By Co-creator of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, believes that the days of turning a few bucks into millions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency are over.
In December 2017, the price of major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and Bitcoin Cash demonstrated 10 to 300-fold returns. Buterin, in an interview with Bloomberg, stated that “the blockchain space is getting to the point where there’s a ceiling in sight”. Buterin emphasized that the awareness of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology has already achieved its high point. As a result of the awareness of cryptocurrencies by the average educated person, the days of 1000x growth as seen in 2017 in the cryptocurrency sector is gone.
Ethereum: From Awareness to Adoption
As a result of the speculative bubble of last year, the vast majority of consumers have taken an interest in cryptocurrencies as an emerging asset class. Buterin explained that the strategy of promoting blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies to the broader consumer base is getting close to hitting a dead end. In the upcoming years, Buterin stated that the industry will focus on improving the usability and accessibility of decentralized systems rather than promoting and gathering interest therein. 
Buterin stated that we will “go from just people being interested in real applications of real economic activity”. The strategy of promoting blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies to the broader consumer base is coming to an end and it is time to improve the infrastructure of decentralized systems, applications (dApps), and protocols to encourage consumers to commit to blockchain-based platforms and the widespread use thereof.
In the upcoming months and years, to reach true mainstream adoption, developers of dApps will have to ensure that the utilization of decentralized systems is as seamless and efficient as centralized platforms. The simple shift from cash to cryptocurrencies can already be difficult and technically challenging for the majority of people. It is, therefore, necessary to make the use of cryptocurrencies and blockchain-based systems more user-friendly.
The CEO of the decentralized cryptocurrency exchange Kyber Network, Loi Luu, recognized that the current UI of decentralized exchanges and dApps is not good enough. Luu stated that “users aren’t familiar with the Decentralized Exchanges; they’re more familiar with Binance or Bittrex. So that’s why we wanted to make it really easy for the user to use. So, we don’t focus on the decentralized aspect of it. We focus more on the usability aspect of it”.
Encouraging Consumers to Commit
On the protocol side, the open-source developer community of Ethereum is working on the implementation of Sharding and Plasma, two solutions that are expected to massively increase the scalability of the Ethereum network. Other projects like Cardano and Zilliqa are working on proof-of-stake (PoS) and Sharding-related solutions as alternatives to Plasma and Ethereum-based solutions.
dApps will have to improve their user interface to refine and simplify the process of utilizing blockchain-based systems in order to encourage consumers to commit to the use of decentralized systems. The front-end and UI side of dApps and decentralized systems in general need significant improvement, especially if dApps intend to target the consumer base of widely utilized centralized platforms.
What are your thoughts on the mainstream use of cryptocurrency? Do you believe the blockchain boom is over? Or will the widespread use of cryptocurrency promote its growth? Give us your thoughts in the comments below.
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