A report released by the encrypted data website Dune Analytics on December 4 showed that the number of participants in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ecosystem with a unique Ethereum address has exceeded 1 million, compared with the number of participants on December 6, 2019. 91,000, an increase of more than tenfold.
However, despite the strong growth momentum, some experts still remind crypto users that DeFi cannot be considered mainstream yet. In fact, in order to make DeFi a real breakthrough, many supporters of emerging vertical industries may have to rethink their communication and outreach strategies.
The Dune Analytics report summarizes the total number of addresses that have used popular DeFi protocols (such as Uniswap, Compound, and Aave), and points out that they use the number of “unique addresses” as the number of “users”, which means that the millionth address may not be marked As optimistic as at first glance. Many DeFi users usually deploy multiple addresses to protect their privacy when conducting transactions on the Ethereum public network, and combining “address” with “user” may cause analysts to come up with some suspicious numbers.
Brian Flynn, co-founder of Rabbithole, a startup that helps motivate people to participate in DeFi, suggests that the actual number of participants is much smaller. “The reality is that the number of unique users is only 10-15% of them. This is the really important indicator,” Flynn said.
In the long run, finding ways to motivate users to participate in DeFi governance and infrastructure layer elements will lead to sustainable success.
Patrick Rawson, the co-founder of Curve Labs, a blockchain experimenter, said that the current user experience in DeFi is specific to a very specific demographic.
Rawson said: “People who use these mechanisms tend to be male, young, they want to make money, and they are technically proficient. “User profiles will require anything that makes them the most profitable.”
Rawson believes that if DeFi really wants to “provide funds for users without funds” and reach the “last mile”, they may have to consider new promotion strategies that will enable users to better seek the desired results.
“Let’s take a look at another user’s profile. Older, from sub-Saharan Africa, female, with a family, and not technically savvy. Would this user want to make a profit at the expense of everything else? No, she may be more interested in the surrounding environment, and also very interested in the health and wellness of her family.[…] She wants DeFi that benefits her local community, not DeFi that maximizes profits at all costs .”
Rawson said that in order to achieve this transformation, DeFi will have to adapt to “localized institutional structures that reflect local values.”
Flynn agrees with Rawson’s view that focusing on profit above all else may be a restrictive way to promote the Gospel of DeFi. The way ecosystem participants discuss DeFi with friends and family will also play an important role in the process of moving into the future:
“We need to stop paying attention to prices and pay more attention to encrypted networks and decentralization is a new way to build organizations.”
