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What are the infrastructure requirements for true encryption adoption?

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The encryption infrastructure needs to be easy to use and fun, and it needs to improve in these seven areas.

Original title: What does true encryption Adoption Require of encryption Infrastructure?

Source: Coindesk

Mary Liu, BitpushNews

A young African man named Kgothatso Ngako saw a business opportunity. He believed his neighbors in Africa could benefit from owning Bitcoin, but most Africans don't have smartphones. Internet penetration in Africa is only 30 per cent, and millions cannot, as advertised, "own their own bank account".

Ngako wants to change that. A former software engineer at Amazon, he has worked to translate bitcoin educational materials -- Satoshi Nakamoto's white paper, for example -- into more than 20 African languages, including Swahili, Shona and Oshiwambo. But it's not enough. Unless people have a way to actually own Bitcoins, knowledge will be worthless.

"Fortunately, on the continent of Africa, the GSM infrastructure is quite solid," Ngako says. Based on this network, many Africans still use flip phones, so can Ngako take advantage of GSM infrastructure and create something compatible with Bitcoin?

He quit his job and set up Machankura, a word that has no exact translation, but which Ngako says is a "slang term that usually refers to money". Machankura is a text-based interface that allows Bitcoin sending, receiving, and spending to be enabled via the Lightning network, allowing users to create lightning wallets directly on their flip phones. During our Zoom call, Ngako held up the phone and demonstrated features: a simple screen offers 1. Option to send BTC; 2. Receive Bitcoin; 3; Balance and history; 4. Cost BTC, etc.

Machankura is still in early testing, but Ngako, who says it has been in active use for six months, envisions solutions like this as a way to engage more Africans, something he thinks is long overdue.

"Bitcoin is not where it should be from an adoption point of view," Ngako says, pointing out that Mobile Money, a digital (non-encrypted) payment platform launched in 2007, has 6 million active users in Kenya. Why can't Bitcoin do the same?

Or, why aren't more bitcoins and cryptocurrencies being adopted? What's holding this technology back? Negative headlines have been making headlines recently in the crypto space -- the collapse of FTX and Celsius Network, the popularity of non-homogeneous Token (NFT) bubbles, recession jitters, comments from Fed Chair Powell, and an unfriendly macro environment.

But you can also blame an unstable infrastructure. "Broadly speaking, the infrastructure that powers Web3 needs to catch up," says Ryan Servatius, head of strategic partnerships at Mysten Labs. Many believe that the crypto space now is like the Internet in the early 1990s. Servatius takes the analogy a step further: he argues that the Internet didn't flourish until its infrastructure matured.

"Infrastructure is the key factor, and broadband penetration is the only key driver," Servatius said, adding that Netflix and YouTube are as big as they are now because of broadband penetration in the United States. Servatius believes that the blockchain space is still in the "pre-broadband" phase and that we "still need to get the infrastructure built to a level where the world can embrace fast, cheap things."

There is little consensus on exactly how infrastructure should be improved. Or which projects will win, ask 100 people in the crypto world, and you'll get 100 different answers. A debate between bitcoin extremists, Ethereum diehards and many aspiring "ethereum killers" such as Solana, Cardano or Servatius's Mysten Labs would break the speaker of the House.

What counts as "blockchain infrastructure"? You could argue that every cryptographic project -- excluding the meme Token -- is a form of infrastructure. It's a tricky concept. Compare it to the richer racetracks in the field: you can squint and imagine virtual reality in virtual worlds; It's easy to imagine NFT's artwork; You can even understand, if not endorse, the appeal of "digital price rise" speculation.

But the infrastructure is almost imperceptible, and perhaps that's the point. Andrew Keys, co-founder and managing partner of Darma Capital: "The average person should not be ignorant about infrastructure. When you buy a plane ticket to a certain place on Orbitz, no one uses a SQL database or a Kafka database. You just use Orbitz and that's how it works on the Internet." Blockchain should work the same way: "When blockchain works, it's boring," and the experience should be no different from the world of Web2, except that "there's no middleman taking a 40% cut to match drivers and passengers (Uber), when it costs only 1%."

That's the goal. And real progress needs to be made on this boring, behind-the-scenes, unseen work of plumbing and wiring if the crypto world is to get rid of crypto winter. That's what widespread adoption needs -- it needs to be easy to use and fun.

So when we talk about blockchain infrastructure, we talk about these seven areas:

A more comprehensive and smooth user experience

What is it like to buy an NFT for a novice? Paul Brody, blockchain initiative leader at Ernst & Young, said: "If you are trying to buy NFT for the first time, it can be very scary. First it involves creating an account on a trading platform like Coinbase or Binance, then opening a MetaMask wallet, transferring money, connecting to OpenSea, etc. Compare it to using ApplePay for online shopping, which is a really messy experience."

