Pay-to-use blockchains will never achieve mass adoption

Pay-to-use

It has been good at monkey pictures, scams, arguing on Twitter and speculative trading.

This is not to say that crypto is of no use. It absolutely is. The economic models that crypto enables will eventually be seen as a defining shift in power structures and personal autonomy, if we stop replicating the financial system and inequality that made crypto necessary in the first place.

But only if we make it as easy to use as opening an app or clearing a level in a game. Because that’s what people actually do, in real life.

This is all silly, impossible and just wishful thinking — right?

None of this is impossible.

We’ve just been conditioned to believe it is, as a few people have become very, very (very) rich by promoting pay-to-use foundational blockchains that have niche appeal, at best.

Ethereum is a wonderful innovation that will continue to serve as the foundation for decentralized finance precisely because it is secure, decentralized and slow-moving. But it’s not going to revolutionize gaming, as gamers will not pay gas fees. Period.

Solana is great for NFTs, maybe even for stablecoins. It won’t work for smart cities or the Internet of Things.

It’s time for the blockchain industry to acknowledge that our path toward becoming a foundation for consumer tech is blocked by these fundamental truths:

• People don’t want to pay for what should be free.

• They don’t want to do difficult things that should be easy.

• And they don’t want to change their behavior to fit our vision of the world.

The sooner we build protocols and applications that accept these realities, the sooner we silence the critics and change the world.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.