset, who thought it was not just challenging but even a little fun to overcome constraints, were the better performers -- especially where creativity and problem-solving was concerned.

Better yet, constraints often caused their performance to improve .

And here's the best part. A study <a dir="ltr" href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0021886319888267">published last year </a>in Journal of Applied Behavioral Science  found that "leaders' paradox mindset strengthens the relationship between employees' paradox mindset and thriving at work ... and is positively associated with employees' innovative work behavior."

Or in non-researcher-speak, the more you embrace a paradox mindset, the more likely your employees will too.

But also in practice. I know plenty of successful startup founders who early on had huge ambitions and no money; today they're glad they didn't have the money to throw at problems or challenges.

Even after they could have. Like MailChimp, a company that began as a side hustle on the way to earning over $500 million in revenue and becoming <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.inc.com/magazine/201802/mailchimp-company-of-the-year-2017.html">Inc. 's 2017 Company of the Year </a>-- without taking a dime of outside investor funds.

Or take companies that relentlessly pursue continuous improvement. While they embrace rigorous processes and best practices -- why seek to improve if you don't plan to codify those improvements -- they also constantly change those same processes and practices.

Walk through a Toyota automobile plant and it's instantly obvious you can say, "This is the best way to do it" while still seeking an even better "best."

Or take Apple, a company long praised for innovation, but <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0090261613000132">also praised </a>for "intense operational efficiency."

Yep: For people with a paradox mindset, contradictory terms like "extremely efficient" and "highly innovative" not only make sense--the combination is motivating and even a little exciting.

One more example: Kind Snacks. Making chewy and crunchy granola bars seemed like a contradictory goal, one the company solved by using better (and more expensive) packaging to seal in the desired texture. As founder <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.inc.com/magazine/201312/jeff-haden/kind-healthy-snacks-uses-a-different-approach.html">Daniel Lubetzky likes to say </a>, why settle for "or"? Instead of compromising, challenge yourself -- and your team -- to find a way to come up "and" solutions.

Luxurious and affordable. Rigorous and flexible. Business objectives and social objectives.

Embrace a paradox mindset -- embrace opposing demands, opposing perspectives, and seeming contradictions -- could result in looking at old problems in entirely new ways.

And finding solutions you never would have considered.

Inc. helps entrepreneurs change the world. Get the advice you need to start, grow, and lead your business today. <a dir="ltr" href="https://inc.com/subscribe?cid=dan905:660:s00:CTA_&amp;utm_source=paidDisplayOn&amp;utm_medium=edit%20article%20footer&amp;utm_campaign=dan905:660:s00:CTA_">Subscribe here </a>for unlimited access.

The 6 Emerging Tech Trends That You Need to Know About Now

Expect rapid advancements in artificial intelligence and augmented reality, as well as big tech diving further into health care and consumer finance. Don't get left behind.

Thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, 2020 saw a decade of digital transformation in the span of a few months. Don't expect the pace of change to end any time soon, says futurist <a dir="ltr" href="http://www.inc.com/author/amy-webb">Amy Webb </a>.

"There were tremendous aftershocks that started to reverberate and change many different segments of the economy," says Webb, who presented <a dir="ltr" href="http://futuretodayinstitute.com/">Future Today Institute's 14th annual Tech Trends Report </a> at SXSW this week. At roughly 500 pages, this year's edition is the bulkiest yet. Webb says that the length primarily was due to the impact of Covid-19 as barriers to the widespread adoption of remote work, digital payments, and artificial intelligence seemed to disappear nearly overnight. The report highlights nearly 500 new trends, up from 406 last year.

So, what's on deck for 2021 and beyond? You can expect further advancements in <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.inc.com/magazine/201703/coeli-carr/getting-real-with-ai.html">artificial intelligence </a>, including for health care applications like drug discovery and improving patient outcomes, but also in forms of creative expression, like in the visual arts or music. The move toward <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.inc.com/eric-mack/a-cryptocurrency-is-about-to-be-used-around-world-its-not-bitcoin.html">cryptocurrencies </a>and decentralized finance will continue, and the demand for digital collectibles such as <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/what-are-nfts-why-one-nft-recently-sold-for-66-million.html">nonfungible tokens (NFTs) </a> will boom this year. As more nations switch to 5G, a wealth of new technologies such as robots, drones, holograms, and augmented reality displays will show up in our everyday environment, from shopping malls to sports arenas.

What's more, algorithms will continue to score and rank areas of our life, from our sleep to our fitness to our "social credit score," which measures your online activity. In other words, the videos, the pictures, the links, nearly everything you post online will continue to be measured by big tech.

"Everyone alive today is being scored," wrote the authors of the report.

Here is a look at some of the most notable predictions for 2021.

1. Smartphones will be a thing of the past.

The pandemic hit the smartphone industry especially hard, with global smartphone shipments <a dir="ltr" href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/03/global-smartphones-shipments-expected-to-rebound-11-this-year/">declining </a>in 2020 as both demand and supply took a nosedive. While smartphone sales will likely rebound in 2021, they will also have to compete with a new breed of smart eyewear and wearables that are entering the market. These include Apple's yet-to-be-released smartglasses, virtual reality headsets such as Facebook's Oculus Quest 2 and Microsoft's HoloLens, and a growing industry of wearables and "hearables" like the Apple AirPods.

