Taking blockchain tech from buzzword to essential technology should
have a singular focus: Making it useful for people’s everyday lives.
A perennial question surrounding blockchain technology is: When will it make a mainstream impact?
Understandably, enthusiasts in the industry are anxious to see this
technology live up to its promise of empowering consumers, accelerating
cross-border payments and bridging the financial inclusion gap for the
under- and unbanked.
The reality is that today, its scope is
limited. From what little data we have available about cryptocurrency
adoption, we see that the pool of active users is relatively small in size and scope — largely millennial and largely male.
Related: Crypto could save millennials from the economy that failed them
Some countries have proven to be trendsetters; for example, one survey showed
that 32% of respondents in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, said
they’ve used or owned cryptocurrency. To put that into perspective, only
7% said the same in the United States and 8% in China.
In part,
this limited adoption can be attributed to the fact that today’s
products are designed for users who know what they’re doing. It’s
designed for people who know or are willing to learn the hoops they need
to jump through to take their financial assets from fiat into crypto
and back again and the benefits of doing so.
Crypto utility — that
allows people to use it in their daily routine — will come from putting
in the time to develop the right foundational infrastructure. This
infrastructure will enable some of the most powerful crypto use cases,
such as hedging inflation in volatile economies, enabling remittance and
cross-border solutions, paying bills, and charging for goods and
services as a merchant.
Stablecoins — tokens backed by fiat
currencies — are essential to that infrastructure; they create a bridge
between the digital and physical worlds, between virtual and physical
value. They make digital currency useful so that they can be quickly and
efficiently traded, exchanged, saved and spent — no matter where you
are in the world. They represent the promise of blockchain technology.
But
stablecoins won’t be useful on their own. They need a simple platform
that makes it easy for consumers to use digital assets. Many of today’s
platforms are designed for traders, sophisticated investors and
experienced crypto adopters, not your average retail users. Driving
greater blockchain adoption will rely on creating platforms that are
accessible and familiar to consumers so they can trust in connecting
their digital and physical assets. With mainstream consumers in mind,
platforms that obfuscate the blockchain back-end should be designed in a
way that is intuitive and integrates customers’ current digital habits.
Blockchain for business
That
last component is essential for building the right infrastructure for
greater blockchain adoption. However, it nevertheless requires a
business-to-customer focus, as well as business-to-business. Blockchain
infrastructure should be readily available and easy to integrate for
businesses.
In its most recent analysis of the blockchain landscape, Big Four audit firm Deloitte argues
that the appeal and sustainability of this technology hinge on “its use
of digital assets and the roles those assets will play in the future of
commerce.” To get there, it requires making crypto and crypto wallets
business-friendly.
With digital payments on the rise, both
e-commerce and brick-and-mortar — or, more generally, online and offline
— businesses already have to adapt quickly to new payment methods. To
incentivize them to see blockchain and innovations like stablecoins as a
compelling addition (or alternative), there needs to be the right
infrastructure, such as one-stop API endpoints so shops and businesses
can offer crypto payment methods without bearing a significant
operational burden.
Building infrastructure with B2B in mind and
creating the ecosystem to support it ultimately drive greater consumer
adoption because it means blockchain technology is available where
consumers use it, delivering portable, universal money that can be used
across business platforms.
The momentum is here to move blockchain
technology into the mainstream. In the same Deloitte survey, 89% of
respondents said that they believe digital assets will be very or
somewhat important to their industries in the next three years. Now it’s
up to us to build this technology to get the infrastructure right and
prove that blockchain can live up to its promise.
This article was co-authored by Lisa Nestor and Mary Saracco.
source link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-and-blockchain-won-t-catch-on-until-they-re-actually-useful
