Given the market movements over the last few weeks, it's clear that Crypto is in the center of policy, politics and development. There is very large positive momentum within this space however, there are a handful of key gaps that stay unsolved which will prevent the next 10M-100M users from being onboarded.
Complex on-boarding / off-boarding
There are a lot of great service providers that have attempted to make this portion of web3 very easy, however even with one-click onboarding providers, the barrier to on-ramp and off-ramp crypto still stays as the biggest blocker for net new users. The learning curve to transact on the blockchain is already very high. Adding multiple blockchains, blockchain-specific apps, and lack of easy transfer of money/assets across blockchains further increases the barriers.
Pay to play
The pay-to-play concept is very lucrative and has been proven to work for creators (Instagram Creator Subscription, Twitter Super Follow, OnlyFans, Patreon etc.). In web2, this paywall exists after users get to experience and engage in content for free. However with web3, many social apps focus on pay-to-play without allowing the natural path for communities to foster.
Value prop of being onchain
Crypto-native users understand the value of onchain presence. However, to a net new user, the value prop of being onchain is very unclear. Simply put, it's unclear as to "why" something should be onchain and "why" they should transact.
Privacy not being an option
The biggest flaw of being onchain is that the end user gives away their privacy. All onchain engagement and transactions are permanent. Human nature tells us that not everything should be on the internet — and the same belief follows onto web3. Apps need to solve this in two parts: allow offchain options and allow at a minimum, a front-end fix to hide, undo, or block data and content.