There have been many hypotheses on what blockchain “needs” for mass adoption to occur and one of recurring topics of discussion is usability.
According to a recent usability report, conducted from the months of December 2018 to February 2019, the majority of crypto owners do not use crypto due to a lack of ‘full confidence’ using crypto.
The survey revealed that most owners who use crypto are still ‘cautiously optimistic that the transaction will be completed, but still checking progress frequently.’
The majority of those who felt confident using crypto have been hodlers who have owned crypto for at least 4 years. The lack of confidence drops dramatically for those who have owned crypto for 3 years and below.
The report also looked at crypto use in 2018. Here are the report findings:
In 2018, How Often Did You Send Crypto to Someone Else, including purchasing something with crypto?
- 43% – A Few Times
- 27% – Not Sent Crypto to Anyone
- 19% – Once a Month
- 11% – Once or Twice a Week
Its also interesting to note that only 30% of users sent any blockchain tokens/coins to a different person or computer at least monthly. It is clear from the report that today, most crypto holders either never or rarely use crypto as a vehicle for value transfer. This is in line with the recent Google ETL tools which showed that some crypto, which are meant as a transfer of value, have been hodled by the majority of users.
Of particular concern was a lack of trust in whether a public address that was provided to send funds to was accurate, falsified, inaccurate, or whether the transaction would be completed due to a user error in sending and receiving funds.
In addition, the report also notes that ‘delivery times and adequate monitoring/notification services are common frustrations for users. Broadly, users are unsure of how to check the progress of a transaction, or how to estimate the timeframe for completion.’
It is clear from the report that the lack of a good wallet user experience, especially when it comes to crypto addresses, and fear of funds getting lost is a big obstacle in building confidence in the use and adoption of crypto that should be taken into consideration when building crypto products and solutions in 2019.
