Scalability. It’s the word — the $6 million question — that is plaguing the cryptocurrency community. SegWit? Proof-of-Stake? Hybrid system? Hard forks? Which of the many possible options will finally circumvent the roadblock of scalability?
Maybe we’re asking the wrong questions. Maybe the cryptocurrency community is being plagued by a deeper problem that we cannot see — the curse of knowledge — that is preventing us from thinking outside the box.
Perhaps we are so used to crypto-jargon, terms as simple to us as SegWit, that we are forgetting most people have no idea what we’re talking about. Why is scalability such a big issue for BTC or ETH, people are asking. Why the volatile swings? Instead of being genuinely concerned about the future of a vital technology, all the media (and the general populace) can see is turmoil in our community. Perhaps we’re not asking the right question.
We are innovators, that much is certain. We are the 2.5% in the bell curve that are participating in a movement. We believe 102% in the community and products that we support, and we think the rest of the world should join us. But we are having massive scalability problems. Why?
I think that we are ignoring an terribly obvious problem. Scalability, in simple terms, just means that a product is able to grow to meet demand. It should follow then, that we are targeting people who understand just enough about our tech to be able to use it, and to want to use it.
Take another look at the bell curve above. There is one step between innovators and the general public. An extremely important step. The early adopters. And, if ignored, these people will make or break any new innovation.
You see, general and widespread adoption of an idea follows the example of early adopters — not innovators. The early adopters are the role-models for society — the cool kids — that most people can relate to. They’re the ones that start trends, and they’re the ones that we should be attempting to reach.
The question the crypto-community should be asking is this:
How can we change our scalability strategy to transition from the innovator stage to the early adopter stage?
The early adopters I’m talking about are those respected people that the majority will believe, trust and then emulate? It is obvious that the general public doesn’t understand our mission. Who can we “get on our team,” then, that will translate for us?
Reorienting in this way may mean that we sacrifice our insane ICOs and individual goals in favor of creating products for early adopters. This will require a coming-together that our community hasn’t seen yet. Does a platform currently exist that solves a particular problem? Maybe we shouldn’t raise $50 million to try and do the same thing. Maybe we should band together to create something that will truly get the attention of a few early adopters. Then we grow further.
Scalability does entail very technical questions, and that fact cannot be ignored. However, technical scalability is not the entirety of our problem. And if that fact is ignored, we will be stuck in scalability limbo indefinitely.
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