Most of us steemians are, to say the least, very interested in cryptocurrencies. What are our motives?

• Potential growth of our wealth?
• Lack of trust in our governments?
• Facility to transfer money to others, to any place in the world with low costs and high speed?

Other then the options mentioned above, one of the most interesting parts of cryptocurrencies is the potential to use it in real life. How handy would it be if you can pay your Uber with Steem Dollars?

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I managed the development of apps, online stores and online systems in my life. Working on non-blockchain projects feels old-fashioned for me right now. I am working on an app for Android and IOS at this moment with a lot of potential. One of the aspects is in-app payments and payouts. My dream is to implement blockchain technology into it, but as we speak the market is not ready yet.

This is a checklist with some aspects that the market still needs to conquer:

Familiarity

The moment I leave steemit it seems like I step into another world where nobody has no idea of what is going on in the blockchain world. Even developers and programmers I talk with often have no clue of the possible impact blockchain technology will have on the internet, monetary systems, governments etc. Most people have heard of Bitcoin, but they see it as an obscure tool for techies. Right now some people have heard of Ethereum. But if you tell somebody that you can build an entire platform on a blockchain they have no clue what you are talking about.

How does this matter?

Would you like to receive your hard earned money in some type of unfamiliar currency you have never heard of? Probably not.

How can this improve?

By the looks of it the main stream media has not much interest in letting the world know about the details of cryptocurrencies. Steemit is an interesting development. Perhaps if Steemit becomes successful, people get more familiar with cryptos.

Volatility

Huge problem for implementation. The markets are still so young that the smallest things can have a huge influence on the price.

How does this matter?

To stick with the Uber example: Would you want to risk your Uber ride becoming 30% cheaper or more expensive during the ride? Guess not.

How can this improve?

The more people invest in 1 specific currency the harder it is to have price fluctuations. Also technical innovations, for example the differentiation between Steem and Steem Dollars help with this. Still a long way to go here..

Lack of a standard

As we speak there are 302 cryptocoins with more then 1 million Market Cap. Worldwide there are around 180 fiat currencies. With the current ICO craze this will not improve any time soon. The current standard is of course Bitcoin, but because of the technical improvements of other protocols this might change.

How does this matter?

To implement payments into, for example an Uber-like service. Both parties need to agree on what coin they would like to receive/pay. Many different cryptocurrency means much that one might prefer pay in Ethereum, where the other would prefer Steem.

How can this improve?

Overtime naturally the market will hover towards a certain type of blockchain technology, but this can take ages. The steemit platform can be a big step towards this, but as we speak steem has just around 0.4% of the total market cap..

Payout problems

For the near future, fiat currency like dollars and euros are the standard. This means people want to use there cryptos to pay for their day to day life. Right now, in most countries, it is a head ache to buy and sell cryptos. In other countries it is a bit easier, but still quite a process. Especially for non-technical people.

How does this matter?

The Uber might like to receive in steem, but this doesn't mean he can pay his gas and car maintenance with Steem too.

How can this improve?

Improvement in the process within exchanges. Most of them are made for technical people. Things need to be easy, quick and trustworthy.

Conclusion

Personally I can't wait to implement blockchain into real life projects. I expect they are here to stay. The problems stated above form a big problem for short term implementation. Step-by-step blockchain technology will be implemented into companny processes, but to see cryptocurrencies in real life soon (other then the occasional "we accept bitcoin") ..... I think, unfortunately, we have a long way to go.

My mind is full of great ideas and I would love to implement blockchain technology into my projects.

What are your ideas about the points above? What did I miss? What more can we do?