Will crypto ever go mainstream or will it the dark financial market for the brilliant and technical experts?

MaaS, I first heard the phrase from Amanda B. Johnson while she was acting as a spokesperson for Dash.  MaaS - Money as a Service.  Basically a payment service. The way I viewed her pitch was instead of being limited to a government controlled currency, provide a selection of payment options to be utilized based on their ability to add value to the users' purchasing choices.  It was very clear that Dash  knew they had to educate and reach out to mainstream people, in language they understand and paint a vision for their potential end-users.  Also during that time Dash was performing very well.

In the Start-up companies, I've worked for that was one of the first things we did.  We figured out who our target market was (someone who had a problem we could solve) and we painted a picture for them on what problem we were going to solve and why our product brought a solution.  In the beginning phase of a product launch, we talked about the technology or the features of the product, but end-users don't really care about those things, they want to understand "What will this do for me?" and "Why do I want this?"  Once we were able to answer those questions internally and externally, the products began to take off.

I had nearly forgotten the phrase MaaS until I was taking some notes last night on my view of where I think the Cryptocurrency Markets are at.

Here is my perception of the past year's events in Cryptocurrency Markets.  

It is only my perception as no one knows exactly what or who drives the cryptocurrency markets.  (When you hear someone speak with Authority on exactly what created pumps or dumps, proceed with caution, as I am completely unclear on how someone could have a firm grasp of what drives the market)

Bitcoin received a lot of interest and attention in 2017 and due to increased dollar value and this greatly improved Bitcoin's name recognition, it also gave critics a curious audience to feed FUD, Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.  Governments reacted with threats of Regulation and Bitcoin and the entire infrastructure of the  Crypto Market Space was overwhelmed with the additional traffic and fees went up, speed of transactions went down and usability was greatly impacted.  The technology is still difficult to understand and hard to use.  It was a perfect storm for those who were interested to take a look and see exactly how immature the market space is and to walk away.  

Don't Despair:

Right now in my opinion the value of nearly all cryptos is still purely speculation.  The usability of the current cryptocurrency coins is still way above the average end-users ability to use.  I am of the opinion that crypto cannot achieve mainstream adoption in its current state. Most aren't cheap, fast, easy or more effective than most government controlled currencies at this time.  The most experienced tech and cryptocurrency experts will disagree here, because some high-end users know how to do these things.  They over simplify the expertise and experience they have and how it isn't the same game for the less-skilled end-user.  

 What about blockchain some of the value is in blockchain?  I've heard a lot of people talk about the blockchain aspect adding value to cryptocurrencies, but I am unclear on how that plays out.  The blockchain engineering is still evolving and most of it is open source, so if you take away the speculation of the value of the tokens, blockchains will be easy for large businesses to replicate and utilize which adds very little value to the tokens themselves.

I'm not sad nor am I disappointed by where we currently are, I am just trying to figure out where we are at and how to support the emerging market.

There are so many new tokens trying so many different things right now which follows the development of both computer and Internet technology when they were immature markets with a lot of highly technical people.  Many feel this is bad for the Market and I think it is just part of the process.  I see nearly every crypto project as an experiment right now and those that fail will teach the next products some lessons until we reach a point where more tokens are easy, cheap, and solve a problem.  

For me I am in love with the idea and hopeful about the future of MaaS, I don't like to trash talk coins and I realize the ultimate winners in the game might not even be around yet.  I support the entire Market Space during this phase and think many of the projects have something to teach and potential.  I want to encourage people to learn about Cryptocurrency and also encourage the market to consider who are the potential customers and what will they gain from using the tokens.  I don't understand the hostile attitudes between the various end-users and their favorite coins, other than maybe being protective over their investments.

My conclusion is we still have  work to do to reach "Mainstream" and Steem is a great chain that has made progress in the current market.  

We have: Easy to remember Usernames, some ability to restore accounts, a platform that can be used for support and education, as well as other real use cases.  We already have a strong community and we have proven that non-technical people can pick up and learn our product.

I've said it before, but Steem is a great platform to use as a Gateway Cryptocurrency to help onboard and educate average people on the value and use of cryptocurrency. while supporting the over all crypto markets.

This is just my view of the current market, I am not an expert, I've only been studying this space for the last 2 years, so please do not think I am presenting myself as a Crypto Expert.  

What are your thoughts on the current market conditions and do you like to imagine who this whole industry may develop?

Your questions and comments help me to define my own views.

@whatsup