Making Web 3.0 Usable — Part 2
How to Make Web 3.0 Take Off
It’s easy to complain about the current state of Web 3.0. From its abundance of confusing confirmation screens to its maze of fluctuating gas fees, the Web 3.0 experience is one riddled with counterintuitive interfaces, technical jargon, and difficult onramp processes. However, to merely sit back and cast aspersions would be akin to picking low-hanging fruit. This is a world under construction after all, and highlighting its problems without offering solutions is antithetical not only to the creative spirit situated at the heart of our project here at Cardstack, but also to the ingenuity of the blockchain community at large.
At Cardstack, we aim to provide mass market-ready solutions to the grievances outlined in our previous article by simplifying crypto transactions and creating a Web 3.0 interface that makes sense. Throughout the development process of Card Pay, we explored different values, deployed various strategies, and made effective choices in order to streamline the user experience and make the DeFi ecosystem more intuitive and accessible. Above all, however, we strive to offer holistic rather than narrow solutions, as the problems surrounding Web 3.0 demand large-scale thinking and big ideas. This article will showcase our responses to the problems addressed in the preceding article, while simultaneously pointing toward general solutions that will benefit the entire cryptosphere.
We need to perfect the Web 3.0 mobile experience
First, we need to correct the general difficulty of interacting with the cryptosphere, particularly on the mobile front. Though our product is not limited to mobile, we have spent considerable time developing our tools on this front because, well, the world is inarguably veering toward a mobile majority. If the mobile Web 3.0 experience isn’t as streamlined or as seamless as scrolling through a TikTok feed, then there is absolutely no chance it will infiltrate the mainstream. Our very own Card Wallet works to solve this issue by making daily transactions on the blockchain as easy as using well-established platforms such as PayPal and Venmo. Not only is the Card Wallet intuitive and user-friendly, but it also functions on a sidechain in the Card Pay network to keep fees below a penny and ensure smooth transactions. Once we finalize Card Pay and Card Wallet, they will help pave the way for similar solutions involving mobile transactions in Web 3.0.
After a more intuitive interface for the cryptosphere is created, the confusion surrounding transactions must be solved. What’s the key to fixing this issue? QR codes. It’s safe to assume that most (if not all) mobile wallets are stored on devices that contain cameras. Okay, let’s be real: everybody has a camera, and making transactions through already-established QR-ready platforms such as Mobip or Alipay is so much easier than engaging with any other mode of payment.
Consider this example: Gabbie needs to pay Jack for a long Saturday night’s worth of drinks. Instead of going through the often annoying process of exchanging Venmo addresses and entering correct payment amounts, Gabbie would simply scan a QR code on Jack’s phone and complete the transaction in less than ten seconds. On a more professional level, the transaction would look something like this: At a Thai restaurant, Jack buys bubble tea by scanning a QR code next to the register that carries the cost of the tea. With a quick flip of his phone camera, Jack would complete the transaction by paying the predetermined amount contained within the QR code. He could even leave a tip using additional features.
But what if Jack wanted to make a payment using QR in the cryptosphere? Here’s how it would work within our Card Pay network. Say Jack wants to give $10 to Jamie — one of his favorite online creators — to show support for her work and become a contributor to her network. He would locate Jamie’s profile page on Card Space (e.g. jamie.card.space), scan a QR code listed on her page, and confirm the gift with Face ID. In mere seconds, Jack can support his favorite creators just by flashing his camera.
In order for Web 3.0 to fully infiltrate the mainstream, we must create an economic landscape where payments and transactions are this easy. Card Pay cures the headaches surrounding crypto transactions — layer bridging, conversion rates, exchange links, confusing confirmation screens — through its streamlined, QR-ready payment interface. Above all, easy DeFi payments equals more users.
Values and currencies need to be rendered stable
Before transactions can be polished, the values and currencies within the Web 3.0 world must be rendered stable and understandable. Currently, given the volatility of the crypto market, newcomers often greet Ethereum and Bitcoin with skepticism, perhaps rightfully so. To remedy this issue, dApps need to start incorporating more stablecoin into their economic infrastructures and borrowing its principles when developing reward systems, payment schemas, and more. Card Pay’s pricing unit, SPEND, works to remedy the problem of crypto instability through its ties to USD: §1 SPEND = $1 USD cent. SPEND essentially operates as our Robux, an interior currency that ensures global, universal pricing.
