Blockchain technology came into the centre of attention as Bitcoin rose the popularity charts. The idea of decentralization backed by technology seemed a perfect match, however even after a decade, the adoption levels are nowhere near the hype that the technology has created over the years. Surely major tech firms like IBM, Amazon, and Facebook are testing pilot projects based on blockchain, but even those projects are mostly in the test phase and do not guarantee a widespread adoption.
So, what is the main cause of such a curtailed reach of the technology which is being seen as an important tool for the next industrial revolution? The success of any new product or technology depends on the ease with which consumers can use it in their day-to-day life. There are many crypto and blockchain-focused consumer applications, be it trading applications or numerous crypto wallets or the emerging sector for Dapps. But a closer look reveals a different picture altogether. Consider the Dapp market, there are a total of 2,667 Dapps online with a combined daily active user count of 122k. The daily transaction volume on these applications is merely 21.59 million, which is quite insignificant if we look at the trading volumes of each cryptocurrency.
Looking at this figure there is definitely a ton of development and product creation going on, but the users are missing. This can be attributed to the fact that dApps are built on multiple blockchains like Ethereum, EOS, ONT etc, therefore, users have to figure their way through specific gateways of different blockchain to access the services. There isn’t simple access to cryptos and apps due to their fragmentation on blockchain platforms. Likewise, the payment experience via cryptocurrency leaves a lot to be desired, especially of different blockchains. A research conducted by FIO (Foundation for Interwallet Operability) suggested that even in 2019, 60 per cent of crypto users hesitate payment through bitcoin.
At the same time, as an end-user, one only looks for their own benefit and compatibility rather than the intention of the makers. Thus, even though most of the crypto applications are quite novel in their approach they are not able to attract the users to their platform, mainly because most of them are not able to connect and decide why they should use that particular application.
Traditionally, most projects set out to solve particular inadequacies of the blockchain experience. Centrality project, for example, is building an all-in-one library of tools for developers & businesses to create high-quality decentralized applications, solving the issue of development complexity. imToken, in addition to the digital asset storage solution, provides an in-wallet browser of imToken-built as well as third-party partner DApps for user communities of various blockchains. For payments, leading exchanges like Coinbase, amongst many, are contributing to the acceleration of crypto adoption by empowering users to seamlessly trade across borders while simplifying crypto integration for businesses.
Recently, many newer projects are also working to address multiple barriers to blockchain adoption through comprehensive product ecosystems. For instance, Infinito project currently provides a 4-product ecosystem to address 3 key pain points to adoption: inaccessibility, complicated usage, & poor payment experience. The company offers a multi-asset wallet solution with built-in DApp browser to let end-users easily use blockchain assets & services. At the same time, it also provides a modular development platform to simplify the creation of decentralized applications. They also seem to be building a complimentary payment platform to help users pay easily in any currency while businesses can receive payments in their preferred cryptos & means.
Similarly, other new startups such as IDAP Global has also launched a complete investment-focused ecosystem for crypto assets including trading instruments and ICO incubation. If we look at the crypto space itself, many crypto tokens, be it Bitcoin Cash or TRON started out as a mere token of exchange and has gradually shifted towards an ecosystem of their own, focusing on finance and entertainment. On the other hand, Ripple is dedicated to creating blockchain-based banking solutions and currently boasts of more than 200 banking partners which consist of both commercials as well as central banks around the globe.
The Changing Trends in Decentralized Space
Bitcoin’s inception brought in the concept of the decentralized financial system, while the smart contracts and Dapps brought in the applications of Blockchain technology. After a decade worth of time, now that the technology has established itself as a credible force, where most of the countries and tech giants are looking to harness it in one way or the other, the next focus is on the usability.
Usability can come in the form of traditional banks using blockchain-based decentralized systems to facilitate faster transactions at minimal costs. Many banks around the world have already partnered with the Ripple network to use their banking solutions to facilitate much better services than the traditional system.
Seoul based university is using the public blockchain to put students Diploma and college degrees on a blockchain. IBM tested its blockchain-based supply-chain network by transferring a container full of mandarine oranges from China to Singapore. As we can see, the usability is there, it only needs to be packaged in a way that it appeals to the laymen. The only barrier is the mass appeal, which should not be a big concern given how new the tech is and by virtue of human behaviour any new tech be it the World Wide Internet or the online retail markets has to face a few roadblocks in its early phase.
In the coming years, the crusaders of the blockchain space would focus on catering to the masses as the foundations have already been laid. As the inflow of traditional players surges and the technology reaches to a wider audience base, Blockchain Technology would become more mainstream.