Cryptocurrencies are taking over the world, listed on markets – profiting millions. As unrealistic as it sounded during the initial introduction, the current total value of bitcoins that exist is around $156 billion. The crypto industry is often the front page of prominent newspapers around the world, reaching billions of people.
However, an average person scrolling through their Twitter feed is likely not to stop on an article about the market updates on bitcoin. The thing is that people only get excited about the story of bitcoin when its price is shooting up. As the well-established community members often suggest, this young field is not appealing enough to “normies”.
Can you discover more by reading one of the best books to learn Forex or through a casual chat with the crypto enthusiast? Well, according to Forextime, a leading financial services company, the answer is no, for now, but the future might be brighter.
Why are there not so many actively involved people?
Yet again citing the enthusiastic crypto community, it is quite difficult to explain all of these, at a glance ‘nonsense’, to someone who has never had any connection with the sphere. After all, why would we need ‘a new kind of money’ when we already have so many currencies. If you are actively involved in the field, this approach is probably not very appealing to you. However, to foster a more mainstream success in the crypto industry, more involvement and awareness are needed.
What is holding people back from cryptos?
It would be fair to start off with the most obvious reason – It is a new thing. Just like anything else that is being done for the first time, the existence of cryptos also takes some time to be acknowledged. Importantly, it also is linked to pieces of technology that many either do not have access to or simply have no knowledge about how they work.
Just by visiting crypto websites, it’s immediately apparent that owners are trying to use the word crypto very rarely. Take 55brokers as an example, it’s an FX related website but has some crypto content as well. The website clearly avoids this word and tries to mention it next to more familiar words such as CFD or digital money. That is one of the reasons why the crypto enthusiasts’ community mainly consists of young people – kids of the technological era.
The use of jargon
Another major stumbling block on the way of popularizing cryptos is the language. It does not matter what language one’s mother tongue is, hearing BCH, FUD, ICO or BTM will probably not make any sense to them. This creates a wide gap between those in the field and the ones that might potentially be interested.
Even when researching on the internet, finding a decent, fact-based but simplified article about the crypto world is rather difficult. As a result, this growing ecosystem seems far too complicated for someone without much prior knowledge.
Selene Jin, a UX/UI Designer answered a question posed by herself at the Bitcoin conference in London. Why isn’t the average person into bitcoin? She cited the Twitter community, which often says that “Normies don’t understand money, have no long-term vision or the ability to think outside the box”. Jin suggested that the lack of great UX for Bitcoin is another problem with the current demographics. “Bitcoin UX improved a lot over the years, but there are ways we can improve that to push bitcoin even further”.
She also asserted that the majority of developers design platforms in a way that would work for them the most. However, that is not what an average Joe needs.
What if preaching about cryptos is the mission of my life?
To really make people aware of how all of these functions and why it can be beneficial for everyone, fundamental changes need to be made. Meaning, that an individual spreading the news on the streets can not really change a lot. However, there are things that all of us can do to make the crypto world more accessible, more so understandable for average Joes out there.
The same idea was with new features of familiar markets like Forex for example. People felt obligated to spread the word about this amazing forex bonus they found online, and most who would hear these preachers would ignore them completely. Only after the feature got familiarized with the population did it take off.
The first would be language. No, no one should invent a set of new terms substituting the already-existing ones. Instead, make comparisons and put everything in simpler terms. You can not explain what Blockchain is to someone who has never heard of it before through the Google definition. Coming up with analogies is not easy, especially when the subject of discussion is something as ‘complex’ as cryptos. However, step by step, finding relevant ones is possible.
Some people not only lack awareness but also highly doubt the industry. Many people do not trust ‘online money’ in an unusual form. For such people, always have a handful of questions ready to be asked. If someone is strictly rejecting the idea of cryptos, saying that the safest, most reliable form of currency is a good, old buck, make sure to challenge their knowledge about it. This gradually prepares them to accept new concepts after realizing that not everything is exactly the way they think.
Will cryptos ever be more popular?
For now, It is impossible to have a certain answer. The industry is developing quickly within its shell. The enormous size it has gained might be the indicator of more interest and further spread. However, not many things will change until awareness is higher. The benefits of cryptos are not well-known to many. Often, it happens on the contrary, as there are many misconceptions about how they work.
All in all, everyone in the industry should work hard to increase accessibility. Those standing at the top should take the lead in the process. We can not expect more public interest in something that is so exclusive and abstract. Thus, although it won’t do any harm, preaching about cryptos is quite useless for now.
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Interesting related article: “What is a Cryptocurrency?”