5 Best Practices for Building Mass-Adoptable Crypto Apps

Throughout the past few years, the market for crypto assets and related products has grown rapidly. According to Finder's Cryptocurrency Adoption Index, which analyzes crypto adoption trends in 26 nations, 15% of the people in surveyed countries own crypto, including 23.5 million Americans.

The crypto industry is still in its infancy and has a number of flaws that could slow its adoption.

For example, a study conducted on blockchain-based decentralized identity management solutions found existing usability issues that include the following problems:

• Concepts and interfaces mismatch users' mental models.
• Actions offered by some tools, including obtaining and managing private keys, passwords, credentials, etc., are either too difficult to use or not intuitive.

According to the study, this decreases the attractiveness and adoption rate of these solutions.

Moreover, the recent collapse of FTX has further eroded confidence in centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, despite providers' best efforts to regain trust. Users move their funds into non-custodial wallets and DeFi services, which they consider safer at this point.

A peak in outflows from major CEXs was recorded on Jan 13, reaching 60,046 BTC, the highest level in January – a trend also observed in other crypto assets.

This massive amount of liquidity is now being transferred into non-custodial products that frequently lack the features and usability of custodial apps, let alone slick web2 apps. It is therefore essential for developers to fix them now in order to avoid user discouragement.

How can crypto app developers make their products easier to use and mass-adoptable? As a starting point, below are five best practices.

Prioritize user-centricity

Web3 is a blend of web2 and web1, spread out so that decision-making, information, and benefits can be shared across many instead of a centralized group. Despite this, the second generation is currently king and most user-friendly. Therefore, web3 cannot replace web2 without an improved user experience.

Along with focusing on its core functions, crypto app developers must take into account end-user experience (EUE).

An effective user experience is transparent – users shouldn't have to think about how to use your product. In addition, your app should be visually appealing, well-designed, and bug-free.

Also, every app has a target audience, and you always need to know exactly who your crypto product is intended for. For example, the Binance app offers two modes depending on who uses it – a simple version for beginners and a pro version for traders.

Carry out customer development

The process of customer development involves identifying potential users and finding ways to meet their needs. This is part of the lean startup concept, which combines business model design, customer development, and agile engineering.

The idea of customer development was invented in the 1990s by entrepreneur Steve Blank. In essence, he came to realize that startups are not just smaller versions of larger companies, thus requiring a different approach.

Many crypto startups focus too much on their product or service, which is important, but not more important than the needs of their target audience. Crypto businesses often make the mistake of launching a complete development process before conducting customer development or skipping it altogether.

Learn from the best web2 apps

We don't need to throw out everything we know about web2 just because web3 aims to revolutionize it. Research popular web2 apps that you want to build a crypto alternative to. Analyze what users like about them, and incorporate those concepts into your blockchain app.

There are many apps out there you can use as inspiration, including Robinhood, which allows investors to trade stocks, ETFs, options, American depositary receipts (ADRs), and some cryptocurrencies. Another good example is Revolut, an easy-to-use digital alternative to banking that lets users exchange currencies, manage their money, and conduct business transactions.

Don’t forget about the tests

Test your app thoroughly before launching and get feedback when it goes live

Even though this may seem obvious, many crypto app developers fail to pay attention to it.

If you plan to launch your crypto app, do extensive testing before you release it. Get feedback from friends, family, and random people in the crypto community to gauge your progress.

As soon as it launches, communicate with users so that you can take their suggestions into consideration moving forward. Don't forget to thank them for their contributions.

Improve your app constantly based on feedback from users

Go beyond just thanking users for their feedback; keep collecting it and improve your crypto product accordingly. By iteratively solving your users' pain points, you'll see your retention rates shoot up.

Final thoughts

At the moment, web3 apps offer the same user experience the web2 apps of 2005 had. In order for web3 builders to be successful, they need to relentlessly optimize their crypto products, test and retest them, and design them with the end-user experience in mind. As a result, the beauty of Web3 will erupt to a whole new level, encouraging people to ditch web2 and go for web3.