SPEND’s functionality can be compared to Microsoft’s Reward Points on Xbox or Fortnite’s in-game currency V-bucks. On Xbox, players earn rewards points that can be redeemed for games, limited-edition bonuses, and more by shopping on the Microsoft store, taking monthly surveys, or doing some other Microsoft-oriented activities. On Fortnite, players can purchase V-bucks (1,000 V-bucks currently cost about $7.99 USD) and use the points for in-game purchases such as character customizations and weapon upgrades.
With Card Pay, users will be able to utilize SPEND in similar ways. Its role as a globalized currency within the Card Pay network will enable easy transactions where conversion occurs to and from a neutrality. Consider a user in the United States who wants to buy an item located in Japan that costs 4000 SPEND. They would simply buy 4000 SPEND ($40 USD) and purchase the item. The Japanese vendor would receive 4000 SPEND that could then be used however they see fit within the Card Pay network or even withdrawn to another blockchain or to a traditional bank account. The cryptosphere needs more of these stable, globalized currency values if it is to finally take off.
High and fluctuating gas fees must be remedied
In order to initiate Web 3.0’s boom into the mainstream, gas fees must remain low or nonexistent. Let’s return to Jack and his bubble tea. Would Jack still be excited to use his Card Pay QR scanner to purchase the $5 bubble tea if the transaction fees amounted to $20? Of course not. If we truly want to ensure transactional fluidity in the blockchain world, we will have to create a setup where the transaction fee accompanying Jack’s purchase of the bubble tea is billed (fairly) to the merchant, not to Jack.
We need a system that mirrors an interchange schema like, say, VISA that charges merchants 30 cents per transaction and 2.9% of the total amount. At the end of the day, when the merchant settles their credit card terminal, they will see and acknowledge the fee deduction. The customer never needs to encounter the blockchain transaction fee, and they eventually won’t even need to fund their wallet with gas tokens. When payments in the cryptosphere are conducted so easily and conveniently, merchants will earn more customers.
Card Pay remedies this problem by operating on a sidechain that keeps gas and transaction fees below a penny. Users can also pay in SPEND, which deploys a payment schema similar to the aforementioned interchange; the merchant is billed for the cost of writing to the blockchain as part of the protocol fee. And, of course, the customer does not see the fee because the merchant bears the cost of doing business.
Meanwhile, our CARD Protocol and Tally work to enable a cycle of spending, earning, offering, and redeeming between customers and merchants. In the Card Pay network, fees will mostly go unnoticed by the customer and remain fair for the merchant.
Onboarding new users needs to be a simple process
The issues surrounding crypto onboarding processes — those propelled by the sheer influx of dApps and blockchain-oriented apps during the last few years — can be solved by projects that offer intuitive, easy-to-use workflow philosophies. Actions and interactions with the blockchain need to be sequenced and imbricated in straightforward ways for users if we wish to continue growing this ecosystem. Milestones must be accomplished one at a time, with programmed explanations accompanying the user throughout the process. Moreover, bridging from layer 1 to layer 2 must work in such a way where deposits made in one network can be immediately available for spending in another. It all must be as simple as a wire transfer — a complex banking operation made quick and easy.
The Card Pay interface will echo these principles of accessibility. To get started on Card Pay, users will be walked through a series of steps that have been tied into a sequence of cards like a user tutorial. Interacting with multiple protocols will be a flattened and linear process that can guide new users through simple processes like making purchases or more complicated activities such as creating customized prepaid cards, personalized credit cards, or other forms of creative media. We also plan to include a Card Bot within the workflow that will operate as an automated assistant or a human-based ask-for-help chat device capable of providing real-time guidance to confused newcomers. Above all, we are designing our interfaces to hold the hands of our users, not abandon them.
The login process must be revised
Before the crypto world can even begin refining its interfaces and exchange transactions, however, it must first revise and perfect the login process. Logins and accounts in Web 3.0, like those we are developing with Card Pay, must operate in similar ways to Facebook or Google accounts, but must also contain their own Web 3.0-ness, for lack of a better phrase. They must carry the same type of fun and excitement found among Twitter personas and avatars, but must also function on more pragmatic and financial grounds as bearer instruments and as seed phrases. Essentially, what’s needed is an augmented signing process where the signature proves that Jack is indeed Jack, but one that’s still intuitive and fun. Nobody wants to exist as a number. More colorful logins and account pages will then give way to the creation of organic communities and online circles, which could even be accessed using QR codes.
In order to accelerate the construction of these online communities and further onboard new users, crypto-based identities could also be displayed as linkages to draw clear parallels from the web to capital-R Reality. So, to advertise her art, Jamie could link her address (0x123456) to her pseudonymous Twitter account and begin earning funds under an artistic name. It’s this sort of personalized experience that leads to the establishment of reputation, which, in turn, leads to the genesis of community. This process is also much easier than using an email address to register for someone’s creative feed; forget about two-step authentication and spam mail. Rather than having to receive an SMS bearing your code (phone numbers can be abused), authentication can be helmed by FaceID — a far more secure process than two-step — when moving tokens with a crypto wallet.
