What is the biggest hurdle for the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies these days?

Some say it is the volatility and speculation, others say it is the lack of scalability and you can even find some that will tell you it is the absence of regulations scaring the crowd out. All these issues are valid, but which is really the biggest one? In fact is it even in the list? I do not think so, in my opinion the real glass-ceiling is much simpler: it’s the user experience.

Blocked Path

Want to own the wallet where your cryptos are stored? Download this. Want to be a node and mine your first coin? Install and configure that. Want to introduce someone with an average attention span to cryptocurrencies? Make him swallow this pill of Adderall and take the afternoon. Think I exaggerate? Sadly I don’t.

“Only 43 GB to install?” said no one ever.

Here is the paradox: if the number of projects and research has absolutely exploded since the first Bitcoin Core version was released in 2009, nothing much has changed in the way we handle cryptocurrencies, they remain a tool for relatively tech savvy people. This is a big deal because the majority of the population, even in first world countries, is actually quite computer illiterate and contrary to a popular belief: it doesn’t get any better with new generations.

Still, acquiring cryptocurrencies is visibly not as hard as it used to be but there is quite big a difference between buying few BTC on Coinbase because it’s trendy, keeping them on it just to speculate, never moving them out (which by the way defeats the main purpose of acquiring them) and actually being proficient at using them as a tool to exchange value and achieve financial sovereignty.

In consequence, even if the back-end progresses, mainstream adoption will not happen as long as the front-end remains as a bottleneck.

The rise of Webapps

If you are a millennial or older you probably noticed three things about software during the last decade:

they are now called “apps”

we install more of them on our phones than on our personal computers

in fact we install less and less of them on our desktops and instead use them through internet

In the meantime, the web-browser became the “second desktop” of our computers, the shortcuts and “All Programs” menu is now competing with the bookmark listing URL.

The reason for this change is rather simple: web-based applications are easy. There is nothing to install, nothing to configure and the apps are accessible everywhere no matter the device as long as it has a browser and an internet connection.

This simplicity has enabled some webapps to spread like wildfire and easily replace clients or local solutions. A recent example would be Discord, a chat/VoIP webapp which has totally taken over the gaming world and dethroned decades old solutions like Mumble or Teamspeak in less than 3 years. How did they do that? They just allowed people to use their product in two clicks without having to install anything:

The hardest part is to find a good nickname

Sadly there isn’t such thing for cryptocurrencies right now… or maybe there is?

Nimiq or a simpler crypto experience

Some people did the diagnostic one year ago and they decided it was time to cure this ambient “user-hostility” in the world of cryptocurrencies, for that they launched a project called “Nimiq”.

Nimiq is the first browser-based blockchain, it’s a payment protocol completely built from the ground up using JavaScript and determined to solve the big issue of accessibility.

The tour de force of the project is to let everyone to automatically set up a wallet and transact in few clicks by just going on a website, but more than that it allows you to become a node and mine on the network in mere seconds too, thanks to the mini-blockchain technology. Overall this is a totally unmatched inclusive experience in the sector right now.

From crypto-newbie to a blockchain power-user in 60 seconds

However Nimiq doesn’t end here, not only does it considerably lower the entry barrier, it opens a world of possibilities to monetize content on internet: you could use browser mining to tip someone, to solve a captcha or launch a mine-per-view system in a completely decentralized and feeless manner (unlike existing solutions like Coinhive).

A community project called Coinmiq allowing users to tip by calculating a defined number of hashes

Now will Nimiq fulfill its Apple-esque goal of making the first cryptocurrency ready to be used by the masses? I think so but rendez-vous this Saturday at 11:00 PM UTC for the mainnet launch to see its first act.