Wider Public Still Goes for Crypto Coins, Not Blockchain

There is a divide between the business, which is supporting blockchain technology, and the public, which is still attracted by the coins.

When it comes to the wider public and potential investors, crypto coins are still more appealing than blockchain technology. Based on a Bandwatch survey cited by Finder, blockchain no longer holds the appeal of the hottest tech.

The survey asked which technologies were most likely to change society in 2020. Cryptocurrency and blockchain score relatively low among respondents. The results match other findings that crypto audiences are different from the mainstream, while regular consumers and investors are still using legacy finance technologies, and to a degree new fintech offerings.

Blockchain this time has a competition from other “hot” topics - 5G networks and AI. But this does not mean the blockchain space is not evolving. In the past years, wallets, exchange services and blockchains have tweaked their functionalities, producing a smoother experience.

Still, skeptics are unclear about the actual need for blockchains in comparison to regular databases. But distributed networks are still useful and have a wider reach in comparison to fintech apps. The ability to send crypto funds has allowed Coinbase and other exchanges to expand to more than 100 countries worldwide.

Singapore was an outlier, where blockchain use cases are already well-established. Respondents, therefore, did not believe blockchain would change the world - since it already has, more or less.

Other predictions see dramatic growth in the cryptocurrency market in the coming years, with applications in healthcare and finance. But among respondents, there were markets where cryptocurrency gained a lead on merely using blockchain.

In 2020, even the usage of crypto coins may not be the same. Currently, BitPay no longer offers more significant anonymous payments. Merchants and exchanges require some form of identity verification for any larger exchange or purchase. But some coins still allow peer-to-peer transfers of value.

At the same time, both commercial and central banks believe Facebook’s Libra will have a material effect on the money supply and the practices of consumers. But time will tell if the Libra asset is actually created, to reveal how much funds it would carry and store.