Crypto Retail Is Back, But It’s Different This Time
As I discuss in my book, cryptocurrency was first sought as a kind of money that some thought might revolutionize the retail industry. Early proponents believed Bitcoin would be a stable and robust currency to allow shoppers to pay for goods online and in brick and mortar stores. The technology was clever enough, but it quickly became apparent that Bitcoin was ill-suited for the task. Transaction times were too slow, security was difficult, user experience was cumbersome, and ultimately, these early flirtations with retail adoption soured. By my reckoning, since 2014–2015 retail applications of cryptocurrencies have been on a downward slide (Figure 1).
In the years since, cryptocurrencies have financialized while blockchains and their token economics have emerged as sector-specific solutions for existing business applications. Today, blockchain technologies are enriching commerce, but not as simple replacements for cash.
On a rainy Seattle afternoon a few months ago, I sat down with the team at EVERY. I went in thinking EVERY was trying to invent a better Bitcoin for use in the retail sector. I came away as an advisor[1], impressed by how EVERY was approaching the retail industry in a new way. The pain points for retail were never really a lack of options for payments or technical deficiencies, so any perceived improvements that Bitcoin brought were fundamentally misaligned with the needs of the industry. Throw in some wonky economics, an overheated investment market, and a couple of outstanding technical issues, and Bitcoin simply missed the retail boat. However, as this meeting made clear, the team at EVERY has decades of experience in the retail industry and seemed to know where the existing challenges lie. As I investigated EVERY more closely on my own, I realized that retail is an enormously complex industry that has less to do with selling stuff and more to do with data collection, data transmission and sharing, logistics, and resource management.
So, the EVERY platform is attempting to bring back crypto retail, but it is different this time. EVERY attempts to connect brands directly with consumers, who themselves have access to and control of their personal information. In this way, consumers are also more deeply invested in the consumer experience, seeking better not necessarily just cheaper consumer experiences. This is, of course, a big opportunity for brands and retailers, who are able to learn more about their customers and therefore incentivize them. Functionally, retail payment integrates with existing ecommerce solutions, but even for the parties transacting on the backend, payment is no longer a dumb pipe. Smart contracts, for example, could enable automated logistics and financing (potentially including credit offerings that would traditionally tie up cash).
Over the next couple of months, as an advisor for EVERY, I will dig into the realities of using blockchain technologies for retail and investigate how blockchain technologies can potentially overcome some of these information challenges. In future posts, I’ll discuss some of the social and technical hurdles, such as governance, privacy, brand engagement, blockchain mutability, and the changing nature of retail commerce in a blockchain world.
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[1] As an advisor, I am compensated by EVERY. However, I have complete editorial control over my writing and I conduct my research independent of the organization. I maintain an up-to-date financial disclosure statement on my personal website.
About Quinn: He is currently a postdoctoral Research Associate at the School of Information, University of Washington. He has a PhD in Information Science (Toronto), and is an ALA-accredited librarian (Western), with a decade of industry experience as a Senior Information Specialist at IBM and IT consulting. His current research focuses on ethical practices of computer security researchers, and cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies. He is a member of the Standards Council of Canada and ISO blockchain standardization committees, Chair of the IEEE Blockchain Initiative, Chief Governance Officer at Qubit Protocol, Advisor at SHOP, and Partner at Rothbadi & Co. His book, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains (2018, Polity), is a scholarly survey of cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies in society.