The wallet experience should be straightforward and meaningful
A mobile wallet should also offer users an easy setup process that can be accomplished — and we mean this literally — within ten seconds. There should be no need to open a Coinbase account or haggle with various logins; rather, users should just quickly obtain a prepaid card using Apple Pay and start interacting with the cryptosphere.
Card Pay operates in such a 3-step process: the user downloads Card Wallet, creates an account, and then buys a prepaid card using Apple Pay. From there, they are ready to spend and explore. Once the wallet setup process is revised, more users will flock toward Web 3.0 and start building meaningful communities.
After the interfaces, logins, and transactional operations have been perfected, creators, developers, and merchants in the Web 3.0 world must focus on creating reward systems that entice new users into joining the community. The great thing about the cryptosphere is that the spending and transaction history remains public yet pseudonymous. For example, transactions on the blockchain will read “0x12345 paid 0x34556 $4.00” rather than “Gabbie paid Jack $4.00 for 🍻.” This safe transparency allows for merchants and other entities to develop direct and meaningful reward systems with customers. Let’s say that 0x32456 is Jack’s go-to Thai restaurant. Throughout a few months, he buys four dinners from them and earns 100 points that could be redeemed for a spring roll, bubble tea, or another item from their menu. These loyalty programs not only create direct relationships with customers, but also generate healthy environments for competition and innovation.
Perhaps the ultimate, loftier goal of such a reward system is to dismantle the reign of search ads. Instead of bombarding web users with search ads, merchants could focus their attention on the data contained within these rewards systems. The Thai restaurant could track Jack’s purchase history and then offer him enticing new deals, rewards, and more. Access to such a sui generis combination of public and private data is a marketer’s dream. We are currently designing our Tally protocol to generate this type of reward system, where analysis across individuals and merchants alike will help assemble formulas for loyalty memberships, points, and rewards. Tally will ultimately construct meaningful relationships with customers based on purchase rewards such as freebies, promotional materials, and exciting incentives.
An easy user experience is key to ensuring the successful integration of Web 3.0 into the mainstream
Ultimately, we plan to develop Card Pay into such a consumer go-to that it will become a commonplace tool for regular transactions like paying rent. Really, wouldn’t it be great if both tenant and landlord could earn extra rewards for choosing to settle the rent bill with Card Pay? A tenant could earn certain points, much like an advanced version of Robux, and withdraw to Ethereum mainnet via stablecoins like DAI or USDC, which, then, could be transferred to a bank account.
Card Flow, our transactional workflow system, will operate in ways that will allow this utopia to take shape. It functions much like Venmo, where users of the app withdraw funds from their bank and then use the Venmo-funds to enable transactions with peers; Venmo-funds basically serve as cash, and their values are accepted by most everyone. Card Flow works in very similar ways, following a sequence that establishes value and transacts through app-to-app, permission-based methods.
Lastly, we want to truly tap into the DeFi ecosystem and create a schema that will allow fundholders to earn yields for holding their balances in the network on-chain rather than in their bank accounts. A standard bank account awards approximately .025% APR while DeFi provides between 4% and 8% thanks to a strong yield potential made possible through staking rewards, fair lending rates, equitable distribution fees, and exchange rewards. There are simply more opportunities to earn money.
Of course, after a handful of effective renovations, the shift from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 can be made, but its development should also address why it should be made. The obvious motivation here is that using Web 3.0 will be much, much easier than using Web 2.0. The web will be a more globalized, equilateral experience capable of expanding and augmenting localized platforms — such as WeChat in China and Square in the US — into international networks. Cross-border transactions today are very complicated and limited, yet the current nature of commerce demands fluidity and singularity. After all, platforms such as Uber Eats and Postmates operate as digital takeout menus that require large payments to be split between drivers, restaurants, the apps themselves, and the government tax. We need one network payment for all, where storefronts and marketplaces are customizable and where payment is easy and universal. Card Space and Card Pay will be the first to pave the way.
Learn more
This article is Part 2 of our “Making Web 3.0 Usable” series. Part 1 highlighted 10 reasons why Web 3.0 has yet to take off.
Interested to learn more about Cardstack?
Check out the resources below:
DeFi Payments With Card Pay
Watch the video | Read the article
Card Pay Protocol: For a New Software Economy
Watch the video | Read the article
Introducing Card Space
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