Disclosure: The opinions and opinions expressed here belong to the authors solely and do not represent the views or opinions of the crypto.news editorial.
When it comes to money, everyone ends up having the same basic needs. We need to be able to store, send it and use it safely and simply. But even in 2025, billions of people are still excluded from the formal financial system. And this happens not only in emerging markets, but ironically in major countries around the world.
summary
- Thousands of millions of banks remain unmaintained in developed markets, but blockchain still doesn’t offer practical, routine solutions due to insufficient UX and complexity.
- Recruitment depends on the relevance. Successful models such as Brazil’s Nubank, Philippines’ GCASH, and Telegram’s ton payments are simple and embedded, indicating that people embrace technology when solving daily problems.
- Blockchain should prioritize utilities over ideology. Clumsy rollouts like the El Salvador Bitcoin experiment show risk, with stationary and tokenized assets offering a clearer path to usability and trust.
- Large-scale recruitment requires simplicity. Cryptography is as easy as existing apps, and you need to store, send and spend naturally. Otherwise, blockchain risks staying niche for decades.
A recent survey shows that over 36 million consumers don’t take banks in North America alone, but the UK has over 22 million underserved adults. Whether it is due to infrastructure shortages or mistrust in the banking industry, this financial exclusion continues to curb economic mobility and limit access to basic opportunities. Many view blockchain as an innovative solution, providing faster, cheaper, boundary-free financial services to the world. However, in reality, they have not yet provided that promise to everyday users.
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Today, more widely, cryptocurrency and blockchain are recognized as speculative methods of extracting value rather than practical tools for solving real problems. This technology is often clunky and intimidating for the average user, with poor UX designed for developers rather than everyday people. Wallet setup, private key management, asset bridges, and navigation of unfamiliar interfaces introduces friction at every step. These processes are not only complicated, but also merciless. A single mistake means losing your funds forever. Adoption is slowing as people don’t want innovation for innovation. In particular, they do not want strong industry attempts to embed them in a new world where they don’t understand or see their value. They want intuitive solutions to the problems they experience every day.
This is why the future of blockchain cannot be won by those who yell the loudest about decentralization and toconemics. It is won by people who simplify complexes, provide killer utilities and integrate technology into apps that already trust the technology.
Global adoption requires relevance
Inspiration often comes from markets that do not have an established legacy financial system. See how digital banking innovations have shaped Brazil. Nubank has changed financial access by providing users with a simple, mobile-first way to manage money without traditional banking friction and barriers. The model thrived because it consistently with existing user behavior and addressed specific local needs. The technology was new to consumers, but quickly resolved problems that occurred daily. Most importantly, these consumers didn’t need to understand how the underlying technology worked.
This is where the user experience becomes a winning element by making financial tools feel natural in everyday life. Take GCASH in the Philippines. The Philippines is the hub for all financial operations. Paying, sending invoices and, more importantly, transferring, shopping and accessing credits. The same principles can be applied to blockchain. I’m looking at this on platforms like Telegram. This allows Ton-based payments directly within the app, showing how blockchain functionality can be made simple and natural as text sending. These platforms show how cryptography can be useful no matter what it looks like by maintaining complexity behind the scenes, and blend in with the tools people already rely on.
Of course, Nubank worked for a population of 200 million in Brazil. Scaling that model presents a wide range of challenges globally. Reach diverse populations, navigate different regulatory environments and integrate with existing payment habits.
Telegram’s growth to over 1 billion users demonstrates how a platform with a large, enthusiastic audience can serve as an effective distribution channel for new services, including blockchain-based financial tools. Quietly embedding financial features allows users to provide features such as borderless payments and tokenized assets without requiring users to learn new systems. For most people, these features don’t seem to use any ciphers at all. Another reliable feature for apps you already rely on.
Do you want to build rails and barriers?
Blockchain is a way to remove barriers, but if applied clumsy you can create them instead. In many cases, developers build ideals instead of use cases. Focus should not be focused on wearing cryptography shoes where it is not necessary. Simplicity and utility must take precedence over novelty and ideology. The adoption of technology should be driven not only by innovation, but also by clarity and clear profits.
El Salvador’s experiment with Bitcoin (BTC) as fiat currency serves as a perfect example. Although Central American nations have consolidated the status of Bitcoin for many years, the initiative appears to face important hurdles, including price fluctuations, lack of public confidence and inadequate adoption for remittances, which constitute a significant portion of the country’s GDP. Many citizens have chosen to cash out as soon as they receive Bitcoin or avoid the system entirely to highlight the gap between theoretical promise and practical ease of use.
A better path is in stubcoins, fixed at the price of Fiat currency. They provide Fiat price stability with the benefits of crypto, low-cost transfers and global access. Integrated into familiar apps, Stablecoins has now been able to quietly transfer power, daily payments, and even save solutions across underserved communities. Beyond payments, blockchain has been able to open the door to more complex financial tools for the masses. Imagine a token that tracks stock selections so that someone in emerging markets can invest in Apple stocks. This could have been unthinkable just a few years ago. NFTS and Defi have the ability to redefine the meaning of ownership and may democratize access to wealth-building tools that have long been restricted to social choice groups.
Return to basics
With the accelerated adoption of blockchain, this technology demonstrates that it can provide opportunities in ways that traditional financial systems cannot. But so far, access to these opportunities has been limited to those who can take the time to learn and understand how cryptography works.
For a blockchain-based future to become a reality, our central focus is bringing simple projects to the market that provide meaningful use cases for the average person. We need to create a system that honors what is already to be recognized. It is the right for everyone to save, send and spend. That means beyond education, it means that apps can make cryptography as easily as the apps they already use every day. If things don’t work for mass consumers, mass adoption remains decades ahead, not years.
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Irina Chuchkina
Irina Chuchkina He is Telegram’s Wallet’s Chief Growth Officer and leads Wallet’s global expansion strategy, achieving 15 new national goals over the next two years. Irina, a skilled leader at Crypto and Fintech, has built a world-class brand for over 18 years at the intersection of payments and technology in Europe and Asia.
