We open discussions a lot on “blockchain/crypto mass adoption” and the majority of time we concentrate this on “investment” when talking about bringing this technology to the masses and it's becoming increasingly evident on how little we've achieved as a result that this isn't the approach we are supposed to adopt for marketing the innovations of this ecosystem.
Banking the unbanked is cool, but it's also a largely limited movement, and considering how complicated blockchain is, and how crypto transactions seem like something out of a Sci-fi movie, we aren't exactly in the best of positions to be merching with the whole “banking the unbanked” agenda.
In addition, the movement focused on capturing the aforementioned population neglects seeking to understand if the unbanked wish to be banked in the first place.
I am convinced that there are a lot of people who don't care about the banking system and really wish to leave it that way. It's not a case of technology apathy, but rather, a case of not really finding good-enough reasons to be involved.
Majority of such people see the flaws and decide to keep off. Preaching how different crypto is won't magically change the fact that many of previous flaws do exist in the current ecosystem, even in a far worse way, in terms of security at least.
As such, we are supposed to meet these people at their needs.
What are the problems they face? What are their routines? What would best improve their lives rather than rapidly change it?
The mission of technological developments is to improve lives, not force an undesired change down people's throats. Thus, our marketing campaigns should reflect “improvement of lives and businesses, not forced change”.
The Japanese Society Showing Real-world use-case of Blockchain
The Akita Inu, a majestic breed hailing from Japan’s northern prefecture of Akita, has gained international acclaim in recent years. To combat rising concerns about pedigree forgery and lost documents, the Akita Inu Preservation Society is embracing the digital age. They’ve partnered with a tech firm to develop a secure system using blockchain technology, the same system that underpins cryptocurrencies.
The Akita Inu Preservation Society has witnessed a surge in overseas membership, with numbers jumping from 300 in 2022 to nearly 500 in 2023. This international interest presents a challenge – ensuring the secure and efficient delivery of pedigree certificates.
Traditionally issued on paper, these documents were prone to getting lost in transit, especially for overseas recipients. The society even encountered a case of forged paperwork in China a few years ago, highlighting the need for a more robust system.
Partnering with Meta Akita Inc., a local IT firm, and Heirloom Inc., a US company, the dog preservation society has developed a revolutionary system for issuing digital pedigree certificates.
Blockchain, known for its secure and transparent nature, creates a digital ledger that tracks every transaction – in this case, the ownership history of an Akita. This eliminates the risk of forgery, as any attempt to tamper with the data would be immediately recognizable..
Truly, it's no news the role blockchain technology plays in legitimizing documents, but the couple of times we've discussed blockchain's tech - NFTs specifically - use-case in improving certification issuance by creating a platform for tracking the validity or authenticity of certifications, we've only ever pictured college degrees and the likes, never truly thought about businesses such as ones dealing with dogs leveraging this technology to build trust in their company, yet, here we are.
This simply shows us how limitless the possibilities are. It's only understandable that with more and more businesses adopting blockchain for building business trust, selected chains will experience network value surge as fees ought to be paid(even when that's a few cents), the size of the market in mention would make such adoption significant in a broader spectrum.
We are talking about millions in daily transactions for various business purposes. Most of these people are not interested in investing in the said network, just there to process business transactions, hence buying network assets enough to fund their operations and go on with their day.
This is the true sense of mass adoption, until we get there, we are not a largely sustainable ecosystem because for our economy to be largely resilient, we need spenders that buy to spend so that value can flow to the invested and keep them locked in over an extended period of time.