Imagine you have a smartphone (i.e. iPhone 13) in a world where everyone around you is still using an old blackberry or Nokia 3310 playing snakes and ladders.

This is pretty much what it is like, well sort of. Once I began to understand the technology behind crypto and the projects that are developing it, I couldn’t walk around with a 3310 anymore.

It has become evident that blockchain technology is no longer in it’s infancy or pure concept phase, it is now too good not to become mainstream, and it’s maturing rapidly while it solves incredible problems!

Having watched the last few years, including the ups and downs, it now feels very different. There is real momentum despite the bear market conditions.

I decided to dive 100% in with Operations.Finance and be a part of a group that is paving the way towards the future, which is bright and very promising!

It’s hard to continue investing in a system that will become redundant soon, so I had to make the switch as an early(ish) adopter.

In doing so I have decided to contribute to a technological ecosystem that exponentially increases:

• Accessibility;

• Accountability;

• Accuracy;

• Authenticity;

• Productivity;

• Speed; and

• Transparency.

I have a background in big 4 Accounting/auditing, Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Markets and Investments, which I use to help blockchain organizations achieve their finance and strategy related goals!

The revolution is building up momentum and it is coming! I would very much like to be a part of it in a major way!

Besides the incredible innovation, there are 3 main reasons I believe mainstream use is closer than you think.

A) Regulations

A regulated space brings large institutional capital into the fold as their mandates only allow investments into regulated products / investments. This will be a gamechanger.

Think of the trillions invested in all the world’s pension funds and balanced funds, deployed by traditional asset managers. They have seen the innovation and success over the years, and you can bet they are seething to get involved and allocate a portion to crypto related investments, both coins and projects.

How do we know its coming? Look at the big players in the market pushing deals! Famous and extremely wealthy Shark Tank investors, Kevin O’Leary and Mark Cuban are super evangelists now, making huge investments in the blockchain space and constantly meeting with regulators to convince them to regulate favourably.

On an institutional note, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, just signed a historic deal with Coinbase to make it easier for institutional investors to manage and trade Bitcoin, and they launched a private trust to give clients exposure to spot Bitcoin.

Steve Cohen is even building an investment firm exclusively focused on cryptocurrency. The news like this continues each day, showing the strong intent from institutional capital.

They must be pretty confident things are about to change to make these large investments with their money and reputation. We have never seen so much talk and momentum on regulation before, and it seems to be a growing trend for the foreseeable future.

However, the important part here is that institutional capital is definitely not cowboy money. It demands deep accountability and transparency for the use of funds they plan on giving you, as well as your previous track record with the money you were given before.

This is what Operations.Finance specializes in, helping projects with this dilemma and impressing investors with robust finance operations and dynamic financial reporting.

The earlier you start and the longer your track record, the more credibility you build with investors, this should not be underestimated!

B) The brightest minds

Each year, according to Kevin O’Leary, 1/3 of the brightest software engineer graduates, being the largest portion, are dedicating their time and efforts to solve world problems using blockchain technology. They want skin in the game, and they want to solve real world problems at scale to make an impactful difference. Money is not enough.

It seems the days when the best minds wanted to work for web2.0 platforms like Google and Facebook are long gone.

I certainly wouldn’t bet against that productivity and willpower.

Just look what Vitalik Buterin did when the creators of World of Warcraft frustrated him and reduced the damage component of his beloved game character, I mean he channelled his frustration and eventually created Ethereum. Now we have all these phenomenal dApp technologies because of the doors that were opened on this one chain.

C) Demographics and instability

The 18–34 age group are very able and happy to transact with crypto currencies and find it relatively easy to use the underlying technologies.

In fact they are quite bullish on it. Paxful found that this age group accounts for 65% of all trades in 2021. A CNBC survey taken last year found that nearly half of Millennial millionaires own 25% or more of their wealth in crypto. It also found that digital art made up 8% of Millennials’ collections, which jumped to 18% amongst Gen Xers, a clear trend showcasing the increasing trust in digital assets as age group curves lower.

The factors driving this demographic to crypto:

• Technological fluency;

• Distrust in traditional financial institutions;

• Ease of access to crypto; and

• A growing pool of social media influencers increasingly advocating crypto.

I only expect this trend to gather momentum with the youth entering the job market each year, pushing levels to new heights, boding well for models built on real scarcity.

The other natural push to adoption is unstable economies & hyperinflation, like the current crisis in:

• Argentina;

• Spain;

• Italy;

• Pakistan; and

• Sri Lanka.

Then there is the war stricken regions of Ukraine and Russia, not to mention the sanctioned nations of Iran, Cuba and North Korea.

Therefore people are flocking to stable coins and other cryptos as a measure to hedge against their unpredictable economies and governments, because they see crypto as digital assets that cannot be eroded, bombed, restricted or even seized! As you can imagine, even the Cyprus crisis in 2012 still haunt many when governments just directly took money out of resident accounts, while residents were helpless.

So now what?

The way I see it, it’s just a matter of time, and when the dam wall breaks, the flood will engulf every process very quickly …… So, are you getting ready?

It is not too late to become an adopter, before the mad rush of necessity. Learn as much as you can and get involved!

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