The blockchain industry has a collective identity crisis. Those who believe in its promise are sworn-in, unrelenting in their faith of the power of decentralization. Those who are not yet familiar remain entirely ambivalent. The loyalists preach to the choir; while the rest of the world carries on regardless.

To some, this scenario neatly falls into the ‘early adopter’ cycle. The more informed buyers adopt the latest and greatest, while the masses follow at a snails pace. I disagree. What’s really holding all these blockchain applications back is the simplest — yet most complex — of all marketing efforts: the story.

The story is everything. Products, services and brands live and die by the value they create and provide for their end user. Add value, be valued. The story is the distillation of a product or service down to it’s most valuable proposition. An unclear or misunderstood story is the single greatest barrier to adoption.

Remember, a story is not a tagline. A story is omnipresent, it should permeate every facet of the business and be reflected in every move it makes — from it’s customer strategy to commercial. Simple example: Disney uses all manner of disposable tag lines across it’s various properties, but their story remains consistent: Disney is magic.

Plenty of blockchain products and services are telling stories. The problem is that they’re telling the wrong ones.

Let’s look at some examples:

Status is an excellent idea but consider the messaging:

Here’s another. Virtue Poker:

And how about uPort:

Now, these are all incredible ideas and amazing breakthroughs in their own right. The problem is that their entry points are misaligned, not showing their true value.

The end user doesn’t care about becoming ‘a light client node on the Ethereum Network’, they don’t care about ‘cryptographically signed hand results’, and no they don’t care about ‘Self-sovereign ID’s either (yet). The end user cares about the value — what will this thing do for me. Will it protect me? Help me realize a goal? Make me more attractive?

(Yes, the technological underpinnings are worth explaining — but that’s feature messaging, not storytelling.)

The biggest obstacle for mass market adoption of these platforms is inertia. It’s easier to do nothing than it is to do something — even if that something is good for you.

You break inertia with a compelling story.

Let’s look at those examples again…

What does Status actually solve for? Well, lots of things, but at it’s most basic: Community. It’s a place to discover and explore people, products, and services (i.e. other Status users & various dApps). On a fundamental level then, Status is similar in many respects to WeChat. This is WeChat’s core message:

The story is succinct, clear and compelling. The end user understands the value and buys into the proposition. Everything thereafter can almost be classed as ‘surprise and delight’ — features and concepts that build on the initial value.

Virtue Poker? A decentralized network means the end user isn’t beholden to hidden game logic, hence the service is less about luck and more about skill. A skills-based game. How does that change the proposition? Maybe Virtue Poker is the elite poker player’s solution — best of the best. An annual tournament of the best players on the platform; a weekly content series with playing tips; a +1 referral system à la Dribbble; etc etc. This clarity in the story immediately has massive ramifications across the entire business.

Now we’re not talking about great blockchain ideas, we’re talking about great ideas. The story is accessible and relatable. The end user sees the value — understands the story — and buys into the promise.

These stories are opportunities: they let your ideas find their audience; they help define the channels you use to reach them; and crucially they frame the conversation. You’re no longer selling a great technology, you’re selling a great idea.

It’s time for the blockchain community to move outside the echo chamber and penetrate the mass market. It’s time to tell stories.