AUSTIN, Texas -- SXSW is spending time talking about the future of money. Cryptocurrencies could change value the way consumers pay, allocate and determine value.

“(Money is) something that we use to keep track of value, and we use as a tool to create an economy and to trade and to make payments and financially transact," said Neha Narula, director of the Digital Currency Initiative at the MIT Media Lab. "Money is really a story that we tell each other. Money has value because we all think it has value.”

When Bitcoin first emerged in 2009, it disrupted consumers' traditional ways of thinking about money. Cryptocurrency is a form of virtual currency with no financial backing or controlling authority, like the Federal Reserve. Cryptocurrencies use cryptography, the study of how to secure information, in this case use software to secure transactions in place of banks. 

“Cryptocurrencies are making us realize that, 'Hey, money doesn’t have to work the way that it has for the past 500 years,'" said Narula, who is a computer scientist. "Money could be a little bit different, money could be something more digital, that’s more sort of directly connected to software. Money can be programmable, there could be contracts that are a part of money.”

Wednesday, at a SXSW event with hundreds in attendance, computer scientist Narula drew parallels of potential between the internet and cryptocurrency. She said scientists in the 1970s could not necessarily say that in the future of the internet there would be services like Netflix or Soundcloud. 

“What the internet did for communication and for information, this technology might do for the transfer of value and for financial transactions, so the possibilities of that are endless,” Narula said. 

What those possibilities will be exactly can be difficult to predict. Bitcoin is currently equal to $8,000, and had a peak of about $20,000 last year. This is risky and unchartered digital territory, and where the fear of missing out on the hype could make consumers lose sight of what is more valuable. 

“This is a very powerful technology that could really change our world in a lot of different ways," Narula said. "It’s not necessarily all about just buying the next token or coin that's going to skyrocket.”

She said while it might end up that cryptocurrencies become worthless or will not be adopted as a global currency, financial institutions may be motivated to rethink fees and the lack of access.