Despite the bear market of 2018, Cryptocurrency had an excellent year and is primed to move forward hopefully into more positive territory in 2019, last year saw the further developments of the lightning network in Bitcoin and a whole variety of Alt-Coins deployed innovative updates.
Yet, despite the still overwhelming amount of interest among investors, traders and technologist's we all know the elephant in the living room affecting the price is adoption.
Yes i know i know, some would argue the biggest hold back is legislation and poor taxation laws, which from a certain point is true, but, realistically, if adoption is gained, i personally feel there will be revisions to such legislation and taxation laws, once, we truly move beyond the realm of a speculative asset into the realm of usable day to day digital currency.
Why? Because, maintaining accurate records, is challenging even for investors and traders who know what they are doing, it will be an un-tenable feat for the average day to day person to do, particularly, when we move into a crypto space of decentralized exchanges and atomic swaps, and realistically, while most taxation departments can, in principle, track all these things, it is by no means easy, even now, the ratio of tax investigators to investors is probably on a scale of 1:1000 and its a hard thing to track as is.
Besides, your average novice crypto investor isn't trying to dodge taxes, they simply don't understand them, and whilst ignorance is no excuse for the law, most western government taxation organizations are well aware of how this digital ecosystem does not entirely suite itself well to traditional practices.
And lets be honest, shall we politicians and legislators, come on... i see the twinkle in your eye, lets just have a moment of honesty shall we, cmon, you can do it...
If you were to class the digital currency, as currency, you can't tax that right? and as its an economy, decentralized, totally outside of your governance, that's kind of a potential problem for you long term right? ... am i right?
I Digress, or do i? no not at all, because we have these barriers, in crypto, adoption, legislation and another one usability, all three, in their own right are hurdles.
But whilst we say adoption, what we rarely look at with that, is what impedes adoption, its a rather simple, yet nebula's term...
So what does this have to do with Buses? a metaphor, you see i sit writing this article this morning, i am doing so by the grace of unfortunate circumstance and benevolence, you see the ever competent strategic planners at Sydney Trains (read back to my early works for further commentary on that) felt the need to conduct track-work, at the start of the year, at the END of the holiday period on the second day where most businesses were "back to usual" of course all is fine because "buses replace trains" between target destinations....
I arrived at the train station, looked up, looked down at my phone, saw the notice, and promptly returned to my car and drove home alerting my manager that i would not be in until the track-work was over, which luckily, was only to be two days.
Here's where the metaphor comes in, crypto, at this stage, unless you are a tech head or serious committed investor is not user friendly, its buy this on this exchange, transfer to that for this coin, then transfer this to that wallet, hard or soft, and dont forget your private keys, oh and don't send to the wrong address with a giant 16+ digit code string, and for a lot of people, your average person thinking of getting into it, it just seems, all to overwhelming...
Not because its hard, but because its fiddly, and yes we do it, the majority of people reading this do anyway, but our motivation is entirely different as investors, i am prepared to put up with fiddly bullshit for the promise of 6 Figures, i am not however, if i am just trying to buy a cup of coffee.
The average person, feels the same way commuters (and i do) about catching a series of buses, about crypto at the moment, its not that it cant be done, its just, for what its worth... its just a huge pain in the proverbial when they can just whip out their fiat currency and be done with it.
Now i know, once again, many would echo back, "but that's right, its fiat currency based on nothing, and the growing U.S debt crisis is a ticking time bomb that will affect the world, look at the currencies being devalued worldwide, cant the people see?!?!"
True, true, Crypto, like gold, is a far more safer reserve of value, but i assure you friends, average Lady Jayne, going down to Coles to do her groceries, with 3 screaming kids demanding ice cream, does not in the moment, give a "flying truck" about any of that when she is standing at the counter to pay, as don't many people.
It's somewhat "Hierarchy of Needs" in a way, a psychological term, how important is it to someone, in the way they experience it and the impact it has on their life, "why endure the chaos of bus & train transfers, when its just easier to take a holiday?" ergo "why endure the chaos of crypto exchanges and wallets, when its just easier to use mastercard"
Usability, is key, and whilst we need to see technology develop, in line with that, we need to see an increase in usability as well.
For example, think for a second, how complicated, the internet is, when it truly gained traction was as it and personal computers as a whole became more user friendly, to borrow a phrase from my employer, when the "inconvenience was reduced" was when the tech saw adoption, up until then, it was the realm of geeks and scientists, no more no less.
And now that its simple? ubiquitous in nearly every facet of our lives, not bad for something that would "never take off in 1994" now is it?
If adoption is the key, usability is the door through which we must walk to get there and i think that needs to be given more attention at a developmental level in the crypto community.
Yesterday, enjoying the impromptu holiday i was afforded found myself talking with a gentleman halfway through his computer science degree, friend of mine, currently coding a hololens version of skype as a project, and i talked about this CoinPoker app and the hurdles it took to get it operational, and how i thought this was a bane to the project, now keep in mind, this is someone, a lot, and i mean a lot, more tech savvy than i, and when i explained to him, you will need to register on coinbase, then transfer to kucoin, then transfer to an external ethereum wallet then deposit back in, his response, even as a technologist was "that just seems like such a pain in the proverbial, just to play a game"
Was it that it was hard? getting into the core of my article here today, no, and particularly not for a gentleman of his caliber, however, at a psychological level, as there was no need, or desire, it appears as a hassle, thus forth, not entertained.
You see this everywhere, from crypto adoption to yes, catching buses.
I had not intended to borrow a phrase from my employer, but as all these thoughts sort of culminated as a mesh to form this piece, if one, reduces the inconvenience or hassle of using a technology, it becomes more appealing to experiment with the technology, therefore, increasing the adoption of the technology, and from that, the rest takes care of itself.
This thought piece proudly brought to you by: Incompetent city planners, friendly bus drivers, random millionaire, computer scientist, and some chick i played poker with yesterday.
p.s. I let you win, had a straight flush.