The number of people who own cryptocurrencies has increased dramatically over the last few years. In the US, there are around 46 million Americans that have invested in Bitcoin alone and it is estimated that more than one billion people have some sort of exposure to the cryptocurrency market.
But while that means 12.5% of human civilisation owns some sort of digital token, it still leaves 87.5% yet to make the jump into crypto.
This is despite the fact that there were some pretty big promises made in recent years. We began to see this analysis from self-styled crypto experts back in late 2017 when the first big boom in the Bitcoin price occurred.
At the time, many were speculating that just about every industry would eventually be disrupted by this new blockchain technology. Smart contracts and new ways to pay were the early suggestions, though these eventually evolved into decentralised finance (DeFi), decentralised applications (dApps), and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
In the time that has passed since then, there have some been some major moves to help promote adoption. We’ve seen some retailers begin to accept some tokens, and NFTs exploded in popularity in 2020 and 2021.
But aside from this, crypto and the blockchain as a whole still haven’t managed to achieve widespread mainstream adoption.
Can it happen? What needs to change to allow more people to become comfortable with it? And how long will it take?
Crypto in Popular Culture
One of the biggest barriers to adoption is the fact that cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies are somewhat mystical for many members of the public.
Exposing them to crypto through popular culture is a good way to build familiarity and make people more comfortable with it. While the decentralised nature of the technology means that there is no unified strategy from a single entity that can achieve this, it is already happening naturally.
For example, we’re beginning to see NFTs make their…