Brody doubts that true widespread adoption, especially by large companies, will happen without sleeker software. "IT has to be easy enough for the typical enterprise IT developer to use, they have to be able to plug and play, it can't be," Hey, I need to build a professional blockchain team. "" (Brody's team at EY is working on such a solution; They have piloted a supply chain Peroni beer project.)

Similarly, other projects are trying to make it easier for Web2 companies to plug and play with Web3 on the consumer side. Take the "brand loyalty" NFT. I've spoken to many Web3 advocates who are positive about major brands using social tokens, NFT, or other parts of Web3 to create over-the-top rewards programs -- like frequent flier accounts.

The Dispatch project is building ways for companies to communicate directly with encrypted end users, such as sending messages to their Ledger wallets. This is then synchronized to the company's normal CRM [customer relationship management] interface, such as Salesforce. Byron Sorrells, director of Dispatch: "I tell everyone, this is the future, but I will put it in your CRM for you. We can't expect to adopt behavior changes that lead to large-scale changes in the way users behave. I think it will be, 'I'm doing what I've always done, but behind it is the magic of Web3.'"

Sorrells uses the same approach as Ngako: to extend the encryption infrastructure by creating simple solutions for end users. In Ngako's case, it lets Kenyans use their text-messaging phones to get bitcoins. Sorrell's project uses enterprise software, but infuses it with NFT, or as he puts it, "Mailchimp, but make it blockchain."

A better (decentralized) wallet

"We need really good wallets," -- Paulina Joskow, Ramp Partnership lead.

Ramp is a project that is building a payment track that connects cryptocurrencies to the global financial system. Joskkw's take: "They are the backbone of how we use and operate in the crypto ecosystem every day. The state of wallets? We are not ready for the next wave of mainstream adoption."

"Better Wallets" is Kgothatso Ngako's project in Africa, which is why Ledger hired Tony Fadell, designer of the original Apple iPod, to create its next generation of devices. For many in the space, Better Wallets' mission is a way to take cryptocurrencies back to their centralised roots.

"We learned this year that many of these non-self-custody solutions -- centralized financial solutions -- have significant problems," says Amanda Cassatt, founder of Serotonin Marketing Agency. She pointed to the collapse of FTX, Celsius Network and BlockFi as centralised solutions that were out of control. "This highlights the need to have a really good user experience, but also to enable real self-policing by users."

FTXS may not be secure, but they are very easy to use. Cassatt wanted to see the same extremely simple experience, but with a decentralized quality.

Cassatt, former chief marketing officer at ethereum development studio ConsenSys, said: "I really don't think that if someone doesn't keep their cryptocurrency, they won't join Web3. The reluctance to fully self-host is understandable. The average person (myself included) is uncomfortable with the idea of having to keep track of 16-word seed phrases or keeping hardware wallets secure. For example, within months of buying my car, I lost my car book and had to spend hours arguing my case at the DMV; maybe encryption would help me "be my own bank", but I feel like I would mess up my own bank ".

Therefore, Cassatt believes that what is needed is not a centralized solution, but a decentralized one that is easier to implement. Cassatt favors the concept of "progressive sovereignty," where users become their own custodians as they learn more about Web3.

"The mission right now is to get as many people as possible to keep their own Bitcoins, and right now, we don't need any fancy software updates for Bitcoin to do that," said Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer at the Human Rights Foundation and a prominent Bitcoin advocate.

"The infrastructure is more at the application level," Gladstein said. (Examples include Ngako's work in Africa and the self-hosted Muun wallet.) Gladstein acknowledges that the Bitcoin network software will eventually need to be upgraded, but says "we haven't crossed that bridge yet."

While it's true that newbies have a hard time remembering mnemonics, Gladstein notes that in the 1990s, his parents had a hard time remembering strange new terms like "email password" and "username." They put post-it notes all over the monitor. Eventually, we found a way around this problem, but that hasn't stopped email from taking over the world.

Build better Bridges

How well does one blockchain work with another? The fault still occurs. This has led to theft and a loss of trust in the system, as more than $2 billion has been hacked from the blockchain bridge, according to estimates by Chainalysis.

"I really hope that in the next few months and years, depending on how long the bear market lasts, we can improve the way that we build Bridges between layers, which has to be done," said Paulina Joskow, director of Ramp Partnerships. Joskow believes that we will soon be entering a stage where Ethereum's Tier 2 systems, such as Optimism and Arbitrum, will be widely available, "so before we get anywhere near mainstream adoption, we need to provide a secure way for people to exchange tokens between layers."

