I think we are on the right track in regards to how do we mass adopt cryptocurrency and blockchain as a whole. I do think that you are jumping the gun a little bit. Let me explain. Yes its true that one of the biggest roadblocks is access to the internet. Especially to those in under developed countries. Only a decade ago the continent of Africa was estimated to have only 129 million users. They predict that by 2020, that number will reach half a billion. A half of the population in china already access the internet via mobile phone. In south america about 70% access the internet while much of the population use a mobile phone. And yes there are people like Mr. Musk will will figure out ways to provide internet to these underdeveloped countries. My point is that in the next several years to a decade, so many people will have access to the internet that it won't be that much of an issue.
All of these potentials that blockchain can do is great, and we can preach to people about it, but it won't mean squat if the technology isn't there. This is what I mean, (and I know this will be unpopular but), blockchain technology is so new that every day developers and company's alike are working on it to improve it. There is not much use case out there (a huge spike in 2017 and to go even further this year and the next) and really blockchain is currently just a concept, it's an idea. the very reason why most of us are in this space is because yes we believe in this tech yes we see potential in it. But thats just speculation. Now yes one can argue at looking at all of the use cases out there, like land deeds for farmers in ghana, or factom being used as a notary for business, or the use of certain coins for trading on exchanges (cough doge cough), but in the grand scheme of things, all of these use cases are being used by such a small portion of the world that it really can't be considered set in stone. These projects that we invest in is our way of saying, how does this project fit in the blockchain space, and what part of the puzzle is it?
So I'll say this, yes all of those use cases are absolutely possible and I believe that will see a future where mostly if not the world will embrace this tech, but we need to not just solve the internet problem but other issues as well. here are my 4 general things that we need to accomplish.
- Education- yes you are absolutely right, the more we educate people about blockchain, and bitcoin in an easy enough ways that are not too technical for someone who isn't so technical is the best way to do it. If we really want this great technology to flourish we need to educate people and have them decide if blockchain is good. Most mainstream people, the people that have only heard of bitcoin or heard about it on mainstream media, are the ones who can do most damage when it comes to mass adoption. Why? because most traditional institutions are hateful/fearful of bitcoin. They spread the FUD sort of speak. It is important that we are able to come up with a system that teaches people the ins and outs of what bitcoin and blockchain is without getting to technical or jargon filled.
- In the whole industry we need a better UI. This is vital for anyone that has no tech savy skills and they want to download a wallet, an app whatever crypto service without getting a headache from all of the debauchery that goes on. Learning about blockchain technology is tough as it is and it doesn’t help when these apps are hard to use. Everything about blockchain and crypto is clunky. What I mean is not only is it hard to use some of these wallets, but it's way too complicated to even learn about it. The industry needs to make it simple so that using a wallet and a persons public key is easy peezy. Anyone that is not tech savy certainly doesn't want to have to go through the process of using their FA2 on top of the long public address. Luckily many apps and company's are trying to solve this. eg coinomi, circle, snapcard wallet etc.
3.Proof of work sort of speak, essentially they need to have a more polished, finished project. This proof of work (no pun intended) needs to show the world that blockchain is not just a concept (because it totally is right now,) and come out with products that aren’t so damn buggy. This also means that security needs to be tightened especially with the exchanges and smart contracts. On top of figuring out a way that ones money doesn’t necessarily have to risk losing confidentiality for the sake of transparency. (which brings up a whole other discussion of, once that tech is out and settled, won’t all people, entities just use coins with privacy options. I guess it depends on the use case, and context and current laws that apply to certain situations.)
Truth be told, take a deep breath, prepare yourself, the king of all cryptos bitcoin is no where near perfect. It has the advantage of being the first one on the market which in turn created a philosophical vibe of what bitcoin is and what cryptocurrencies in general can potentially do. Potentially, the key word there, needs to be more firm ground to stand on so any type of investor whether it’d be the daily citizen or a corporation or even a government can feel safe that these products are quality and not buggy or a risk factor. - Death to the ICO scams. I agree wtih you that once this ICO phase in the industry ends, more traditional crowdfunding will happen. It’s no secret that the government really is cautious with ICO’s today. Why shouldn’t they be? It is predicted that over 80% of all ICO’s turn out to be a scam of some sort. These ICO’s should stop appearing once regulations are put in place by the SEC, while also the smart money that’s about to enter will eventually flux out the bad projects.
All in all, this is a brand new industry with brand new technology, adoption won't happen overnight. In fact I predict that the mass adoption won't truly start happening until 1. The UI is fixed. 2. It's not so complicated to learn about blockchain(education) 3. We need to start having significant use cases that prove that the industry is capable and not prone to bugs/mishaps (my so called proof of work). and 4. The scams that icos pull and also hacks on exchanges need to be fixed. So remember this is new disruptive technology. It'll take time, hopefully not too long so we can all retire lol. thanks for anyone who decided to read my long post.