The Mass Adoption of Cryptocurrencies?

There is a lot of talk about the ‘mass adoption’ of cryptocurrencies. I find most people don’t have a clear understanding of what this means.

Does it mean ‘the masses’ are using cryptocurrencies in their daily life to buy/sell things?

Does it mean ‘the masses’ are investing in crypto as an asset class?

Does it mean ‘the masses’ are using or owning crypto in some way? Perhaps they are using Ether to pay for ethereum network, or maybe they have the coins of their local sports team?

I don’t think it means they are using them for investing. I think lots of people will be investing in the next crypto boom, but it’s not really ‘mass adoption’ yet.

I also don’t think ‘mass adoption’ means owning or using crypto for community or utility coins. For a start, I don’t see many utility applications that will make people think ‘oh I’d better buy that coin’. And even though I think most people in the world will own some sort of ‘community’ coin within the next three years, I don’t think people will view them as crypto. If I owned Chelsea Football’s new Fan Token, I wouldn’t think of it as a valuable coin, but more like an incentive.

So when people hear about ‘mass adoption’ of a coin, they think of it being used as a currency. In other words, to buy/sell stuff.

I have had a huge amount to do with crypto being used as currency and I see four types:

• Crypto used between financial organisations to speed up Fiat transfers, like Ripple.
• Crypto-based sovereign currencies, such as a crypto-Euro.
• Crypto-currency as a reserve currency, independent of any country.
• Crypto-currency that is really a ‘store of value’ like a digital gold.

The key point is that I classify a ‘currency’ the same way the public does. So if you can’t buy or sell with it, then it’s a ‘store of value’ commodity. This includes Ripple (an inter-bank store of value), Privacy coins (Monero, Dash, Cash) and Bitcoin (too slow/expensive to be a credible currency).

I know that every sovereign currency will become a crypto simply because crypto is a better form of digital money and all countries want their money to be 100% digital. The reason is that its easier to collect maximum taxes and to control the money supply. I think this will take 5–10 years.

I think there will be a couple of credible Reserve Currency cryptos within the next three years, by the end of 2022. The opportunity is huge. People talk about Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, etc. NONE of these are credible today because THIS is mass adoption. And for this to work the coin must have:

• Transaction speeds in the 100,000’s/second
• Very low costs
• Massive positive merchant acceptance
• Stable price — all the volatility in prices guarantee they will not be Reserve Crypto
• An accepted brand
• And lastly, a massive user base

For mass adoption, you will have a digital wallet (like a bank account) with crypto-cash. You will be able to send easily using simple wallet addresses and probably QR codes.

Who will pioneer this?

China — WEchat, Alipay already have the brand, merchant acceptance, user base, etc.

Africa — they already have mPesa.

India — already a big digital payment country

Scandinavia — who want purely digital commerce and love pioneering things

Venuezula — what have they got to lose?

Time-frame? I predict it will take three years for mass adoption to start in a few countries and then it will race around the world faster than you can imagine.

Trading in potential ‘reserve currencies’ as speculative investments will be HUGE over the next couple of years, with Litecoin benefiting especially. There will be some huge new competitors.

Exciting times!