Technology always starts out a bit fragmented. However, as time passes and development takes place, systems emerge that enable interaction among the different players.
For example, do you know the system one is using when you get an email? Does it matter what network that person is on? The answer is often no. One can read an email whether it was sent from Gmail, Yahoo, or a private server. The same is true for SMS. When one receives a text, the mobile network is not important. All can communicate with each other to deliver what is needed.
That is not the case presently with cryptocurrency. We see the different networks operating on their own. They do not communicate with each other. This is a problem for large scale, maximum growth.
Thus, we have an industry right now that is fragmented.
It is vital to remember that cryptocurrency is nothing more than data. In this way, it is similar to an email or text. There is nothing more than data transferred from one node to another. Of course, with a blockchain, all those transfers are monitored and recorded in an immutable way.
We can see how much less effective email would be if we were only able to communicate with those who were on the same network. What if you could only email those who were on Gmail like yourself? That would exclude all private servers or competing email services.
Of course, this was something that was common for the early Internet. AOL tried to establish was basically was a closed system whereby only people within its network could communicate.
This ending up failing as the idea, hopefully, is preposterous to most people. Yet we accept it as natural in the world of crypto networks.
In fact, we not only accept this, we even go so far as to promote the idea of tribalism. People take their stand and proclaim how their network is the greatest. Bitcoin maximalists are known for this yet they are far from the only ones. We are now seeing a lot of Ethereum maximalists appearing who believe that all future digital activity will be done on that chain.
When asked about which chain will be heavily used in the future, my reply is simply "all of them". We are going to need the bandwidth that all offer. It is impossible to run everything on a chain like Ethereum. No matter how much scaling it does, it will not be able to transfer that data we have now, let alone what will be created in the future.
Thus, we are looking at a situation where all the capacity for both bandwidth and storage is going to be required.
For this to occur, we need the networks to communicate with each other, either directly or through out applications. We are starting to see some of this where projects are setting out to develop their systems on different blockchains. This is crucial for success going forward.
The ability to swap tokens seamlessly, easily, and for a low cost is vital to mass adoption. People are not going to want to take the time to figure out what network each wallet applies to. This will really become an issue when tokenization becomes mainstream.
For example, let's say someone is recommended an exercise application by a friend. This is one where the person can earn tokens for certain activities. He or she goes the the Apple or Google store to download the application. It loads and the person is ready to go.
Oops, there is a problem. Before starting, one needs to sign up. This means getting an assortment of keys in addition to the ones already held. Being somewhat advanced in this area, the person does it.
Getting active, the person earns the tokens. Now what? This is not a token he or she is familiar with? It is not traded on any major exchanges. This is not found on Ethereum using Uniswap. Nor is it a BSC token.
So our industrious, exercising crypto advocate has to hunt down the blockchain it is on to see how to swap the tokens for something he or she values.
We can only imagine this process when dealing with merchants. Hit upon a website where one wants to buy something to see an assortment of tokens that are accepted. What if this individual isn't on those networks? How does he or she transact?
This shows how much work still needs to be done in the future to achieve a state whereby cryptocurrency can actually function in a realistic manner. We would not tolerate this fragmentation from the Internet yet we still think it normal in crypto.
Complexity is not an advantage when it comes to mass adoption. People do not like stuff that is extremely difficult to use. Hence, the next major challenge of the crypto world is to make things a lot easier. Ease of use is a priority.
The majority of users do not care what blockchain (network) their transactions are stored upon. They only want to utilize the application. This is why the idea of promoting a blockchain makes little sense in my opinion. Does anyone really care where this website (or any for that matter) is hosted? Of course not. That back end stuff bores people.
Blockchain, at its essence is very boring. We might not believe it since we tied the tokens to it, hence it is monetized. However, set that aside for a moment and how interesting are things.
Consider the basics of Hive versus Ethereum. How much does transaction per second turn you on? Are you thrilled to ponder block sizes? What about total traffic for a day? Let us not forget the amount of memory to run the different nodes.
I don't know about you, but I can hardy contain myself. This is stuff that is going to come up with the family at the dinner table. Hours could be spent on in depth conversation.
Certainly, there are some who this appeals to. However, most people do not care about this. Nor are they interested in protocols or anything else of this nature. Trying to promote this idea is misguided from the start.
People only care what they are using and what is in it for them. They download an application, game, or hit upon a particular website and they want to engage. Where all the stuff is happening on the back end is not relevant to them. They only care that it works.
Thus, we are going to see the entire industry have to focus upon interoperability. Those that do not are going to be left on an island by themselves. Just like AOL had to abandon the idea of creating its own isolated system where everyone was locked in, the same is true for the world of crypto.
Outside of developers, the focus of branding has to be upon what the users are interested in. This is the applications. Those that build a brand which enables people to interact on the networks they see fit is what will hold broader appeal. That is where the outreach can come from.
To achieve this end, we need to think about interoperability. Enabling cross-chain interaction is vital. There is no reason why these networks cannot co-exist. In fact, they have to. There is no way to scale up to mass adoption level with fragmented systems.
It is the key to crypto's future.
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