MACRO PERSPECTIVE

1. What is real world adoption actually? What definition are we talking here?
Willem:

▪ Mass adoption is when a relatively large part of consumers are actually

utilizing (or adopting) cryptocurrencies for a specific use case. A simple Dapp
has some impact on adoption, but it never results in MASS adoption. It’s the
industry as a whole that needs to step up and incentivize adoption
▪ In general for adoption to take place, people don’t necessarily need to know
about the technology behind it. As long as the use case fulfils the needs of a
consumer, there is a chance that adoption takes place
▪ We can differentiate between projects/use cases that contributes to adoption
within an industry and eventually MASS adoption by a currency being used as
form of payment for example replacing traditional financial systems
o Think WeChat 74% adoption
o Retail and acceptance

 Currently we see consumers / investors use crypto for speculative reasons (store
of value), rather than real adoption (Medium of Exchange)

2. What examples do we see in the market in general that adoption is taking

place?

Willem:

▪ A study published by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance shows

that despite the severe bear market we’ve experienced this year, the on
boarding of new users and cryptocurrency adoption has increased.
▪ As said before, A REAL break-out of adoption is still years away probably,
because the increased interest for cryptocurrency is mainly driven by
speculative reasons
▪ Example: You Can Buy Bitcoin at Coinstar Kiosks, which is great for adoption
fundamentals in general. But what’s the current use case for people? There is
no widespread acceptance
▪ Next to Retail acceptance (think volatility etc.), one of the main reasons is still
User Experience: high fees and huge focus on KYC
▪ Also Augur for example, I have high hopes, but there is no real traction. Low
emphasis on user experience / UI and Liquidity. Because it’s a peer2peer
system, who’s going to take the bet?
3. What other macro-events do we see that could help adoption ?
Willem:

▪ Trust is an important factor in many adoption cases. In the traditional financial

markets, trust is important to have the financial system working properly.
Imagine what would happen when people lose trust in the system. Examples
here are price stability, efficient/reliable and safe system.

▪ The cryptocurrency space in general has a long way to gain a certain level of
trust in order to reach a worldwide level of acceptance and/or adoption. Think
about all these ico’s raising millions and ran away, or never going to deliver,
advisors creating pump and dump mechanisms and bad behaviours like VC’s.

▪ Regaining trust for me is an important pillar for future adoption and

acceptance by local stores and consumers. The whole system is not
functioning as it should at the moment and in order to reach adoption, we
need to close the gap and realize a level of trust within the system

4. What issues do we see in the current market?

Willem:

▪ Everyone within the space wants adoption, but people don’t realize that
Bitcoin for example is still used for speculative reasons. A medium of
exchange function for Bitcoin as a payment method is still difficult and there
are many reasons for it. Think volatility, user experience but also acceptance.

▪ Complying with current tax laws is still an issue. Sell/buy actions could result
in tax results based on the gain at the time of transaction

▪ High/enormous volatility and speculative reasons

▪ Liquidity issues, resulting in higher financial risks for retailers/users. Large

spreads can result in negative/lower revenue.

▪ Fluctuation in network fees and processing times

▪ Simple, practical, efficient and convenient use could thrive the use as a
medium of exchange. Still this user experience takes time to implement
5. What initiative / steps would support adoption in the future?
Willem:

▪ Regulatory clarity and alignment between jurisdictions could bring more

institutional entities to the space and therefore providing liquidity and a more
stable market

▪ With Telegram, Facebook and many other popular messaging apps, looking to
cryptocurrency as a payment method — this may very well be the catalyst for
worldwide adoption.
▪ In 2019 and beyond, we will see a clear split between projects / movements
that were based on either 1] Hype or 2] reality. The result will be a shakeout of
bad behaviours and/or no added value projects/solutions to improve future
trust

▪ Projects that are able to apply/implement strategic change, and who adapt to
an ever changing environment will be the first to provide real product market fit
use cases and support adoption, therefore will survive. They need to start
thinking outside in

▪ We need to base our valuations more on the fundamental underlying value of

a cryptocurrency and its potential to realize adoption rather than market
capitalization in general. This will create a shift in capital allocation

▪ Mainstream adoption will be based on medium of exchange, rather than

speculative reasons to be sustainable. Retail industry adoption is in my
opinion the main catalyst to thrive mainstream adoption. We need them to
embrace the technology and provide acceptance to the consumers

o Consumers don’t have the ability to spend their cryptocurrency.

o Many positives, like an increased liquidity, consumer usability and utility
of cryptocurrencies

6. What could projects do to incentivize adoption?

Willem:

▪ It should be their goal in the first place right. There are so many examples, lets
give me a small selection:
▪
o Bitcoin payment lock-in real time exchange rates
o Allow settlement in either crypto or fiat
o Dual token system (difference between medium of exchange and store
of value / network utility). Touch Salamantex/PundiX competitor
 o User experience (outside in rather than inside out / tech. focused). I
know a company, Privatix which is almost on mainnet. They have a
really cool idea of a decentralized VPN and I mean, fully decentralized.
The tech is there, now its up to them to survive and provide a UI which
is simple and easy to use (consumer centricity). It should be their main
priority and focus.
o Real product market fit / think Kudi exchange in South Africa

