Consumer Crypto refers to blockchain-based applications and services that are easy to use and seamlessly integrate into everyday life, regardless of technical expertise.
The rise of consumer crypto is a direct response to conventional blockchain development practices, which have created an ecosystem of complex and specialized tools.
Given this recent impetus, consumer crypto can be understood as both a movement to overhaul conventional blockchain services to benefit consumers and the categorization of such projects.
While the “crypto” component of the concept deals with the very well-understood benefits of blockchain, the “consumer” element can be distilled into a few fundamental principles:
Any on-chain application aimed at consumers must employ intuitive user interfaces that match the familiar experiences of web2 apps. It must require little to no technical knowledge as the complexity of its systems needs to be hidden away to unburden the user.
Consumer crypto projects must use blockchain to solve real, everyday problems, offering users immediate practical benefits. These should avoid deriving value from technical metrics or convoluted speculative mechanisms. The value proposition has to be instantly obvious to the average user.
Similarly, merely adding blockchain elements to an existing consumer service doesn't qualify it as consumer crypto either. A popular service such as a food-delivery app with crypto payments, transparent records, and decentralized operation sounds ideal, but the benefits come at a cost. The new procedures mean users must now manage different crypto wallets and tokens, approve operations, and wait for blockchain confirmations, stripping away the core simplicity that made the service consumer-friendly in the first place.
Achieving such an impeccable blend of blockchain benefits with uncompromising simplicity is a monumental challenge, but with new building blocks and a tactical shift in place, genuine consumer crypto projects are materializing every day.
It also means leveraging key innovations to help enhance this transformation. Abstraction technologies are eliminating the need for users to manage wallets, approve transactions, or consider gas fees. Bridging, interoperability, and payment solutions are dismantling the barriers between traditional finance and crypto. Users can now use standard bank cards that automatically handle fiat-token conversions without any additional user input. AI agents are emerging as potential autonomous helpers who operate on behalf of their owners, executing transactions, assessing risks, and optimizing spending.
With global blockchain adoption still under 4%, delivering consumer crypto is the only path to mainstream adoption. The industry now stands at a pivotal moment, reminiscent of the early days of the Internet. Just as it took a boom of user-friendly services to transform that technology into a public utility, blockchain must now evolve to prioritize the needs of the consumer.
About Cecilia Hsueh
Cecilia Hsueh is the co-founder and CEO of Morph, the global consumer layer for driving blockchain adoption. A serial entrepreneur with over 12 years of experience building consumer-focused companies, she previously led crypto exchange Phemex to achieve $5B in daily trading volume. Before entering web3, she ran a successful market research firm advising Fortune 500 companies on consumer strategy and built a direct-to-consumer sportswear brand. Cecilia is passionate about building inclusive web3 ecosystems for the mass market.
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