At AmaZix, we talk a lot about community. For those not familiar with the industry, it can be an effort of orientation, because the traditional business world hardly uses this term.

In the business world, they are more used to dealing with customers, with users, with consumers.

Blockchain innovations have done so much, even in its relatively short time, to change the way businesses think. Most obviously, the urge to exert influence and maintain control is now giving way to a new model of commerce, where decentralized mechanisms promote the empowerment of individuals, trusting that in a transparent and democratic system, the intrinsic nature of people will gravitate towards common objectives. This then results in a greater collective benefit in methods which are ultimately more efficient and effective than centralized models with singular agendas.

The crypto community — whether we view it as the global network of cryptocurrency users, or as the multiple organic collectives of advocates and developers, or as the mass of traders speculating on the only market that never sleeps — is the entire physical representation of this industry.

The people that belong to this community are effectively the beating heart of crypto and blockchain.

Even as we consider ourselves experts in our field, we find that we learn so much from the community. And we know that there is still much more to learn, so we must keep interacting, keep listening, keep engaging.

1. The crypto community isn’t on one end of the business spectrum

End users. That’s the old way of looking at communities.

But in the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain, the community encompasses so much more than just end users consuming products and services. They are the customers, true, but when the eventual success of a blockchain project relies almost solely on adoption, it’s not far-fetched to say that the crypto community is also very much the product.

Once you’ve spent so much time with blockchain projects — particularly open source ones — you’ll notice a trend of development that keeps pace with its community participation. Bitcoin, the oldest project of all, is a perfect example of this. Its largely organic ecosystem is one that voluntarily contributes ideas and proposals, resulting in continued development and technological upgrades.

Commercial blockchain startups may never be able to replicate this fully, but they can learn a lot from the way communities mirror progress. The projects with the most active developments often also have the most engaged communities — after all, it is users who demand features that need developing, it is coders who are first to find your bugs and even suggest fixes, it is social influencers who spread the word about your product and service.

Businesses need to start viewing their communities in a different way now. Communities are highly-educated, highly-informed and deeply vested. In our AmaZix Community Snapshot, we discovered that almost a fifth (18.3%) of our community were full-time traders, while a staggering third (33.9%)of them were crypto professionals providing either products or services.

2. The crypto community embodies two-way communication

One thing we noticed about many blockchain startups was that communication was still very much a top-down process, where developments and updates were announced from the management, to trickle down to the community of supporters.

Many a project relied — with some success — on the reputations and influence of ambassadors or developers to garner support. Ethereum, despite having many co-founders and core developers, will always be associated with Vitalik Buterin, and Litecoin with Charlie Lee, for example. For the most, these projects largely received the support of the community, with whichever directions their founders and leadership took.

But this ignores the incredible resources and knowledge at the disposal of communities. Arguably, users are better positioned to ensure the project is on its way to mass adoption, with a greater network effect than ever before.

We carefully curate, via VIP members of our Community Rewards program, a growing pool of crypto influencers across various social media platforms — each of them unique in their reach of language, geography, and expertise. Thanks to them, we not only communicate the messages of our partners to the community, but we also receive feedback and ideas from them, which we then ensure are transmitted back to projects.

As our survey intimated as well, many of our community members (59.8%) found their way to AmaZix via friends, family, and colleagues. Word of mouth is still a powerful tool used by the crypto community.

3. Crypto communities are more diverse than we think

What do we know about who uses crypto? Although there have been more cases of individual research conducted over the past two years, more comprehensive demographics studies from credible sources are still painfully scarce.

Cambridge started the ball rolling with the Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study conducted in 2017, using data from over 150 organizations, but still contained common limitations from current studies:

a. the data was focused on high-ranked crypto, almost ignoring a segment that is invisible simply because of market capitalization. While it is true that users of top-ranked assets are among those that are most invested in the ecosystem of utility, there are incredibly vibrant and active communities within alternative projects whose coins may not enjoy the same price action. The Stanford University’s Folding@Home project is a wonderful example of many crypto communities earning and using alternative crypto for their help in contributing computing power to medical research. Outside the English speaking world, as well, hundreds of thriving projects are being developed with their own active communities on Chinese-based platforms like NEO and Russian-based ones like Waves — none of which were part of the Global Crypto Benchmarking Study.

b. much of current data is derived from developed economies, but it is actually in developing economies where crypto is gaining the most traction among the average person. This may be a case of necessity driving invention, as is the case with privacy currency users in hyperinflation-hit Venezuela with over 1,450 merchants in the Dash network, or a booming use of crypto in countries like Iran and Syria where economic sanctions have crippled citizen’s ability to access global money.

Our own cursory glance at the AmaZix community shows an obvious presence of the AmaZix community in emerging economies: 10% of our members were located in Africa, while the large majority (42%) were located in Asia (a region mismatching highly-developed nations with those having low-scoring development indicators).

At AmaZix, we feel proud to be associated with so many of the world’s best talents, working hard to bring some of the most innovative ideas to light. But perhaps more importantly, we are humbled by the trust given to us by each and every member of our truly global, truly diverse community.

Every interaction with you is an opportunity to learn. And we look forward to getting to know you better each step of the way on this crypto journey.

Curious about what AmaZix can do for you?

We’re always on the lookout for another exciting project to work on. If you’re working in the crypto space and planning an ICO, or just want help managing your communities, we’d love to hear from you.

Reach out to us on the following channels:

1. Telegram: https://t.me/amazix

2. Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmaZixOfficial

3. Website: http://www.amazix.com/

4. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmaZixOfficial

5. Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/AmaZixOfficial/