7. How do you see adoption in terms of timing?

SCRIPT ORION / WILLEM

Orion:

▪ A: I see ease of adoption as four different difficulty and time levels. One, an
idea that can implemented and start being used with one year, two, an idea
where the infrastructure won't be ready for at least 5 years, 3 an idea where
the infrastructure won't be ready for 10, and lastly pure sci fi speculation

▪ B: Token implementation is a humongous challenge and almost a different

topic, since it's not a case of "how do we implemental this technology" but
"how do we get the user to do this new thing", and in most cases they don't
need to, projects only token so they can easily fund themselves

▪ C: At this point in time, so many possible uses cases for block chain sound
cool, but are impractical, that doesn't block chain can't be implemented

Willem:

▪ A: Do you see differences or are there overarching adoption elements that are
applicable to each and every time level?

▪ B: I partly agree with this, and this could be a really interesting topic for further
discussion. I think that for several use cases/projects a token design is highly
correlated with real world adoption actually.

▪ C: Very true! These use cases are cool and sometimes exiting, but most of
them lack the properties for real world adoption. In the end they could survive
right? Does that mean that they did not have the right product/market fit at that
early time? Or does this "practical" issue that you are referring to means that
the management team lacks the perspective of user experience?

Orion:

▪ Yes, I think the elements are over reaching and I think that if idea is good, with
time it'll become easier to implement as 1. the end users become more
comfortable with the idea because of many attempts and prototypes of the
 idea. 2. The technological / legal infrastructure improves, reducing friction
involved in implementimg the idea.

Willem:

▪ On the other hand, uses cases should be developed when the market is ready
somehow right? i mean, the economic costs are just too high, and the
negative impact on many aspects are just too high when there is no market at
that particular time. I would argue that a more comprehensive market analysis
by crypto companies is needed, and crypto companies start developing uses
cases which are ready for adoption

Orion:

▪ I'm thinking of the topic abstractly, but if we're giving practical advise. The
issue with waiting till market is clearly fertile Is the risk of loosing the first
mover advantage. Kinda like making a trade once the trend is clear, safe, but
you don't get the most profit.maybey advise would be to design the team so
that it's flexible, and focus on a broad theme you want to approach, and then
find specific niches within that theme you can create mvps for. Then you adopt
according to user response

Willem:

▪ Yep, i agree with this, its all about STRATEGIC CHANGE as the crypto
environment is opposes to a relatively high environmental risk

▪ With this, they could go for first mover advantage, but still being relevant to the
current market opportunities...

▪ The risk projects are taking right now, is first mover advantages, while not
being relevant and the result is a slow death without a proper management
strategy

Orion:

▪ Yup, spending Mills on development while they wait for users

Willem:
▪ So the real practical advice to projects in the panel discussion on the micro
level, is to stay relevant in the short term while aiming big in the long run

▪ And then we can make a bridge to the team.. Teams nowadays consist of
highly dev. focused expertise without proper knowledge about marketing and
real strategy and innovation..

▪ There is where highly reputable advisors kick in.. They should trust them and
listen to their advice (of course not to the dump/pump strategies) but real
strategic advice
 ▪ Teams are of a relatively low quality nowadays, but that will become stronger
over time when the markets gets more mature

Orion:

▪ Yup

Willem:

▪ If projects dont listen, thats fine... They will be shaken out over time, with the
so called strategic advisors.. In the end the crypto market gets more mature
and the overall confidence in this particular market will grow... Resulting in a
better basis for real world adoption

Orion:

▪ Yeah, like, Instead of saying "we're creating a block chain voting

platform" say "we're interested in the theme of secure and reliable
record keeping and input" then find the immediate usecase you
can tackle within that theme
Willem:

▪ Nice!

▪ If they can come up with a us ecase thats a trial/error pahse for their long term
play, they will be relevant in the short, while aiming for this longer play..

▪ the only thing they need to do, is just keep on changing and innovating

▪ What do you think about "real world adoption" in general from an overall
perspective? Whats the definition? Do we need to differentiate? Interested to
hear your thought:)

Orion:

What do you think when you hear them term real world adoption related to
blockchain

Willem:

▪ When i hear that, i ask myself, what adoption? Well, in the current
market we see adoption rising slowly, with unfortunately to less
emphasis on user experience. What we discussed earlier, there is
just no focus on user experience and many of these adoption
waves will dy slowly.
 ▪ The definition in itself, is from an (outside in approach) when users
and/or businesses are adopting these relevant use cases, while
they know / don’t know that blockchain technology is being used.
▪ These consumers/businesses should be convinced about the
positives/pro's of the technology, but that should be all. A UI for
example should be intervened with all this blockchain shit (think
wallets, transfers, etc..)

▪ From a real world adoption i think that there is a difference

between MASS adoption and REAL world adoption. Every relevant
Dapp will contribute to real world adoption, and thats good for the
industry overall, but lets face it, all these Dapps dont impact MASS
adoption because thats only going to happen when we overcome
the so called issues in the space and accept that crypto payment
solutions are way more efficient, low cost, secure than tradition
solutions...

▪ The medium of exchnage vs a store of value perspective is key,

but still miles far away

Orion:

▪ Right, Mass speculation isn't real world adoption