Let’s stop positioning blockchain as a one-trick pony.
When you consider the divide between what blockchain is, what it does, and how the public at large understands it, I’m a firm believer in that it’s the design and application (as in, how it’s applied) and how the public relates to it.
People hear too much about the value of cryptocurrency itself, and not about the value it means to them. When they hear terms like “investing, market price, price drop, all-time low/high”, they attribute cryptocurrency to traditional stock market investing. In truth, this is a fair comparison in one respect. You can invest in crypto with the hopes of long or short term appreciation to building wealth.
However, this leaves several key points out of the holistic equation. First, millions upon millions do not invest traditionally either because they have no interest or knowledge to do so. So for them, crypto holds zero value.
Second, for those who do have some understanding of investing but lack the means to do so, they see the skyrocketing monetary value of things like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and conclude that they missed the boat when cryptocurrency was in its infancy. Now it is just another financial vehicle they’ve been barred from because it’s too expensive. Making it yet another way for the rich to get richer.
Finally, this says nothing to the underlying blockchain technology that makes cryptocurrency work. Even if they did understand it, how does it benefit them if the two former points are still true?
My take is a deliberate change to the mental model we use to describe the use of cryptocurrency in a more relatable and real world way. Integrate people in the actual use of currencies rather than only their perceived value as a commodity. We use money, so we should be using crypto in as similar a way as possible. Design should draw from already established paradigms, and banking would be a great starting point.
With so much talk about how blockchain will disrupt the financial industry, a well designed showcase of how would go a long way to move the needle in that direction. Users need not understand “Ethereum gas price” when they already know what a transaction fee is. Why try to force someone to understand “wallet address” when an account number thematically serves the same purpose? What is going on under the application’s hood doesn’t matter to the end user. When there is more they can already draw similarities from, the areas that are unfamiliar will be less daunting to understand.
My wallet design concept, has all the necessary components for a crypto transaction to work, without a single word of the crypto jargon to confuse novices. This specific example even uses cryptocurrency as the asset, showing that the concept can work with any digital asset, not just currency.