Webb notes that people are holding on to their old smartphones for longer, and are less excited by new features.

"There are just not a lot of compelling new features or functionality that are coming and are all in one smartphone device. So we're transitioning away from that. It's a different paradigm, from a single phone to a new constellation of devices that we will either wear or embed," says Webb, who is a former Inc. columnist.

2. The tech exodus and newly remote workforces aren't temporary.

While Silicon Valley isn't going anywhere, there will be an impact as companies like Facebook, Shopify, Twitter, Square, and Slack <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/this-ceo-just-brilliantly-explained-how-remote-work-will-change-world-by-2030-its-next-level.html">promise </a>to let their workers continue to work from home past the pandemic's end. Startups and smaller companies will likely follow suit. This will result in a high-skilled tech workforce now being more equally distributed across the United States, instead of just the Bay Area and New York City.

3. Health care is the next battleground for big tech.

The tech giants will make further advances in <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/digital-transformation/11-recent-big-tech-partnerships-in-healthcare.html">health care </a>, including through wearables such as smart glasses and wristbands, and the growing smart fitness industry. There's already been ample evidence of this in recent months, including Apple <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.imore.com/apple-fitness-plus-review">unveiling </a>its Fitness+ service, Amazon launching a <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/27/21402493/amazon-halo-band-health-fitness-body-scan-tone-emotion-activity-sleep">Halo band fitness tracking wearable </a>, and Google's acquisition of Fitbit. Webb predicts that big tech is influential enough to force established pharmaceutical companies and the health insurance industry to evolve. These changes are already in the making; for example, major insurers are already offering to reimburse wearables like the Apple Watch.

Covid-19 accelerated the adoption of telehealth and smart fitness, so expect more advancements in this space from both big tech and startups. Also in the pipeline are further growth of at-home lab testing and remote patient monitoring tools.

4. The "home of things" industry is expanding.

The rising popularity of smart home devices and <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-smart-home-security-systems">home surveillance systems </a>such as Amazon Ring and Google Nest has created a new "home of things," or HoT, industry. Google, Amazon, and Apple will be the major players in this space. But also forthcoming are a growing number of connected smart home appliances and devices, from vacuums to drink makers to a trash can that can detect an empty milk carton or box of cereal and automatically order a replacement.

5. Antitrust action may fail to keep up with big tech's moves.

The Biden administration is expected to ramp up <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.inc.com/amrita-khalid/antitrust-tech-amazon-google-facebook.html">antitrust enforcement </a>of big tech. But the report notes the ever-changing business landscape may be too fast for regulators to keep up with. Also, it's unclear whether some of big tech's most consequential actions (such as Facebook's <a dir="ltr" href="https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/facebook-buys-instagram-for-1-billion/">acquisition </a>of Instagram, or Amazon's acquisition of <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.toledoblade.com/business/development/2021/03/13/amazon-quietly-began-building-a-grocery-chain-during-pandemic/stories/20210313012">Whole Foods </a> or its moves to build out a digital payments, logistics, and delivery infrastructure) are illegal from an antitrust standpoint.

"No U.S. laws prohibit being really, really smart," write the report's authors.

6. Cryptocurrency and social payments will gain mainstream acceptance.

The blockchain and digital currency made significant headway in 2020. Just this month, J.P. Morgan released a <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.coindesk.com/jpmorgan-to-launch-cryptocurrency-exposure-basket-of-bitcoin-proxy-stocks">report </a>warning that Wall Street is at risk of falling behind in digital finance, and also released a new debt instrument geared toward cryptocurrency companies. For 2021 and beyond, the report predicts that more governments and central banks will seriously explore cryptocurrency. Countries such as Ecuador, China, Singapore, and Senegal have already issued their own digital coins, and a number of other countries, including Japan and Sweden, are actively exploring the <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.coindesk.com/sweden-considering-whether-to-switch-to-the-e-krona">adoption </a>of a centralized bank e-currency.

The pandemic encouraged more people to use Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other contactless peer-to-peer payment services. The growing popularity of online shopping has prompted a rise in "buy now, pay later," or BNPL, platforms like <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/affirm-earnings-show-its-boost-from-bnpl-boom-2021-2">Affirm </a>. Not only are people now more likely to shop or pay for things with their phones, they're also more likely to trust big tech with their finances. Big tech has already stepped up to the plate. Google last year partnered with Citi to launch mobile bank accounts and plans to add more partner institutions next year. Expect big tech to dive further into consumer finance, from offering loans to cryptocurrency.

Inc. Vision Summit: Future-Proof Strategies to Thrive in 2021 and Beyond

This gathering of entrepreneurial thought leaders will seek to help founders and C-suite executives from fast-growth companies looking for answers to today’s most pressing business challenges.

Want to Be More Successful (and Creative)? Science Says Embrace the Paradox Mindset

The Paradox Mindset

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