By now, it’s become a familiar refrain in crypto circles: if only we could make user experience (UX) better, the world would embrace crypto. It’s a comforting narrative, and in many ways a true one. Wallets are confusing. Seed phrases scare off the average person. Signing transactions can feel like deciphering alien code. The crypto space has a long way to go when it comes to intuitive design.
But while improving UX is necessary, it’s not sufficient. There’s a far more fundamental question that the industry needs to grapple with: why would most people use crypto at all?
Comfort Is the Enemy of Change
In the West, the majority of people have access to incredibly polished, efficient, and convenient financial products. PayPal, Stripe, Monzo, Apple Pay, Visa, Mastercard—these services are fast, intuitive, and deeply embedded in daily life. They “just work,” and they work well enough that most people don’t think twice about using them. If crypto is going to replace or compete with these systems, it has to be not just as good, but significantly better. And right now, it’s not.
This is the elephant in the room. A slicker wallet won’t change the fact that most Western users don’t feel any friction with their current payment methods. There’s no strong incentive to switch. Crypto, for all its innovation, remains a solution looking for a problem—at least in the context of daily payments in developed markets.
UX: Necessary but Not Sufficient
That said, UX is a problem—and a big one. The cognitive overhead of interacting with crypto is simply too high for the average person. From confusing wallet interfaces to cryptic error messages to the nightmare of recovering lost seed phrases, the experience today is akin to using the early internet without a browser.
One promising development in this space is account abstraction, especially through Ethereum’s evolving proposals like EIP-4337 and EIP-7702. Account abstraction would allow smart contract-based wallets that offer more flexible security models (like social recovery or hardware key backups), programmable features (like transaction batching or spending limits), and user-friendly authentication methods.
In theory, this could make using a crypto wallet as simple as logging into your email. But for account abstraction to fulfill its promise, developers must go beyond just enabling the feature—they must embed it in experiences that feel native, safe, and seamless to everyday users.
Katelyn Perna makes several insightful contributions to this conversation. Most notably, she argues that crypto UX must be reimagined through the lens of human-centered design. This includes:
- Smart defaults that reduce risk and friction for new users
- Clear, contextual transaction signing that removes guesswork and enhances transparency
- Social and multi-party recovery methods that eliminate the single point of failure posed by seed phrases
- Built-in education to onboard users gradually and intentionally
- Balanced automation that lets users benefit from crypto without sacrificing control
These aren’t just cosmetic tweaks; they represent a necessary cultural shift. Instead of designing for the technically proficient, crypto needs to design for everyone.
The Real Opportunities Are Elsewhere
Where crypto does have a clear edge is in places where traditional financial systems are broken, restricted, or non-existent. Cross-border payments, censorship resistance, access for the unbanked, capital mobility in restrictive regimes—these are areas where crypto is already proving its value.
It’s no coincidence that stablecoin usage is booming in countries suffering from inflation or capital controls. It’s no surprise that remittances powered by crypto are growing in parts of Africa and Latin America. In these contexts, crypto isn’t a novelty—it’s a lifeline.
Who Will Drive Mass Adoption?
If crypto is ever to become truly mainstream in the West, it’s unlikely to happen through direct user adoption. The average consumer isn’t going to manage private keys, deal with layer-2s, or understand the nuances of gas fees. Instead, mass adoption will come through the very institutions crypto was designed to disrupt.
Visa, PayPal, and Stripe might one day integrate crypto rails under the hood—not because it’s philosophically aligned with decentralization, but because it’s cheaper, faster, or expands their market. But here’s the catch: if crypto is only adopted through centralized intermediaries, have we actually won anything? Or have we just re-skinned the old system with new tech?
The Path Forward
To grow beyond speculation and niche use cases, crypto needs to stop chasing the dream of replacing systems that people already trust. Instead, it should focus on:
- Solving problems that existing systems can’t (e.g., permissionless access, censorship resistance)
- Serving users who are currently underserved (e.g., emerging markets, migrants, refugees)
- Innovating in areas where crypto is genuinely superior (e.g., programmable money, DeFi, NFTs with real utility)
- Radically improving UX through technologies like account abstraction, making wallets safer, smarter, and simpler to use
- Embracing human-centered design principles that reduce cognitive load and reflect how people actually behave and make decisions
Improving UX is important. But relevance is more important. Crypto doesn’t just need to be easier to use. It needs to be worth using.
Until then, even the best-designed wallet won’t change the fact that most people in the West simply don’t need crypto for payments.
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