Ambo 2020

13 months ago, I introduced the concept of Ambo to the world. What’s next?

Ambo transcended the status quo of wallets at the time and was meant to be the missing bridge between consumers and cryptocurrencies. Since then, a lot has happened.

Ambo has changed a lot since its creation, each build optimizing for the user experience

At the start of 2019, Ambo was acquired by MyCrypto and we pivoted the product to focus on the interests of retail consumers: buying into speculative assets. We subsequently launched our iOS app which was the first decentralized exchange with an experience nearly as seamless as a centralized exchange. After evaluating our analytics, we redesigned our entire interface to further decrease friction in the user experience. Then, we focused on the hidden tech. We aggregated four different decentralized exchanges to ensure our users get the best prices for their trades, we added a fiat onramp and we added tons of security features within the app, such as ensuring that users don’t send to fraudulent addresses.

However, it’s not enough. In my initial post 13 months ago, I outlined these three issues:

1. Design: The friction behind accessing a certain feature.
2. Scalability: The ability for the network to sustain a large user base regardless of liquidity demand or transaction count.
3. Technability: The need for someone to understand blockchain to use the app.

Throughout 2018 we pushed the bounds for each of these issues, but there is still much work to be done. That is why I am outlining Ambo’s specific goals for addressing these concerns by the end of 2020:

1. Design: I want a non-crypto user to be able to come into the app experience and make their first token (not ETH) purchase, using fiat currency, within three minutes of onboarding.
2. Scalability: I want to remove the need for both large and small traders to have to go to a native DEX interface and be able to interact with it like its a CEX.
3. Technability: I want new users to not have to worry about private keys, gas or anything of the sort.

Crypto people are too focused on the intricacies of decentralized certain systems. We are too focused on advocating for the usage of one DEX over another; instead, we should be focused on teaching non-crypto people what the hell a DEX is.

When we started Ambo, our goal was to ensure we would never fall into this hole. We fight the tunnel vision that stems from being within the industry for too long via design-focused processes and, most importantly, understanding the non-crypto consumer. Empathizing with these end users and building a product for an un(crypto)educated version of ourselves would allow us to fulfill our mission. We nearly did fall into this trap once by spending thirty minutes debating how to phrase keystores, only to reframe the conversation into: “How do we get rid of keystores?”

In addition to these goals, we will work to continue pushing the bounds in unexplored directions outside of our mobile apps. Internally, we have been testing a few new products that will be launched throughout the course of 2020, all of which focus on making web3-based technologies more accessible, beyond simply trading.

Looking beyond 2020, I see personal crypto fund management transitioning to look much like traditional finance, which often involves having an investment account at a company like Fidelity, and checking and savings accounts at a bank. My amazing team and I are building for a future where Ambo is this investment account for your digital assets.

Cheers.

Jai Bhavnani