1 min read

Don't talk about blockchain

If you run a business with existing customers, adding blockchain-powered experiences to your apps is a mine field. Just because you've gone down the rabbit hole doesn't mean your customers (or employees for that matter) are bought in. Typically, you'll run into concerns about:

  • environmental impacts of blockchain tech
  • the perception that it's just a money grab
  • the belief that everything in crypto is a scam

If you can get past those concerns without alienating your customers and employees, then you have a new problem: building the skillsets needed to actually build the smart contracts, wallet integrations, etc. needed to bring about your vision.

Once you've got it built using web3 best practices, what you have is an app that requires users to...

  • educate themselves
  • set up a wallet
  • buy tokens

Even optimistically, you'll be lucky to bring along a small percentage of your existing customers. Most likely, you'll be looking at an entirely new set of users who don't even appreciate the other things you do as a company.

Blockchain can be a powerful tool for your business. It can increase your valuation and power useful experiences that your users would appreciate if they could only use them.

To fix this: don't advertise that you're using blockchain. You can talk about it with investors and in certain circles, but don't broadcast your new NFT-backed in-game items to your existing players. The system should just work without the need to know what's happening, without setting up a wallet, and without buying tokens.

To do this, you need to support custodial wallets, hold tokens for your users, and pay gas fees on their behalf (this could get expensive, though--I recommend you look at building on Koinos to avoid crazy costs).

Just build it then add valuable features like a secondary marketplace. You can even build follow up experiences (like a new off-shoot game) that leverages the same NFTs and fungible tokens that your users have accumulated.

When your users start asking "how did you do that?" you can tell them about blockchain.

-Luke

P.S. If you're interested in exploring what blockchain can add to your business without alienating people, shoot me an email and we'll set up some time to talk.