Imagining The Integrated Crypto Investment And Banking For Gen Z

Published in

GizaLab

5 min readApr 8, 2022

an image displays expanded elements of the mobile app’s user interface

”To be successful, the bank of the future will need to embrace emerging technology, remain flexible to adopt evolving business models, and put customers at the center of every strategy.” — Deloitte on Future of Banking.

Blockchain technology opens huge opportunities in our world. In the first wave, we can see how cryptocurrencies were born and rose in the past decade. Then the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) and Metaverses come. Those are just the tip of what it can do.

Blockchain technology can also be used in other industries, including banks. As experience designers, we might think about how this new emerging technology can benefit our customers, no? So, aside from being new and the regulation still in the grey zone, we would like to imagine what if we could integrate the (centralized) banking and (decentralized) crypto products because we see potential in them.

The Opportunities

Cryptocurrencies gain more and more momentum each year. Making them more valuable. You might recall the refugee who got saved because he had bitcoin on the network, so when he fled from Ukraine to Poland he still had “borderless money” to save him and his family because there was no centralized authority to block them.
In Indonesia, the official government signaled a green light to treat crypto tokens as investment instruments, but not for money exchange. Still, it is a good start.

The Pain Points

However, there is a learning curve for the new customer to start investing or getting into cryptocurrencies and other products.
There is already awareness about cryptocurrencies in the market but only a few have a good understanding. Most of them are just driven by FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).
Since it’s decentralized and open-source, it actually hassles the non-technical people to start on Crypto, because there are too many places to go just to set up their profile. (I’m talking about Tezos Network).

Worry-not, all of these points can also be turned into opportunities.

Potential Market

Who is this product for? Based on Databox KataData; Gen-Z is the biggest chunk of the population with 74.93 million or 27,94% of Indonesia’s total population. On the other hand, the Millennial generation placed the second highest with 69.38 million or 25.87% of the population.

Insights: What Concerns The Potential Market In Banking and Crypto?

Cryptocurrencies don’t have physical evidence that customers can hold. It’s only data. This means if the server or the internet (and electricity) goes down, they can’t access it.
For now, the majority of the population doesn’t trust cryptocurrencies, yet for the early adopters and the risk-takers, they need time and effort to understand what is the bigger picture and how it works.
Doesn’t know how to make decisions when facing risk.
Those who have already started investing have difficulties monitoring and understanding the fluctuation of the asset.
Gen-Z is the youngest generation currently. They may have already created some bank accounts when they were in high school and college, but they just discovered and utilized more bank products and services when they started to work. Interestingly, they already had awareness about financial literacy at a young age from social media.

an infographic illustrating the type of things that concerns the Gen-Z and millennials to start investing in cryptocurrencies

How Might We

Design the integrated crypto investment and banking for Gen-Z so they can learn and earn financial directly from the products.

THE PROPOSED SOLUTION

Introducing evoltbank: a (fictional) super mobile banking app where the digital bank and cryptocurrencies marketplace become one. With crypto-advisor to help customers onboard digital banking and crypto-investment.

WHY BANK?

I would like to state a disclaimer first: that this case study is purely based on our aspirations and hope from the customer’s perspective. So, this product idea doesn’t have compliance checking with the regulation.

We decided to take the bank as the base idea of the solution because of these findings:

The first Gen-Z experience and touchpoint on financial service is usually the bank.
We found out that most of them already have opened a bank account since high school and college years, but the usage is limited to receiving money either from their parents, scholarships, or educational competitions.
Only after Gen-Z started working or reached adulthood, they started to utilize more bank products and services.
So, we are confident that the bank is the doorway to lead Gen -Z to other financial products.

Key Features

1. Exchange to Foreign Currencies and Seamless Transaction

The future bank for Gen-Z needs to provide seamless currencies exchange since for the customer, they work and have financial activities worldwide. Gen-Z and millennials are considered global citizens.

A mobile app’s user interface design of a screen for foreign currency exchange

2. Crypto Advisor

For newbies who already have interests in Crypto Assets but still need assistance in starting their journey, the advisor will assist them in performing market analysis, token background analysis, and other fundamental stuff to help users do their own research.