Cryptocurrency seems to be upending itself.
Each cycle we have the same questions.
Which coin will turn 100x?
When will the next bull run be?
So which one should I purchase first before everyone else goes on?
Perhaps we have some wrong ideas though.
The largest crypto opportunity in the next 10 years could be a different coin.
It may be at a glance less exciting:
The secret infrastructure behind the cryptocurrencies and the internet we know and use daily.
And if that occurs, most individuals probably won't know that they are using crypto.
The Best Technology Often Becomes Invisible
Consider the Internet.
When people log into Instagram or use YouTube, they aren't thinking about DNS servers, APIs, cloud infrastructure or data centers.
They simply use the application.
The experience took the place of the infrastructure.
Crypto may be in for a similar fate.
The user may not be up and thinking:
Today I'm going to communicate with a blockchain.
Rather, they would just:
Log in an app using a digital identity
Get funds right away from another nation.
Store assets via a wallet without needing to register an exchange account
Automatically handle payments with AI.
Do something for themselves not to show everything
Transfer digital assets from one app to another without knowledge of the technology that backs them up.
The blockchain may serve as the unstoppable force behind the scenes.
And that's where things get interesting.
The Next Big Crypto Users May Not Call Themselves Crypto Users
Crypto has a pretty big identity crisis right now.
The wallets, gas fees, bridges, private keys, seed phrases and networks are all mentioned in industry jargon.
That's commonplace for a fan.
For everyone else?
It's complicated.
Complex technologies are not usually capable of being adopted by billions of people without being simplified.
Everyone did not have to learn about cellular networks for the smartphone to become popular.
They wanted to take pictures, text friends and watch videos.
That's something that's going to be necessary for Crypto to do as well.
The winners may be the products that are completely invisible with the blockchain.
Suppose you sent funds to an individual without knowing if it was sent via Ethereum, Solana, or another network.Suppose you send money to a person and you're not sure if it was sent on Ethereum, Solana, or another network.
You don't care.
All you have to do is click Send.
That is when crypto starts to get really mainstream.
AI Could Accelerate This Faster Than We Expect
Add Artificial Intelligence to the mix.
AI is turning into the medium by which humans interact with technology.
Rather than having to go through 10 apps, why not just say to an AI assistant:
"Send $50 to my friend."
Or:
Please pay my electric bill.
Or:
Transfer funds to a more fee-friendly account.
The AI takes care of the complexities.
Only the results are displayed for the user.
Potentially, blockchain infrastructure can be used to settle, identify, own, and pay.
This gives users a radically new crypto experience.
There is no interaction with the blockchain.
Your AI does.
Which could alter the whole industry.
The future's largest crypto companies can be quite different from the exchanges seen today.
They might have appeared more like:
AI-powered financial assistants
Digital identity platforms
Payment infrastructure
Blockchain middleware
Wallet operating systems
Decentralized data networks
The technology is more camouflaged.
The business opportunity becomes bigger.
The Real Moat Might Be Trust
However, there's one issue,
When AI agents begin to make financial choices for individuals, trust is an incredibly valuable thing.
Let's say you allow an AI to:
Make payments
Handle your online resources.
Sign transactions
Access your identity
Interact with financial applications
Then one day the question that proves to be the most valuable is not:
What is the quickest blockchain?
It becomes:
Who will look out for me?
This may lead to a new conflict over trust in digital.
The winners can be companies and protocols that can demonstrate:
Who you are
The definition of what an AI can do.
What the AI did:The actual action an AI took:
A determination of whether a transaction was authorized or not
Did you have any information that was secured?
It's not just speculation, then, but verification that may be the key to the future of crypto.
This Is Where Most Investors May Be Looking Too Late
As soon as a technology becomes evident to all, the largest opportunities are likely to be taken up.
The more interesting part is earlier.
Before people realize the importance of the infrastructure.
In the time before cryptocurrency is the norm.
Prior to blockchain deals getting more mundane than clicking a button.
The people paying attention today shouldn't only ask:
Which token will 'pop up'?
They should also be asking:
What future infrastructure will be required by billions of people?
That's a more difficult question.
But perhaps one that's far more significant.
The Biggest Crypto Opportunity Might Be Boring
The following crypto millionaire may not be the one who accurately predicted the next meme coin.
It might be a builder that constructed:
The payment rails
The identity layer
The wallet infrastructure
The AI-to-blockchain interface
The security tools
The developer infrastructure
As in previous technology waves, there have been individuals who have profited from the infrastructure that everyone that has since come to rely on.
The gold rush is in the spotlight.
The infrastructure is the institution that frequently takes the business.
My Take
I believe that there will still be speculation waves through crypto.
There always is a lot of hype.
100x will always be the next 100x.
But I feel like the more interesting thing going on below.
Crypto is gradually becoming infrastructure that people use unwittingly, instead of actively searching for.
That transition might be a big one.
When technology becomes invisible, adoption can happen without having to comprehend it all.
Perhaps the subsequent crypto bull run won't be about the number of exchanges created.
Perhaps, it will be measured by the number of people who are not aware of blockchain, but still using it.
But if it does, the most rewarding chance may not be in the search for the next piece of gold.
What may be happening is that they are looking for the technology; the coin may not be relevant to the user experience.
