When crypto conversations change from investment to adoption, that’s when we’ll see crypto thrive.

I just want to take a few minutes to point out everything that I see wrong with crypto at this point in time & what I think needs to happen for things to change:

Every sub is filled with topics regarding buys, sells, dips, FOMO, FUD, you name it. Even the memes about HODLERS, while funny, serve no good purpose.

Hodlers posting about hodling even when going to zero. Seriously? First of all, stop posting about hodling. Second, you gotta be fucking stupid to hold something that goes to zero.

Price predictions – totally useless, baseless and just center the conversation around investment & FOMO.

X coin / token added to X exchange. While some may post this to inform the sub, most are just hoping for something to happen to the value of the coin/token.

Technical analysis – get the fuck out of here with that shit. Not only are you misleading newcomers, you are once again centering cryptocurrency around investment vs. adoption and real world use. No, tokens and coins are not stocks, you don't own shit, nobody owes you shit, and when great news comes around the corner doesn't mean shit for the value of your "investment".

Panic calming threads promising a great future. While you may help a few truly shaken individuals, what you are doing is just distracting focus from what we should really be talking about. I'll admit that my post falls into this category of distractions but I feel it is necessary to refocus our efforts.

Shitposting about x coin or token. We get it, you hate TRX, maybe you hate EOS, maybe you hate bitcoin, but instead of bitching about it, trying to "warn others" why not think abstractly about it's uses, check to see what the team is working on and how things are progressing? Why hate when you can love?

Posts about X getting involved with Y from investment perspective. Again, if you can't see that crypto must evolve beyond investments then you are just adding fuel to the fire. Yes, I get it, many people don't give a fuck about what happens to the coin or token they hold or to crypto in general, they are very happy using fiat. That's cool. Some of us don't care, but many are truly passionate and give a damn. No, we don't expect to replace banks, we are not idiots, but we can keep an open mind about the shift that is coming in how the world's infrastructure, data ownership and finances operate. That day IS coming, whether you can see that or not, but we have to put forth our best efforts to shift the focus into development and adoption instead of thinking about crypto as investments.

There's probably more but that's what's on my mind now. The question then is, what do we focus on instead?

I think for crypto to really move in the right direction we need mass adoption. We need to make crypto the next iPad where every old person can figure out the damn thing. Here's what I'm thinking needs to happen:

We need to play nice with regulators. They will not roll over for us and for crypto to truly become widespread we must be able to comply with nationwide laws such as KYC and AML. Blockchains in general must become audit-able while keeping the privacy features. This is probably tougher done than said, and I only know if Cardano working on this, but imagine there are probably others.

Tokens must play with other tokens. We can no longer wage war one against another. We must be able to trade tokens for tokens directly without an intermediary. Cross-chain transactions must become a thing, as well as token-to-fiat parings. While this point hits on the financial / investment issue, it will still aid in the adoption of crypto as a whole.

We need more developers, period. If you are smart, can code or can learn to code, just go do it. Stop checking prices, go learn to become a blockchain developer. This is a fruit ripe for picking with plenty of good pay. Who knows, even if you don't find a job you may just start the next big startup that changes crypto.

We need a serious influx of UX / UI designers. Crypto is a total clusterfuck of usability that most people don't understand. We have to work with people who understand how to simplify things down to the basics. Design it so your grandma can use it, then we'll see mass adoption.

We must design features that make crypto acceptable by the wide public. Features like transaction revers-ability, fraud prevention, easy storage and retrieval. If you tell someone they can lose their entire life savings by losing a piece of hardware and then ask them to put their live savings onto said hardware they'll probably tell you to go fuck yourself. Yes, backups are great, secret phrases are okay and it's user's responsibility to keep all of this secure, but if the real world is to engage with crypto we have to go a step beyond the current state of things.

We have to develop tools that utilize public crypto. Right now there is a swarm of large companies who are building out private blockchains or working with larger organizations part of an open source alliance like hyper-ledger. Corporations will move various aspects of their business to blockchains and while this WILL have an impact on consumers, your favorite coin or token will have no part in that future. For us to make sure cryptocurrencies survive into the blockchain future, we must create real use cases and start using the tech for reasons other than investments. There was a beautiful post a while back with all the great use cases for crypto, maybe we start there. I realize there are thousands of people who are working on these things right now and that this point is sort of mute, so perhaps if we can harness our energy as a community and contribute to those projects in one way or another, it will be time better spent than checking prices, posting memes or doing TA.

We need to engage with local governments to figure out ways to utilize crypto without the involvement of fiat. When we can pay our gas bill with crypto then businesses will have incentives to accept crypto. I am sure this is easier said than done, so perhaps we need to focus on working with organizations that have stronger lobbying power.

Crypto must be re-classified as currency for taxing purposes. While some states are taking these steps already, (maybe just one?) we need to keep the momentum going. If you have any ideas on how to engage with your state government, get the community to participate and to talk about these issues. Only when enough states change the law that we may see a national legislative change. Of course, this goes for other countries as well. Get enough governments to reclassify crypto from an asset to currency and we will see wider adoption.

I guess, the point is, just fucking do something, anything in your power to contribute to adoption. IF you are just a useless pleb with zero fucking knowledge or are just not old enough to do shit about shit, then do everyone a favor and do nothing. Don't post moronic shit memes, stop shilling, stop fudding, stop everything. Be a good good-for-nothing and stick to reading shit. If you have half a thought, steer the conversation to adoption, otherwise just shut the fuck up.

So.. to wrap things up, I should probably do as I preach. As a UX/UI designer my goal is to contribute from the usability standpoint. I have already began doing so with several designs. I think we really need to have more MEW-like websites that simplify crypto transactions even further. I have already designed such a site and will happily work with someone to develop it. I am not claiming to be changing the crypto world… in fact this is probably a very tiny effort and won't result in much. But at least I am trying. I want crypto to succeed in the public space just as blockchains will succeed in the private space. I realize I would probably do more good being a developer, but developers need designers' help. Grandma aint gonna learn how to crypto if things are not more usable than they are now.

Lastly, while I touch on regulatory issues and realize that big daddy will have a say in how things play out, I truly believe crypto revolution will come from bottom up. So, unplug the watchers, get out there and spread good vibes, do your best to make a positive impact. If you have a nasty comment to add to this post, just save it and say something positive instead or better yet, put that energy into something useful.