TL;DR
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At the moment, crypto wallets are an ideal product for a small part of the total consumer market. This needs to change to allow for mass adoption. So what’s the solution?
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A wallet that users can set up like any other online account: with an email address or phone number, through an online portal from a company they already know and trust.
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Companies like Magic allow existing businesses to add wallet creation pages to their websites (for example, Macy’s has been able to offer free crypto wallets to their customers).
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(See how we got to the title of this article? This technology allows any brand to become a pseudo-crypto bank in its own weird way).
Full story
Convincing new users to set up a crypto wallet is like trying to sell them a Ferrari.
Is it easy to use? No. Is it something I will use daily? Doubt it. Will it do everything my existing solution does for me? Unfortunately not.
The point is that crypto wallets and Ferraris both do a thing, very good.
Ferraris move fast and wallets store crypto securely.
Each is an ideal product for a small segment of the total consumer market. Ferrari does not need to change this. But crypto wallets Doing.
So what’s the solution?
Give them a “starter car” – a wallet they can set up just like any other online account: with an email address or phone number, through an online portal from a company they already know and trust.
What exactly does that look like?
…how about an example?
There’s a wallet-as-a-service provider called Magic that just raised $52 million in a new funding round led by PayPal Ventures.
In fact, Magic allows existing businesses to add a ‘Create Wallet’ page on their websites – this is how Macy’s and Mattel have been able to offer free crypto wallets to their customers.
(See how we got to the title of this article? This technology allows any brand to become a pseudo-crypto bank in its own weird way).
It’s not sexy, and it’s certainly not a long-term solution (because who wants to log into Macy’s to manage their money??).
That said, here’s what we love about these types of solutions:
It takes a “spray n’ pray” approach.
By allowing any legacy brand to offer simple wallet creation services, it opens more and more opportunities for new users to easily get on board in Web3 & crypto.
Users enter through a brand site they already know/trust → they sign up with an email.
Smart!