Crypto Frontline

The past two years had seen cryptocurrencies transition to a whole new different phase, but despite that, the decentralized token economy of the future seems to be far away in the future, mainly because the current market structure is not designed to reach the masses. The lack of real adoption is what keeps the market subdued, and as long as the actual use of blockchain technology will remain low, there’s little upside ahead.

Big companies are investing heavily in blockchain solutions and thus far we’ve seen several interesting applications, but to take this technology to a wider audience, much more will need to be done.

Stablecoins to save the day?

As we already know, the three main characteristics of money are to act as a store of value, a medium of exchange, and a unit of account. Due to their excessive volatility, traditional cryptocurrencies only can work as a medium of exchange, and even that is not the best possible way. Looking at decentralized finance, it’s good to see that there are more than $650 million locked in smart contracts, a 50% bounce in 2020 as compared to a year ago.

However, few people know about cryptocurrencies in general or how to use them. The industry seems to be a playground for developers, according to Michael Luckhoo, VP of Operations at DigitalBits:

Blockchain is a revolutionary technology, but the space had become more of a developer playground…We need to bring this technology to the masses, in existing applications that people use every day. Technology should be easy, seamless, and able to provide value to the end consumer without changing learned behavior.

A lot of new companies had already tried to make the blockchain more friendly, including the FIO Protocol, a project we’ve talked about in the past. Additionally, stablecoins are part of the latest trends when it comes to the crypto world. Incorporating the blockchain as well as the stability of traditional financial assets, these could be the tool to drive the industry forward.

Branded stablecoins can also exist within customer applications, without the need to develop new infrastructure. Companies can leverage active communities, granting familiarity, something that traditional cryptocurrencies are not yet able to do. Companies like Facebook, Walmart, or Rakuten had already started to explore using stablecoins for royalty and reward points, gift cards, coupons, as well as to facilitate funds transfer all around the world. The industry has a lot to grow, but it seems like stablecoins provide new interesting features and the key moving forward will be to make the public familiar with them.