Crypto is all about three things. (Mainly) Technology, People and Economic Incentives. Bitcoin succeeded because the core technology worked (proof of work) the people happened to be interested, and the Economic incentives were correctly designed (to an extent).
Technology
Now, if we take that framework, and we apply it with new technology, what do we notice? Well firstly, that as far as consumer technology goes, it has gotten cheaper, with better capacity and capabilities, as well as more programmable. When bitcoin was launched the iPhone had barely launched, similarly with software for social leverage such as Facebook, Github, Kickstarter, etc.
In this area, a particular thing has happened in crypto, even though technology has gotten better, more capable and more affordable across the board. The mining sector of most cryptocurrencies had continued to become more complex technologically, with changing hardware and software constantly flooding the market. In this case, we already see a contradiction between cryptoland and normy-land. Normies are heavily accustomed for things to just work, to click a series of buttons and getting donations at GoFundMe, whereas in cryptoland people are accustomed to abandon mining altogether because of the fact that each day the difficulty to mine profitably becomes higher and higher.
People
As far as People, well. Knowledge about cryptocurrencies and about technology, in general, has increased. In 2009, when bitcoin launched, many people thought that some permanent set of the population would never get a Facebook profile, so in that front, we have also changed drastically.
Incentives
As far as Economic incentives, we are in a similar situation. People want to get a huge return on investment. That thingy won't go away.
So, if you mix those things together. And take into account the current context, what would you create?, well, the response is fairly obvious. A cryptocurrency that is easy for the non-technical users of technology, dependent on the most widespread form of technology with access to the internet, and with some goodly design economic incentives.
So, basically, a cryptocurrency that you can mine and use from your phone.
XYO
This project also allows you to mine from your phone, but I frankly never figure it out. It seems to be like the blockchain version of google maps and they have a new proposal to give out rewards which are based on the proof of origin protocol.
Here is a video explaining the project:
However, even though the project, in general, seems interesting and even groundbreaking, the user interface was above my willingness to invest in additional and specific tutorial-hours. I did have their app on my phone for like one month but the way of earning was/is not obvious, I realized that I had to download some tutorials specific to this project and I start watching one that lasted for like 1 hour and a half, I watch 5 minutes and shelve the whole thing for good once I realized I would have to watch the whole thing. I can invest that time learning how to bake Tezos and at least for now the return on investment on that second option will be higher, so, thanks but no thanks XYO project.
Conclusion
Mobile Phones are here to stay, the infrastructure that powers unlimited mobile internet is just getting cheaper and reaching more people, a dominant, coinbase-listed, top ten mobile cryptocurrency is not something that might happen, (provided there is enough time) but that will happen. This is akin to selling stuff online, people in the '90s thought it was unnecessary, but then Amazon came and currently is almost eating Walmart's lunch.
This is not to say that the winners on this space will be the ones listed, maybe not at all, maybe a completely different project will be the top mobile cryptocurrency. Lest just continue to bet on these nascent niche projects and get large enough bags before this whole category within crypto goes parabolic.
Note: The fact that I mention one crypto project doesn't mean that I endorse all the actions taking by their core team.
Outro Links:
LBRY (My favorite, I can upload PDF's, audio and video, and is decentralized, follow me there)