Despite a shift in volume in fiat on- and off-ramps, they remain the biggest gateway for leading Web2 users into crypto, according to Aviessa Khoo, executive director at crypto ramp solutions provider Mercuryo.
At the recent Token2049 event in Dubai, Khoo told Cointelegraph that between 2017 and 2022, there were more transaction volumes for their on-ramp solutions as they were coming from centralized exchanges.
The executive explained that, more recently, their crypto volumes have been diverted into noncustodial wallets, which suggests that users are buying and holding on to their assets.
Even though ramp solutions have seen a shift, Khoo still believes that it’s an important tool that can help non-crypto natives get into the world of Web3. She said:
“On-ramp is definitely still the biggest gateway to onboard Web2 users into Web3, bridging these non-crypto users into Web3. If you talk about fiat on-ramp, the infrastructure is good for non-crypto native people.”
However, Khoo also recognized that crypto-native users may not be as thrilled about using on-ramp solutions because of the higher fees when paying with Visa or Mastercard debit cards. Khoo explained that these users prefer peer-to-peer (P2P) solutions.
“There’s still a lot of crypto native people who will go to P2P or just any other offline, on-ramp solutions, which are cheaper, maybe higher risk,” Khoo added.
When asked what improvements the crypto space should implement to attract more users, the executive shared that user experience is still crucial to adoption. She explained:
“Because I’m from the payment infrastructure side, I think user experience is very important. And this is something that all the product managers that I have been working with are the most concerned on.”
Khoo also shared her interaction with an investor with a Bitcoin wallet from around 2017 who could not remember their password. “These are like investors, but they are non-crypto natives,” she explained.
“If you ask me how are we able to onboard all these users easily to boost the conversion rate of Web2 users into Web3, I definitely think that UX plays the most important part,” Khoo added.
Related: Here’s how crypto game Notcoin onboarded over 30M users — Founder
Apart from Khoo, Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov spoke about user experience at Token2049. Nazarov said that the current user experience in the crypto space is “nowhere near what it needs to be.”
The executive believes that there’s still a lot to be done in that regard and explained that crypto must still improve its usability to achieve mainstream adoption.
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