Is Mass Adoption of Crypto Coming?

There are an estimated 420 million crypto users worldwide. That may sound amazing considering crypto’s humble beginnings in little-known corners of the internet. However, looking at the broader context, it stops being so impressive.

For a technology touted to shape the world, crypto looks far behind schedule. The current user base accounts for only 5.1% of the world’s population. And when compared to other emerging technologies, crypto doesn’t fare so well.

For example, generative AI only emerged in late 2022 with ChatGPT. It took less than two months for the platform to surpass 100 million users. To put this in context, it took crypto 12 years to reach 100 million users.

Today, there are many different different generative AI platforms. While it’s hard to get an exact number of active users, it won’t be a stretch to say the number will soon surpass that of daily active crypto users, which had a 13-year headstart.

This casts a huge shadow of doubt on crypto’s ability to go mainstream. Is mass adoption really coming?

Eventually. But There’s a Problem

The simple truth is that the masses are avoiding crypto. Yes, there are times when public interest in cryptocurrencies skyrockets. But considering crypto’s potential use cases, this typically happens for the wrong reasons.

How?

Public interest in cryptocurrencies peaks during bull runs. For the most part, people are attracted by the record profits they see or hear about in the news and on the internet. Those who join the space at this point are likely only looking for the next 100x token.

But crypto is more than that. It is supposed to drive a financial revolution that brings power to the people and frees them from the censorial, discriminatory, and greedy mainstream financial system.

This illustrates a huge hurdle to mass adoption: the vast majority of people don’t understand cryptocurrencies. They only know of the speculative investment side of it, and even that isn’t sufficiently understood by most.  

There is generally very little knowledge of crypto among the general public. Furthermore, the user experience (UX) is far from easy to understand. Most applications have complex user interfaces and a steep learning curve. Mistakes also tend to be catastrophic, resulting in the irreversible loss of funds.    

If it were something simple, it might be possible for users to find their way around it on their own. However, blockchain technology is complex. Crypto, on the other hand, involves dealing with money, which leaves little room for error. This makes it especially difficult to drive adoption in a population that knows little about the technology and is being asked to put their own money on the line in order to learn.

Why Don’t People Understand Crypto?

The worlds of blockchain and cryptocurrencies are very complex. There are wallets, cryptographic keys, blockchain addresses, decentralized applications (dApps), smart contracts, derivatives, and so on.

Someone in the space, who is more often than not a tech and/or finance enthusiast, is already familiar with these. The problem arises in how these concepts are presented to people on the outside looking in.

The first instinct of anyone just joining crypto is to educate themselves. However, during this first step, they are immediately bombarded with technical terms, concepts, and processes, not to mention conflicting information. The language tends to be convoluted and unintelligible at best.

Some people will painstakingly work their way through it until they know enough. However, most people are easily discouraged. They throw their hands up in frustration and go back to the comfort of something they know – fiat.

How to Drive Mass Adoption

The number of global online banking users is expected to exceed 3.6 billion by next year. A big reason for this is that online banking platforms are very easy to understand and use. The crypto industry should borrow a page from their book.

Mass adoption means getting a lot of late adopters and beginners to join in. This boils down to making crypto easy to learn and navigate. So, it is time to invest in education and a better user experience.

This involves efforts to demystify the language of crypto. The space might have to ditch the complicated lingo and use terms that make sense to the average person.

For example, instead of using the term ‘wallet’ which everyone thinks of as something that holds cash and credit cards, why not call it a ‘Keyring.’ After all, it holds the keys to a user’s crypto.

New learning materials that make it easy to get started in crypto should also be developed. The industry needs more educational resources for beginners that break down and explain things so simply that even a 6th grader can understand.

This, combined with a completely overhauled user experience, is the only way that crypto and blockchain can achieve mass adoption.