cryptovibes.com
A “killer app” for consumers is what will be required to bring the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector to a level that attracts a mainstream audience, according to Ripple Lab’s head of DeFi markets Boris Alergant.
Alergant published the comments during a panel at the Blockchain Futurist Conference titled “The Future of Decentralized Finance” on August 9, which was covered by reporters in Toronto, Canada. A panel at the Blockchain Futurist Conference was asked about the future of DeFi and what was required to be done to boost mainstream adoption.
Teller Finance CEO and co-founder Ryan Berkin and Aventus Ventures CEO Kevin Hobbs, FLUIDEFI co-founder and CEO Lisa Loud featured on the panel together with Alergant.
The overwhelming sentiment among the panelists was that the centralized finance institutions will eventually push decentralized finance towards mainstream adoption. Alergant indicated that growth will probably come from a user-friendly CeFi app that provides exposure to DeFi services:
“For an average user, you tell your mom how to go out and stake on Aave or ETH […] and this is a process. She doesn’t know how to use MetaMask, but she wants to generate that yield somehow. She wants to transact but she doesn’t know how to do it.”
“So I think institutional adoption is where it’s going, and the institutions are what is going to enable […] that killer app for consumers to really bring crypto and DeFi to the next level.”
FLUIDEFI co-founder and CEO Loud shared the same sentiment, noting the way the normal person eventually adopted the internet despite not understanding the internet protocol suite, also called TCP/IP.
She added:
“We all use the internet right? The internet was a paradigm shift for us, but we don’t know how to use TCP/IP. Right now, everybody who uses DeFi knows how to use the protocols, it’s not sustainable, and it’s not a good model for adoption.”
“If we look at two years, I see institutions investing more in DeFi and I see companies making simpler user experiences.”
The Ripple executive also highlighted that the DeFi industry will soon work hand in hand with the CeFi industry to offer financial services to clients. He stated:
“DeFi will ultimately supplement and complement CeFi. In the end you don’t really care if a trade is done through decentralized means in a centralized exchange. I just want the best damn execution.”
The Blockchain Futurist Conference is the biggest yearly blockchain and crypto conference in Toronto, Canada, and is running up to August 10, 2022. This now marks the fifth year of the event. This time around, the event will see Vitalik Buterin speaking there despite appearing at the Korea Blockchain Week barely two days ago.