Right now, cryptocurrency is experiencing a surge of users that is unlike anything ever experienced in history. However, it is still in its nascent stages. The Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Report, released by Cambridge University in April of this year pegged the total number of cryptocurrency users worldwide at somewhere between 2.9 million and 5.8 million (https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/fileadmin/user_upload/research/centres/alternative-finance/downloads/2017-04-20-global-cryptocurrency-benchmarking-study.pdf). While this data is somewhat outdated and at least a million users have likely signed up in the months since its release, cryptocurrency is still tiny compared to the decrepit and rotting giants of fiat or the stock exchanges.
However, this does not need to be the case. Unlike fiat or stocks, the barriers to entry are technical rather than material. For years, it has been possible for anyone with a modicum of technical expertise to download and install a wallet, hook up a mining client, join a pool, and have a couple tokens of some sort at the end of the day to play with. Other innovations like Steem (where this is first being posted as my first post to test the system) use proprietary social networks to reward user engagement with tokens. However, getting someone to update their computer is often difficult, forget about compiling a wallet and keeping track of a passphrase. This has kept cryptocurrency somewhat in the shadows over the past years, though the light of attention is beginning to pierce this veil. What remains is the creation of an easy way to onboard users and introduce them into the world of cryptocurrency in a safe, friendly, and –most importantly– easy way.
This is where the potential of ReddCoin ($RDD) stands out so clearly. Designed with ease of use in mind, ReddCoin is beginning to make it possible to bring people into the world of cryptocurrency without them even knowing that is what they are doing. Currently, this user integration takes the form of tipping bots on Twitch and Twitter, as well as the ReddCoin Slack Channel (rdd-dev.slack.com). However, in the future, the Redd-ID, which is currently in its final stages of development, will link all social media accounts under a single ID which can be used for everything from tipping to social-media based e-commerce. Why give a like, when you can show how much you like something with ReddCoin? The latest summer mountain photo or beach bikini shoot beings a potential for greater profitability for content creators in the form of ReddCoin “tips”. Fundraising for social or political causes also takes on an entirely new dimension in a ReddCoin world. In an era when companies like YouTube are finding ways to squeeze their broadcasters, ReddCoin presents an accessible and attractive alternative to the typical system of emojis and likes.
More importantly, there is the potential for a tremendous network effect to be leveraged by introducing ReddCoin to more vanilla forms of social networking like Facebook. According to their site statistics, Facebook had over 2,000,000,000 active users in the month of June, 2017; that is almost 1/3 of the population of the entire planet. If only a tiny fraction of these users can be convinced that ReddCoin is a viable way for them to conduct the business of their social lives online, then they will drive massive adoption. Built into a browser extension or mobile wallet, the Redd-ID and ReddCoin could redefine social media.