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This might be hard to hear but…
Web3’s ‘killer application’ probably isn’t going to be a game or social platform…it’s way more boring than that.
Nope. Web3’s killer app is probably something that already exists. Something most of us already use.
Payments.
Please, please — hold your jeers.
It sounds like a painfully unsexy feature (and it is) — but the ability for apps to integrate a global payment system with a few lines of code and no prior permissions is way bigger than it seems.
For example:
Elon Musk has long stated his intention to transform X/Twitter into an ‘everything app,’ starting with payments…but to do so in the US, the company needs money transmitter licenses in all 50 states.
In January, it was reported that X gained a transmitter license in Utah…in March, rumors started to swirl that NY and CA were about to grant similar permissions…perhaps by the end of the year ‘X payments’ might be a thing?
But if this were to be a pure crypto play?
X could simply integrate a crypto wallet, and be done with it.
Avoiding the state-by-state red tape by letting folks exchange fiat for crypto elsewhere before transferring it over (e.g. buy crypto on Coinbase → send it to their crypto wallet).
Another example is Telegram’s TON Foundation.
They just launched their Telegram wallet in 6 new countries (Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Turkey, India, Argentina, Brazil).
Which is huge! But has only just rolled out because the Telegram wallet supports fiat-to-crypto transactions (which requires certain licensing).
Point being: crypto payments are the faster horse in the ‘global payments’ race.
Here’s why you should care about these sort of developments:
Combined, X and Telegram have a daily active user base of 1.145B (X 245M, Telegram 900M).
If crypto wallets get integrated globally to each platform, and 2% of the combined user bases converted to active crypto payment users over the next year or so…
That would equal ~23M new daily active crypto users.
For context, right now, Bitcoin and Ethereum have ~1.1M daily active users — combined.
More users = more demand for coins/tokens = higher crypto prices.