Privacy is Paramount

For those unfamiliar with the crypto world, where the concept of "encrypted privacy" is a bit like the dark web, illegal drugs, money laundering and the financing of terrorists, privacy may sound a bit far-fetched.

If you feel the same way, you should talk to Paul Brody, an executive at Ernst & Young. Paul Brody explains that privacy is vital to American business, as it has been since the early days of the Internet. Think of e-commerce in the past, Brody says: "Arguably, the killer app of the Internet turns out to be commerce -- buying things, and for that, we have to have privacy. Imagine if the world could see everything you buy on Amazon. Thanks to the tedious work of Internet infrastructure, SSL encryption, we can shop online securely. Today's blockchain ecosystem doesn't have that at all, and it's a priority."

Companies, too, need to keep their operations secret. For example, if an automaker uses a public smart contract to buy tires from a supplier, the on-chain transaction could be detected by a competitor. "The details of enterprise supply chains are very, very sensitive, which is why supply chain projects are almost impossible on public blockchains," Brody said. (His team at EY is working on solutions, some of which will be tested in the coming months.)

"Web3 is much more transparent than the Internet we're trying to replace," said Alex Pruden, CEO of Aleo, a privacy-focused blockchain system. "If you buy your wife an anniversary gift, all of this is on the chain and recorded for the world to see." He believes this is "one reason you haven't seen wider adoption," which is why "the scalability and privacy provided by zero-knowledge proofs are critical."

Zero-Knowledge proof (or ZK proof) allows you to prove that something is true without disclosing other sensitive data, and it shares only what is needed. A simple example: If you walk into a bar and are asked to show your ID, the bouncer can see the details, including your home address, height, and driver's license number. But the only relevant data is your birthday - are you over 21? Among the smart ids powered by ZK Proof, the only one you have to show the bouncer is a message that says "21 +."

Pruden was so passionate about the importance of ZK's infrastructure that he organised an open competition called the "ZPrize" to promote its development and innovation. He said more than $4 million has been allocated so far; These awards go to very simple-sounding categories including "Accelerating MSM operations on a GPU/FPGA," "Plonk-DIZK GPU Acceleration," and "Accelerating NTT operations on an FPGA."

Web3 Social infrastructure

Cassatt predicts 2023 will be the "Year of the Web3 Social" that will finally unlock the world's decentralized alternatives to Twitter and Facebook.

Blockchain is often a "solution in search of a problem," as many have complained, but the problem here is clear: the influence you gain on one platform cannot be transplanted to another.

Cassatt says mainstream adoption of Web3 social media won't happen without more work being done at the Protocol level, and Lens Protocol is her favorite project, allowing people to build their own decentralized, censor-resistant social media applications. "This will appeal to a lot of users," Cassatt said, in part because the use case is "less price-dependent" and offers "real utility on Web3."

index

Data needs to be indexed for quick access. "Analytics and indexing infrastructure is really important for developers," says Aleo's Pruden. Without going too far into the technology (or delving into things like "Plonk-DIZK GPU acceleration"), the point is that indexing can be done in different ways, centralized or decentralized. Pruden would like to see more open source, decentralized indexing solutions emerge because these are part of the "default" of the overall system. "Today's default Settings are hosting infrastructure and non-self-hosting wallets, and if we don't push back against those default Settings, then those adoption scales will continue to get stronger and stronger," Pruden said.

Finally, critical to almost every project in the field:

More scalable

Thanks to the Lightning Network, transactions that would take 10 minutes on bitcoin can now be completed in a millisecond. This infrastructure breakthrough enabled Strike (mobile payment application) to be launched in El Salvador, paving the way for encryption adoption. While the verdict on El Salvador's bitcoin experiment is still up in the air, it's a good example of how tedious, quiet progress in infrastructure can accumulate.

Of course, many competing Tier 1 projects are competing to offer faster, cheaper, greener, and better alternatives to Ethereum. Work continues on the Lightning network (such as helping developers build lightning-friendly applications), as does work on Ethereum itself. "Ethereum really needs more expansion," Brody said. "Mergers don't solve everything." He sees the upgrade to proof of equity as a win for proving that Ethereum can "effortlessly migrate $700 billion of mission-critical infrastructure," but it's just part of a longer journey.

Ethereum's short-term focus is sharding, which the Ethereum Foundation defines as a "multi-stage upgrade to improve the scalability and capacity of Ethereum," which will further reduce fees. The full road map, drawn by Vitalik Buterin himself, contains milestones for "Surge, Verge, Purge, and Splurge" and nods to Buterin because "Merge merge" isn't the easiest word to rhyme with, Let us pray that there would not be a Scourge.