One of the criteria investors use to determine wheter a project is good or not is utility. But what does that word really mean?
Does crypto really have use cases?
The short answer is, of course, yes. But the actual question is much more complicated.
Nearly all of my readers are experienced crypto users with varied levels of proficiency but at least basic knowledge of blockchain and cryptocurrency, so it's very likely that you fall into the category of people who scream, "YES! Of course crypto has use cases!"
That is especially true considering that most of my reader base is on Hive, a blockchain that enables many use cases for cryptocurrency.
But for the masses out there, that doesn't necessarily hold true.
The rise of memecoins
For most of the so-called "normies", cryptocurrency is nothing but a speculative asset that can be traded for profit. That has been the case ever since Bitcoin started to break out from the crypto degen bubble and it's been kicked into overdrive with the recent memecoin craze.
Memecoins, as a rule, don't have any utility and yet people swarm to invest in them - and, in most cases, lose their money - every time a new one is launched, reinforcing the notion that crypto is nothing but a trading product.
Crypto use cases
Those who dare to venture beyond the speculative nature of cryptocurrency quickly find out that the underlying technology of blockchain offers a myriad of use cases.
Over the last few months, I have been writing extensively about many different blockchains that are using the power of crypto to create real use cases, seeking to solve real-world problems in a way that legacy technology just can't or won't do.
I'm talking about Story which is tokenizing Intelectual Property, enabling users to monetize their ideas and AI companies to compliantly build on IP; Ondo Chain, a Layer 1 blockchain dedicated to real-world asset tokenization or Venice.ai which is building a private and permissionless AI platform on the blockchain.
These are just a few examples to show that, while blockchain technology is still in its infancy, it's already positioning itself to disrupt many industries by offering real utility to users in different aspects of their lives.
However, there is one subset of crypto that is leading the charge in demonstrating real use cases for the general population. I'm talking about stablecoins.
Stablecoins: the driving force
Stablecoins are definitely leading cryptocurrency adoption in traditional finance by solving practical problems and limitations imposed by the legacy system.
As I mentioned in a recent article, stablecoins are being used as a workaround to cross-border payments in emerging markets, where traditional banks are often unable or very slow to process that type of payment. The rise of stablecoins enabled companies such as Starlink to expand their market to places like South America and Africa, enabling users to pay for their services, which was not possible before.
Companies like Kast are picking on that trend and establishing partnerships with traditional institutions such as Visa to bring the benefits of cryptocurrency to the masses without all the hurdles and complexity of blockchain ecosystems.
That's the reason why stablecoins are the best example of an actual use case for cryptocurrency.
The challenge now is to build on that momentum and introduce people to everything else that blockchain and crypto have to offer. I don't know what project or projects will accomplish that but I'm sure they will be very rewarded because there is a lot of capital in the "real world" just waiting to be brought over to the crypto space.
Final thoughts
While experienced crypto users are well aware of the many use cases cryptocurrency and blockchain can offer, the average person struggles to see crypto as anything other than trading products.
Bridging that gap will be very challenging, but there is hope for stablecoins. The financial system is already adopting this type of crypto asset and it's already solving real-world problems. Hopefully, stablecoins projects will eventually be widespread enough to enable the transition to the rest of the crypto ecosystem.