As companies like Crypto.com and FTX sponsor major US sports stadiums and F1 teams, you might be under the impression that cryptocurrencies have gone mainstream. But is the technology ready for the masses? Based on research into wallets, exchanges, games and more, we’ve got some doubts.
Problem 1 – It’s Not all the Same.
When the majority of people think about cryptocurrency, they think of Bitcoin. Some may have heard of Ethereum and others of the crypto that started as a joke – Dogecoin. These are not like comparing the US Dollar to the British Pound. It’s more like comparing gold to a cheque to supermarket loyalty points. Different tokens deliver different utility and have different superpowers.
Bitcoin, the original blockchain based cryptocurrency is relatively ‘dumb’. It exists like a bar of gold – a store of value, but otherwise useless. AVAX on the other hand, is a token that can be used on the Avalanche blockchain to execute smart-contracts.
The other implication of cryptocurrencies being different is that they need to be acquired in different places and exchanged through a complicated eco-system that is still in its infancy. Again, imagine going to a foreign exchange counter and asking for your supermarket reward points to be converted into Singapore dollars.
Problem 2 – It’s Impenetrably Technical & Complex
Money was easy – you had something of value that you could see or experience and you traded a proxy in the form of tokens or paper. If you grew up with money, you could make the leap to touching a piece of plastic to a machine to complete the transaction, but somewhere in the back of your head is a concept that your money is ‘in the bank’.
Cryptocurrency on the other hand is based on cryptography and algorithms and a dictionary of TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms). NFTS (Non-Fungible Tokens) seem to have had some success in breaking through to a wider audience by communicating their value but who uses the word fungible?
fungible /ˈfʌn(d)ʒɪb(ə)l/, adjective LAW (of goods contracted for without an individual specimen being specified) replaceable by another identical item; mutually interchangeable. “it is by no means the world’s only fungible commodity”
That’s for the simplest ‘product’ in the crypto market. Now try playing a game where you can earn cryptocurrency by playing, but to do that you need to convert a minimum of 0.5 Ethereum to a different token and the transaction fees for that are going to be $8400. Yes… that’s eight thousand.
This brings us to perhaps the biggest problem with cryptocurrency acceptance and adoption by the masses.
Problem 3 – Customer-Centricity and CX is Mostly Absent.
I’m watching a documentary on Netflix about a German start-up that created the precursor to Google Earth. The interesting thing about this start-up is that the team was a mash-up of artists and coders. The ‘product’ was conceived as an art installation and the user interface was designed by a sculptor.
In 2009, even if you believed in Bitcoin, it was almost impossible to acquire. Today, through apps like Crypto.com you can buy Bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies with your debit or credit card – but… the customer experience is clunky, full of friction, and in many cases badly signposted to the point of being misleading.
Just the simplest user story – ‘Customer can buy and sell Bitcoin‘ is beyond the patience and ability of most people.
The onboarding process is complicated by complex ‘Know your Customer’ (KYC) legislation. The customer-journey varies wildly, from sophisticated facial recognition and NFC passport scanning to writing your customer number on a piece of paper, taking a selfie and sending by email. This seems like a great opportunity for companies like Yoti that allow you to control which parts of your ID you give away.
Here are two different journeys… both are real.
- Customer wants to deposit money from card. Before the money is taken, there is an interstitial screen that signposts what ID will be required in order to proceed.
- Customer wants to deposit money from card. The transaction is approved through two-factor authentication via the bank app and money is taken and THEN additional ID information is requested that is not available.
The first journey has some consideration for the customer experience. The second puts compliance before the customer journey.
Onboarding is also hampered by a lack of resourcing of customer support. Despite taking people’s real money, some companies provide office hours email support with a 48 hour response time. Others have annoying chatbots with no failover to a human or automated social media responses that sound like a broken record.
Like gambling companies, a lot of these exchanges make it very easy to deposit money, but very hard to get it out again. Many of the negative reviews (and there are a LOT of them) relate to the inability to withdraw money.
And that’s the simplest user story. If you want to participate in some of the more complex products – like earning fixed interest by buying a certain crypto currency or buying a token that is not one of the top 20, then you need to really know what you are doing and really want to do it.
The Solution
The solution is to use Buyer Personas in a way that solves these problems. The companies that put the customer first will win.
Just as Neo-banks like Revolut disrupted the banking industry with great UI, they are making it easier for people to participate in the cryptocurrency ‘revolution’. Buying AND SELLING some of the larger coins is simple (though you don’t actually own them – see problem 2).
Just as the iPhone made the mobile phone a device that was intuitive and easy to use by everyone, the first cryptocurrency exchange that puts customers first, with a simple UI and UX should prevail.
Aquitude Fintech provides companies with tools like the Customer Experience Typology Framework to benchmark attitudes towards customer-centricity and develop great customer experiences.