When it comes to Ethereum, the future of adoption remains decentralized, privacy-focused, and non-custodial.

Despite the lukewarm recovery of the cryptocurrency market and concerns about blockchain centralization, 2019 in Ethereum was big on figuring out easy and secure solutions to make decentralization user-friendly.

After the 2017 ICO boom, 2018 was a year of uncertainty and doubt for crypto. As regulators began to exert their influence in the space and the market endured a prolonged bear phase, members of the crypto community as well as outside commentators began to believe that in order to survive, cryptocurrency must compromise the most important of its original blockchain ideals: decentralization, privacy, and autonomy.

Nevertheless, looking back at 2019, it’s clear that those principles remain intact and foremost in the minds of developers working on solutions for the Ethereum blockchain. Moving forward as a community, we must keep in mind that if we dedicate time and effort to building friendly, secure, intuitive ​decentralized​ solutions, we can preserve blockchain ideals without sacrificing adoption.

DeFi and Web3 show value of decentralization, great UX unlocks its potential

Decentralized finance (DeFi) products have seen​ ​considerable growth​ over 2019, but their role in 2020 will be defined in many ways by the quality of a user’s experience. Technologies that can bring traditional finance tools to the blockchain in a trustless manner have the potential to reduce friction and, as a result, bring us closer to a future with a decentralized global economy.

Despite overall security standards improving throughout the space,​ ​major exchange hacks​ continue to happen, highlighting the dangers of centralized control. Decentralized exchanges (DEX) are​ ​becoming more user-friendly​, providing convenience without making users dependent on third parties.

Centralized crypto exchanges​ have grown quickly due to the familiarity of their custodial user experience, but 2020 will be the year when advantages of decentralized finance