How many ICOs does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
And why I’m not drinking the Kool-Aid
“What keeps the blockchain from the real world?”
“Why aren’t you on the blockchain?”
In one sentence, I don’t care. It sounds harsh, but those are the facts. The 9 to 5ers don’t care about cool technology. The rest of the world couldn’t care less about security. Most of them are too busy trying to make a living, keep up with family, stay connected with friends, and maintain sanity. They don’t have time to learn about the amazing progress being made in the blockchain world.
If it doesn’t make my life easier, I don’t care.
I do care about the goings on in the world. I watched the latest SpaceX launch with just as much fascination as everyone else. I care about the things in my community. I care about where technology is going. I care about the future. Thus far, nothing from the blockchain community has been presented beyond cool funny money that enables me to change the way I buy things by adding more steps and risk to it. Unless I was looking to invest in an unstable market, no blockchain has yet to come across as having a positive affect on my life.
In order to get public attention, the blockchain community as a whole needs to develop things that are going to impact people’s lives in a meaningful way.
A great example at an attempt to make this happen is Nebeus . They are currently trying to make a card that you are able to use cryptocurrencies directly with your mastercard in real time. While this is great, it still doesn’t hit the spot. The audience that this serves are people trying to use crypto as an actual currency for day to day purchases.
The target market for this is actually very small.
In the real world a 45 year old working mom of two has zero need for Nebeus. It doesn’t actually make her life easier. In the future it could, but she has zero reason to jump on the blockchain band wagon right now, so she won’t. She’s trying to figure out how to get both kids from school without having to leave her job.
This is what makes changing the world with the blockchain even harder than doing things with actual software. Not only do you have to convince people that this piece of tech will make their lives easier, you also have to show them why in is on a blockchain. Blockchain based companies have a double sell to make.
The way that most companies are trying to make this sell is to incentivize with money. The problem there is that most people think money means scam. That somehow whatever you are offering has to be worse than your competitor or an outright lie for them to gain capital from it.
There are a few people currently in the marketplace trying to make this happen. Etherium Classic for one is trying to encourage what has been declared as the second wave of blockchains.
The second wave is theoretically a series of blockchain based companies offering solutions to real world problems that happen to be on a blockchain. The blockchain, while a necessary component, isn’t what the big sell is. The big sell are actual products with actual solutions.
People need technology that will help them in their everyday lives
Apps that can do things like deliver homework assignments to teachers reliably, navigation apps that keep 100% real time track of traffic and construction, software that keeps track of athlete’s physical performance reliability in real time. These are the kinds of things that can bring the blockchain to the rest of the world.
Bottom line is if you want to make an impact, you are going to have to be impactful on someone’s life in a positive way. The benefits will have to be almost instantly tangible for consumers. A great non-blockchain example is Streamlabs OBS.
Streamlabs OBS took the open source streaming platform from Open Broadcast Software and made the UI significantly easier to use. They also natively placed a library of constantly updating layouts for anyone wanting to just plug and play. The first time you boot up Streamlabs OBS it automatically does the first seven to twelve steps for the user. You don’t even need a guide. It does everything for you, allows you to customize your live stream or choose from a few hundred defaults, and with the press of a button you are instantly live-streaming to the world.
Streamlabs was able to take free software and make it function like software that people are currently paying $30 to $100 a month to use, like XSplit. All the while Streamlines kept it 100% free to use.
If you want to make a blockchain that will expand beyond our community these are the projects you need to tackle. Projects that are going to make someone’s life better for having used the platform. This is what it will take. You have to give value to get value. While we are all trying to do that, we need to look at what the marketplace actually needs, then build it.
