(On Legitimacy of Blockchains - 11)
Even with a neatly furnished website and a highly accessible wallet interface, however, it would be quite a bold statement to say that a blockchain-based payment solution is capable of overtaking the traditional e-commerce infrastructure.
The reason does not lie upon the feasibility of its underlying technology, but rather upon the public's perception that there is nothing apparently superior in distributed economy as opposed to centralized economy from a purely user-experience standpoint.
Have the idea of fundamental human rights been the focal point of people's primary interests, a customer would have easily been convinced that a distributed computing system is the next cornerstone of our technological progress, as it grants us a protocol which guarantees an utmost degree of freedom, privacy, and equity in terms of finance. From a day-to-day experience point of view, however, we must be honest enough to ourselves to admit that most consumers do not care about such ethical standards; all they desire is to find a quicker way to get themselves to store aisles that have 50% discount labels on them.
So, how to convince the vast majority of people to begin using cryptocurrencies aside from quasi-gambling purposes, to whom such abstract moral concepts are never likely to sell?
Well, here is a deal. In order for Web3 to compete with the traditional web, one must make sure that it offers customers a great user experience which is instantly recognizable without requiring any type of philosophical narrative. Many Web3 marketing pioneers try to show off that their services are allegedly superior to those of traditional means of payment by repeatedly displaying catchphrases alongside a bunch of hipster-esque flat art characters such as: "MAKE INTERNET FREE!", or: "THIS IS THE NEXT GENERATION OF MONEY!", and so forth. This may be effective in inducing quite a percentage of intellectual snobs to get their attention hooked, yet making them move beyond this initial stage of curiosity and seriously begin utilizing the advertised service on a regular basis is another story.