As an investor, I like simple solutions to complex problems. If you can make someone’s life easier and remove some of the friction between them and what they want, then you can probably charge a few dollars. If you can do that at scale and charge more than you spend, you have a business.
For that reason, I sympathize with people who look at crypto and blockchain and only see more friction. Wallets, passphrases, chains and bridges – it all sounds a bit complicated.
Those of us deep down recognize the technology’s transformative potential, but that means it’s our job to make it simple for others. If you call yourself a crypto evangelist, an ambassador or whatever, then the job is to make crypto as easy for others as it is for you. But instead of trying to explain and convince people of the benefits of blockchain, wouldn’t it be better if we actually made crypto easier, by removing some of that friction?
We are already seeing this in action. Look at Revolut. An intuitive app that successfully integrates blockchain and fintech into its operating system and offers all the services you would expect from a major bank, but faster.
The most impressive thing about Revolut is that it works just like a traditional banking app; with the powerful capabilities of crypto and blockchain all working in the background. As a customer, you don’t need to know you’re using crypto to reap the benefits of its ingenuity.
Part of the confusion people have about crypto is due to the number of speculative projects built on short-term thinking with no real economic substance. The rise and fall of the NFT markets was a classic investment bubble. The initial interest in digital ownership of art was quickly followed by market oversaturation and an inevitable market collapse. The loss of money, value, and time has certainly contributed to a sense of mistrust in crypto investments and confusion among consumers who may not have been aware or interested in the technology behind NFTs.
Compare that to using crypto to transfer money across national borders. Cryptocurrency increases transaction speed, accessibility of funds and reduces transaction costs. All things that people want. Stablecoins provide a robust anchor to traditional currencies and international transactions, and have shown resilience to the volatility that has plagued the market in the past. This is really practical. Once switching on and off the blockchain becomes a less complex task and the processes recede into the background, I believe that blockchain and cryptocurrency will become the standard method for international payments.
Simple interfaces that deliver clear customer benefits will help crypto and blockchain become mainstream. We have already realized the ‘quick wins’ that crypto offers – we know how to move money across borders quickly and securely, we understand the value of an immutable ledger. They are here to stay. What we need now is to bring the second-order benefits of crypto to a wide audience, without them even realizing they are using the blockchain.
Another advantage of the blockchain is that it does not discriminate. Access to reliable, effective and secure financial services could be expanded worldwide. Providing communities with access to conventional financial services that traditional banks are unable to provide. This is what excites me about this sector, and as an experienced investor in this space, I’m looking forward to it.
Imagine what these changes could mean for a small business, for example a family cafe. No one is going to be fumbling around with different crypto wallets while having their morning coffee in line, and no barista is going to spend their time looking for bridges and exits for whatever currency or crypto a particular customer wants to use to pay for their latte. But if a POS system did the work in the background, the system could seamlessly manage all conversions and transactions for a small fee.
It could become as reliable, fast and trusted as a contactless payment. It would revolutionize travel money, reduce costs for point-of-sale systems and speed up payments for small businesses. Not only would the customer experience improve, but the system could also facilitate the sending of money across borders to small suppliers, who would otherwise not have access to such efficient financial services.
It’s exciting to build a new digital economy, but we will only succeed if the digital infrastructure we build fits seamlessly with the world we live in and interact with every day. As an investor, I know that the crypto and blockchain economy has truly arrived at the point where we no longer notice that we are using it.