By Nick Tomaino
Compiled by: TechFlow
Introduction
Yesterday, Coinbase announced the launch of an app designed to simplify the process of managing on-chain wallets and activities for users. For Coinbase, the new app is another step in its goal of becoming a “super app” similar to China’s WeChat.
Crypto applications have been trying to break out of the niche market and enter the mainstream. But for encrypted consumer applications, how can they successfully break out of the circle? This article will explore this issue and share some key experiences and insights.
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I firmly believe that over the next decade, crypto adoption will permeate every aspect of culture.
The past decade has been dominated by deep tech and finance, but the next decade will see the convergence of crypto consumer apps with news, politics, sports, health/fitness, music, live video, podcasts, etc. These apps will become the most useful and valuable ever.
This runs counter to the view of many capital allocators, who continue to pour large amounts of money into uninspired zero-sum products.
While the market is hyping up the 69th scalable L1 and yield-yielding stablecoins, developers are quietly building products that will spark new consumer behaviors that will help us reach over 1 billion users as quickly as possible and benefit the world.
I learned a lot through early involvement in many of the consumer applications that successfully bridged crypto and culture (e.g. @coinbase, @opensea, @Polymarket, @dYdX).
If you’re thinking about the next generation of cutting-edge consumer encryption applications, here are four lessons that may be useful to you:
Success doesn't come overnight, so focus on something you truly believe in, not just making money, and stick with it for years.
Polymarket was thought to be unsuccessful many times, but founder @shayne_coplan and the team always believed that prediction markets could bring more truth. They encountered many obstacles that would have made most people give up, but a deep belief in something beyond money helped them persevere.
Polymarket’s trading volume in 2024 exceeded $423 million and played an important role in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Belief and persistence will eventually pay off.
The intersection of purists and tourists is key.
Coinbase has deftly walked the line between purists and tourists for over a decade. If a product is too pure, it will remain niche and difficult to break out. While there will be a small number of people who love it for its historical knowledge and nuances, a product built for purists will limit the size of the market.
If the product is too tourist-oriented, people will like it for a while, but then leave. Easy come, easy go. In 2012, @brian_armstrong made an early design decision to offer a custodial wallet service because he believed that non-custodial wallets were not conducive to mass market growth. Because of this decision, Coinbase is now a public company with a market cap of over $50 billion.
Gain in-depth understanding of users and market culture.
When Opensea launched in 2018, it stood out even though other NFT marketplaces had raised more money and attracted more high-profile investors.
That’s because @dfinzer and @xanderatallah don’t care about false reputations or making up imaginary company stories, they’re focused on building a useful product. They talk to every NFT creator, attend every NFT event, and understand the culture more deeply than their competitors. Don’t be fooled by the surface narrative, dig deeper, and you’ll outlast those who play by the skin of the puzz.
Block out the existing tribe noise and create your own.
Truly useful applications don’t need to cater to any existing groups, but can create their own. dYdX is leading the way in this regard. @AntonioMJuliano and his team started with the Ethereum ecosystem, then launched L2 powered by Starkex, and then the dYdX chain powered by the Cosmos SDK, and this practice may become more and more common in the future.
Once you’ve proven the utility of your application, you can launch your own chain with full autonomy, rather than ceding a lot of control and value to an existing chain.
The past decade of consumer crypto adoption has been incredibly interesting, but I believe the next decade will be a hundred times more interesting.
