Throughout the web3 world, companies, protocols and projects alike are pushing to onboard a billion users — what they see as the tipping point for cryptocurrency use to grow exponentially. But that number is only possible — obviously — through increased adoption.
That means major players in the space must make improvements regarding ease and accessibility for the non-crypto natives who want to use crypto. Uniswap Labs, a company building upon the decentralized protocol Uniswap, aims to do just that.
Although it may seem like “web3” is little more than a buzzword, people in the space believe that there’s a deeper meaning to it.
“Web3 is revolutionizing financial technology and financial infrastructure in one,” Uniswap Labs COO Mary-Catherine Lader said to TechCrunch. “Web3 allows any app, any website, to invent value in a digital economy without having to ask for permission or paying for that service.”
Uniswap Labs COO Mary-Catherine Lader. Image Credits: Uniswap Labs
Today, crypto users don’t have to go to the bank or work with a payments company every time they want to make a transaction online because they’re able to link their crypto wallets and pay through a decentralized permissionless protocol like Uniswap. “This has never been possible before,” Lader said.
Uniswap is an open source permissionless protocol that developers can use and embed into their platforms so crypto users can swap tokens, while Uniswap Labs is a business that builds products on top of the protocol.
Earlier this week, Uniswap Labs launched Swap Widget, which allows users on NFT marketplace OpenSea and other web3-based applications to exchange or “swap” cryptocurrency on the platform without having to leave the site.
Widgets like this are already implemented into Web 2.0 sites like Amazon, where you can easily pay for items when you check out, but given web3’s nascent stage, a task as simple as making a payment is more complex and involves a number of steps to successfully utilize crypto products and services.
“There are too many steps today [to use crypto],” Lader said. “You should be able to join a DAO in one click. You should be able to support your favorite NFT artists in one click.”
There’s a sizable — and growing — market for one-click web3 use. In December 2021, there were 295 million crypto users globally, up 178% from 106 million at the beginning of the year, according to a January 2022 report by cryptocurrency exchange app Crypto.com. The firm reported that it expects the number of global crypto owners to reach 1 billion users by the end of this year.
Although the global crypto market cap is nearing $2 trillion and the total volume over the last 24 hours is about $64 billion, according to CoinMarketCap, many community members believe that crypto adoption is in its early stages and there’s plenty of room to grow.
For reference, as of November 2021, there were about 80 million crypto wallets in existence and an estimated 3.9% of the global population owns cryptocurrency, a report by Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) and Wirex showed.
Today, crypto users have to create a centralized exchange account on a platform like Coinbase, then get a non-custodial wallet like MetaMask, and then go into the world of web3, Lader said. “So, there’s a lot of opportunity right now to reduce the number of steps and friction.”
For more people to access and take advantage of the benefits of web3, it has to be easier to integrate the core infrastructure and capabilities that unlock these benefits, Lader said.
“Our mission is to unlock universal ownership and exchange,” Lader said. “If you can embed the ability to swap value and have people join the community and exchange value with your project, or your company or organization — that’s a powerful way to allow more people to engage in this ownership.”
But Uniswap Labs is just one of many organizations working on this problem. Opera, a multiplatform web browser, also launched an iOS version of its crypto browser this week so consumers could have a more “direct user-friendly access to web3 services.”
“The web3 experience for users has, however, been oftentimes far from intuitive and traditionally not optimized for iOS users,” Opera said in a statement. Providing alternative avenues for people to use Opera’s crypto browser, like an iOS version, will ideally provide more ease and options for adoption. As interest in web3 grows, it has to be easier to use in order to reach its full potential and mass adoption, Jorgen Arnesen, EVP Mobile at Opera, said.
To date, over 400 different organizations have integrated with Uniswap and virtually none of them have been proactively sought by the protocol or the business built on top of it, aside from the three partners for the Swap Widget, Lader said.
The three partners — NFT marketplace OpenSea, decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) coordinator Friends with Benefits, and decentralized finance-focused Oasis.app — were chosen by Uniswap Labs to illustrate that people who want to buy NFTs, join a DAO or use DeFi products can do so in an accessible manner, Lader said.
“This is an example of making adoption that much easier, and if the product works, its success will be based on how many teams integrated it,” she said.
Since launching the widget less than 24 hours ago, three other teams have already integrated the product, hinting at the potential for success. While this is one of Uniswap Labs’ newest products, others will be launched this year, Lader said, though she did not disclose additional details.
“This is why we come to work every day,” Lader said. “We have the opportunity to build a better system with amazing technology alongside people who are equally passionate about it.”
Going forward, web3 user experiences need to be continually improved by creating more one-step integrations and less friction — all without taking away from its core purpose, Lader explained.
The words “access and simplicity” are key to onboarding millions, and eventually billions, of people into web3, Lader said. “Reducing the number of steps and friction is the most important thing right now.”