I have been looking forward to writing this for a while now. The reason being, that different aspects of crypto are now becoming accessible to millions of people through established products and new spaces. The skeptics have argued that many of the projects that launched tokens and coins in 2017 and 2018 are still struggling to show the market what they promised to deliver. These ambitious projects, in many cases, have brought tens of millions of dollars, but the path to mass adoption is naturally a long one.
The crypto market is still in need of ‘killer apps’. These are the apps that will make the mass market start to use crypto. This would have to be because the service being delivered by the said app would be superior to everything they’ve been used before. Bitcoin maximists may claim that Bitcoin is the “killer app”, but in the arguments below, I will shed light on how ordinary people will soon use tokens and coins in their daily lives, without even thinking about it.
PAYMENT
Later this month, Facebook is said to be launching its own coin. This will be integrated into their advertising systems, messenger and WhatsApp. Rumor has it that the user will be charged interest on coins they have standing and transferring money between users will almost be free of charge. This is where Vipps and other banking systems will start to face challenges.
Another new project launching will be cryptocurrency wallets. As a new extension to Samsung and HTC, everyone who owns their products will be able to store cryptocurrency to their devices. This will also be a factor in changing hos micro-payments are done.
Speaking of micro-payments. Do you remember LightningTorch? The torch that went from person to person on Twitter with small and instant payments. Lightning is a scaling solution built on Bitcoin, which enables real-time streaming of money and has grown in popularity over the past year.
Gaming Loans
Recently, French Ubisoft has developed games based on blockchain solutions. This comes in the wake of partly large game projects that make use of non-fungible tokens. Take, for example, Cheese Wizards, which have almost became a disease in the cryptic habitat. For a long time I have predicted blockchains role in the world of gaming. It increases the level of personalization and the ability of players to make money.
Loans
Decentralized finance and crypto financialization are now here to stay. If you have ever heard of the Kryptografen Podcast, you have definitely heard of BlockFi. A centralized solution with a favourable interest rate offered to users. Here you can deposit crypto and get up to 6% interest,
because BlockFi lends this crypto inventory further, but guarantees for your deposit. MakerDAO and its Dai coin, is a decentralized solution, which makes it possible to borrow tokens with crypto currency as security. This project has increased its lending volume by 20% in each of the last three months.
Trade
Early June, Norwegian Block Exchange was registered at Finanstilsynet (Norwegian Financial Conduct Authority). This is so that they could launch their ‘Crypto Exchange’. The plan is to create a liquid market, so that at a later stage they could sell air tickets with settlement in crypto. The airline have become impatient Visa and Mastercard due to their high payment fee charges. There’s several large companies that now see opportunities in owning their own ecosystem or offering crypto payment. The examples are Starbucks, Krogers, Birks Group and Japan’s largest online store Rakuten.
The conclusion is we will see a shift in the next few years. From “early adopters” to mass doping in the crypto market. It comes as a result of better services and products, provided by both new and established companies.