Bitcoin Mass Adoption with Juan Galt – Cryptonomics

For years people have been asking when Bitcoin is going to reach mass adoption, and though the market has expanded a lot, there still hasn’t been a lot of use in day-to-day commerce. In this episode I talk to Juan Galt about the lack of user experience in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, the projects which have the best user experience such as Dash and Steem, and what kind of UX we can expect in coming years.

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Steemit

Steemit launched in 2016, and it has brought in many people to crypto, offering them the chance to make money for blogging or posting other content. A lot of people already in the crypto space overlooked it, not realising the value of things like, being able to send tokens straight to a username, rather than a cryptographic address, and an interface that was already familiar to people who had never heard of cryptocurrency.

Unfortunately, Steemit itself hasn’t made any breakthroughs on the user experience front since its inception, but other developers have built on it, creating slicker sites like Busy.org, SteemPeak, and apps like Partiko which make it easier to use.

Dash

In a lot of videos about Dash, you can hear the mission of the team, to create cryptocurrency “that your grandmother can use”. The vision hasn’t been entirely realised, but Dash’s UX is already on its way.

Dash Call Centres

In Venezuela, people who want to use Dash can call a free support line and get help from a Dash expert, setting up their first wallet and make their first transaction. Dash Help available in Venezuela with plans to expand through Latin America, currently focusing on setting up centres for Brazilians.

Dash Text

Many people in countries with failing currencies don’t have access to computers or smartphones, so they need another way to use Dash. Dash Text is a service that enables people to send money using SMS on their feature phone, opening up the potential for millions of customers, starting in Venezuela.

Dash Evolution

Evolution is a new wallet which will enable human-readable addresses, making sending Dash as easy as writing an email – making cryptocurrency more similar to PayPal or Venmo, and integrating to allow discounts from merchants, giving people more reasons to adopt it. Evolution is scheduled for its first public release in Q4 2018.

Casa

Casa is reputedly “the world’s most secure cryptocurrency wallet”. They offer a premium service with 24 hour support, intended for large accounts with $500,000 or more invested in Bitcoin. It only costs $10,000 a year.

Future of Crypto UX

In the future we’ll probably see highly secure services like Casa, with lower price tags, being more accessible to small investors. Dash expects that eventually Evolution will allow people to log in to their Dash account securely from anywhere in the world. If crypto is to become money, it must be easy to use – as easy to use as a credit card or Google Pay. For now, unfortunately user experience seems to be an afterthought for most crypto projects, which means that mass adoption is likely still years away.

Thank you

Thanks for listening and thanks for sharing this episode with your friends. If you need help with securing your Bitcoin or other currencies, you can find Juan on Twitter @juansgalt

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