This year I’ve seen a number of tokenized offerings hitting the funding trail which claim to be about to change the whole nature of how we all engage with crypto. I don’t mean because of the uniqueness of their product or service (because of course that’s always unique!) but because of the resulting influence they will have on the growth of markets. To some extent, this is entirely credible.
One of these offerings, a crypto-based bank, seeks to create an ecosystem where third-party financial companies will swim freely, engaging with the customers of the bank in providing secondary services. The new bank doesn’t want to stretch to such services, and sees an income stream from charging commission to the third parties. Meanwhile customers get a broader palette of things to spend their cryptocurrency on, rather like going to the shopping mall, rather than one specific store.
The model makes sense. Think of another example, a travel and holiday booking website. That’s the core of what the new enterprise will offer – with a twist of course – so why not hook in other businesses such as airlines? Such win-win ideas are compelling, and always, the underlying message is this: More people will be coming to crypto. Eventually there will be some truly mass-market ICO which has the killer app which few can resist. It will be the first eBay of the cryptoverse, or the first Amazon. (And let’s not dismiss the idea that eBay will be the first eBay of the cryptoverse).
What happens then?
What happens when everyone can buy pizza with crypto?
What happens when millions of ‘ordinary people’ come face to face with crypto? What happens when crypto is no longer something special just for financial wizards and geeks, but families use cryptocurrencies to book their holidays, or even pay for pizzas? And yes of course I’m aware of Bitcoin Pizza Day, when on May 22nd 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz proved that it was possible to do ‘something normal’ with Bitcoin, and got himself two large pizzas delivered, for about $40. Or as we’d call it today, about $80 million. Was Hanyecz a chump or a visionary, or both? I certainly hope he enjoyed his historic pizzas.
He was just ahead of his time, and now there are stories everywhere of the clever and quirky uses to which crypto is being put, from church donations in Switzerland, to buying goat’s cheese in the Ukraine. There’s even a company called PizzaForCoins which I suspect Mr. Hanyecz would approve of! Crypto is becoming approachable, and normal, with critical mass probably not so far away.
To get to that point, the whole cryptoverse has to become more trustworthy to the general public. Right now it’s still for the financial wizards and geeks (sorry guys, but you know who you are), however face up to this terrifying thought – it’s conceivable that in the next ten years your Grandmother will have adopted a cryptocurrency. Maybe she’ll have started receiving her pension in crypto, or will have played and won a lottery using crypto. Perhaps she’s booked a holiday and payed for the flight in crypto. Whatever, it will have to be easy and transparent, and seamless. That’s a word we all like to use in crypto marketing circles, but it’s actually a really crucial concept that tokenized offerings have got to get their heads around. Will this system allow Mr. Joe Average to seamlessly buy a cup of coffee when he wants it, in the same way he currently uses fiat cash, or a touch-in credit or charge card?
It's time to prepare for mass adoption
If the answer is yes, then prepare for massive adoption of cryptocurrencies. And the adoption won’t be slow once it starts rolling: Look at the worldwide uptake of e-commerce, which about five minutes ago didn’t even exist! The value of goods sold on eBay’s U.S. market alone grew 4.9% to $36.28 billion in 2017, up from $34.58 billion in 2016. For the fourth quarter the gross merchandise volume was up 7.9% from the same period for 2016. Nowadays everyone just loves e-commerce, and e-commerce with crypto will be even more beloved.
There are just these few teensy-weensy problems to iron out still, like rollercoasting values, and stablecoins which aren’t stable, but hey, financial wizards and geeks - get this right and it will be your gift to the world! Mr. Joe Average will be able to buy his coffee in crypto, your Granny will enjoy having a little gamble in crypto, and yes, you’ll be able to order pizza in crypto without being called a fool.