Blockchain Under the Hood: The Only Way to Adoption
“Our application is based on the cutting edge TCP/IP technology!” ― never any successful startup said. However, this is exactly how crypto is promoted nowadays, and this is terribly wrong. A user (not to be confused with tech enthusiast) cares not about technologies used, but about his/her problems solved. I propound a thesis: the way to true adoption lies through hiding blockchain under the hood completely. We should provide value, not gospels.
The actual difference between old chainless bicycles and the ones with chains is not a chain; it is a possibility to start and sit comfortably and to ride with desired speed and effort.
The same applies to crypto. We often say that blockchain is a great technology. It is true in an aesthetic sense. However, in a pragmatic sense there is no such thing as “great”, there is only “great for something”. The question is whether we can solve people’s problems using crypto without giving lectures on cryptography, economy, or distributed systems. I don’t know if this is possible, but I know that this is the only way to true adoption.
We don’t deal with encryption keys directly when we communicate through a messenger, though it uses encryption. Thus we should give users a possibility to benefit from blockchain without learning about keys, blocks, exchanges, or even addresses. Using crypto should be easier than using a good banking application. Securely storing a seed phrase should be the most complicated thing a user needs to do.
However, many crypto enthusiasts may disagree with me. Indeed, without understanding what limited emission or censorship resistance are you won’t understand what is bitcoin. The thing is, if you don’t suffer from censorship or inflation, you don’t need the tool to avoid them. People in Venezuela do not need an explanation why bitcoin is great ― they need bitcoin to stay alive.
Moreover, you can enjoy low fees for large international transactions without even knowing about censorship resistance; you can enjoy censorship resistance without even knowing about limited emission; you can also enjoy multisignature, scripting, easy account creation, etc. In other words, you don’t need to learn about all bitcoin features to utilize some of them. And the number of use cases is limitless.
The hype has spoiled us, the community. We felt like kings just because we had chosen the right field of work, not because we had created something people need. Now it’s time to take off the crown and get our hands dirty. Putting the label “blockchain” and getting money doesn’t work anymore. Searching for the customers and studying their problems and needs works, though.
Thanks to Alexander Seleznev for the idea of this article. Thanks to Pavel Kondr for the help with its formulation.
This article was created by SmartDec, a security team specialized in static code analysis, decompilation and secure development.
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