Guest Post, written by Invoid
Status Quo: Profunde Urso
Bear markets are a blessing in disguise for the young crypto market. It may get muddy as all the projects face scrutiny to prove that they deserve to exist. And it may get dramatic as some of them break and some of them live to see the promised land — adoption.
Adoption always has been a big word for crypto. Well, what does it mean? It means more and more people use crypto in their daily life. Alright, how are we doing right now? Based on the tripleA’s research, there are over 420 million crypto users worldwide which equals 4.2% of the world’s population. How about DeFi users, it is essential for crypto right? Sadly, not really. According to Finbold, DeFi has around 7 million participants. So, only 1 of 60 crypto users dabble in DeFi. Let’s not do the percentage of the worldwide population on this one.
GM. Any News Today?
Crypto as a whole came a long way from the sheet-keeping, Blackberry-mining, pizza-overpaying days. It doesn’t have bloated language like stocks so the first-timer can easily buy their favorite animal-themed token without giving it a second thought. Which it should be, users must have the ability to reach their desired assets without interference. Convenience is the goal and the greatest asset in the way of adoption. And we have it! But let me ask you this, at what point does this convenience become a barrier?
Centralized exchanges offer it all! Buy crypto with your credit card? Check! Stake on the spot? Check! Great liquidity? Check! Easy on/off ramps? Check! Many reassurances that extend from basketball arena names to top football team jersey sponsorships? Check! Super Bowl ads that feature famous comedians or Martians, even funny QR codes? Check! Centralized exchanges are convenient, centralized exchanges are awesome. Until they are not, of course.
The imploding of CEXs has happened many times already. At this point, we may have to accept that it’s a feature, not a bug. But why does it keep happening? Well, it is because crypto and centralization are not compatible. In fact, it is designed to NOT be compatible. I am not talking about shady actors who mingle with your funds, they are bound to exist in every industry, but the problem is more fundamental.
Like Ketchup on Spaghetti: You May Do It, But Should You Though?
One of the first great catalysts for crypto is accepted as the Cyprus event. When the country faced a financial crisis, people realized their government had the right to take their money and use them. People didn’t like it and in an act of rightful defiance, they turned to the assets that are not reachable by their leaders. One of those assets was Bitcoin. This was an adoption event that happened naturally and it was due to Bitcoin’s nature of decentralized and independent nature. I believe we must never lose that point. We need decentralization in crypto not because centralized exchanges are all corrupt, we need it because that is why it EXISTS.
Using centralized crypto exchanges is like breaking your walls to open a big hole when you already had a perfectly fine door. Yes, more people will get in and get in quickly through your new hole in the wall; but now they are exposed to all kinds of risks because there is a hole in the wall!
“Decentralization, self custody, not your keys not your crypto, and trustless” are among the top crypto “token words”. They are important concepts, important enough to birth Bitcoin, one of the biggest inventions in financial history. But somehow these concepts are not important enough to ditch the centralized exchanges and set sail to DeFi. Why? At this point, we circle back to the word of the day, convenience.
Which I think gives a clear pathway for DeFi to take its rightful place:
- Be convenient for the user.
- Be uncompromisingly decentralized.
- Don’t expect users to make sacrifices; become not an alternative to centralized exchanges, be better than them.
My god, that’s Loopring’s music!
Loopring Enters the Ring: One SuperApp to Rule Them All
Now, let us leave the super-stonk-fueled mania phase and 10×0.25 equations aside for a second. As the first zk-rollup of Ethereum, Loopring has been alive and kicking for many bear market cycles already. There are many layers of this Layer-2, and all of them are stacked with one goal in mind, to become the most convenient, decentralized place for DeFi.
Well, how?
Convenience starts with UI and UX. It should be both invisible and present at all times. It should guide users but also let them explore. It should be informative without holding their hands. And, for the love of Satoshi, be mobile!
According to Oberlo’s research, 56.86% of the web traffic came through mobile phones in 2023. Trends show that mobile usage will continue to rise in the coming years, so there is no doubt that DeFi must be mobile-focused as well. Luckily, Loopring has a mobile wallet that is on its way to becoming a super-app with its many riches.
What Does It Do, Loopring?
For someone who just wants to keep their assets in a decentralized place, Loopring offers a wallet with social recovery, for which you don’t need seed phrases.
For someone who just wants to trade, Loopring offers a decentralized exchange that lets traders earn protocol fees just by trading. Also, Block Trade taps into centralized exchange liquidity without compromising decentralization.
Do you want to provide liquidity? Go ahead. Mint/keep/sell NFTs? Loopring’s got you. Use it as an Ethereum Wallet? Easy. Want to stake ETH? Do it with low fees! Dual Investment? Sure, buddy! Multi-chain? On the horizon. Margin trading and leverage trading? Stay tuned, my friend.
With Loopring, you can build your NFT marketplace and trade for PEPE all the same. And you know what, that’s well damn convenient.
And the best part? It is decentralized to the bone!
As Loopring Wallet/Super-app keeps adding to its impressive capabilities, the goal of becoming the perfect door for DeFi looks closer and closer. When Loopring super-app reaches critical mass and offers everything a centralized exchange does while being decentralized and self-custody oriented -which it is pretty close to already- why on earth would you still stick to your CEX?
DeFi adoption will accelerate with individual acts of defiance. And when it happens, Loopring will be the spearhead.
About Loopring
Loopring is an Ethereum Layer 2 zkRollup protocol for scalable, secure DeFi and NFT applications. Loopring builds non-custodial, high-performance products atop our L2, including the Loopring Wallet — a mobile Ethereum smart wallet, and the Loopring L2 web app — an L2 orderbook and AMM DEX. To learn more, follow us on Medium or see Loopring.org.
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DeFi’s Final Frontier: Uncompromised Convenience was originally published in Loopring Protocol on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
