The benefits of crypto education for your business

In 2022, the cryptocurrency market literally shook in every direction. Crypto’s market cap fell below $1 trillion, and Bitcoin fell 65% from an all-time high. But despite these circumstances, a new report from blockchain intelligence firm Chainlaysis has found that crypto adoption has slowed less than expected despite a bearish start to the year for the cryptocurrency market. In fact, it is still above pre-2019 levels.

Some countries that dominate the adoption index have different socioeconomic situations, from lower median income to above median income and high income. Some of the countries include Vietnam, Philippines, Ukraine, India, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Thailand, USA and UK.

Data suggests that people, startups and large corporations have stuck with cryptocurrencies and blockchain despite the crypto winter. They continue to pour significant amounts of capital into digital assets and their underlying technology. And no surprise: blockchain offers a number of advantages and benefits, not only for individuals, but also for entrepreneurs and companies from different industries.

The benefits that crypto and blockchain bring to the table can become an effective solution to some of the pain points of today’s businesses and their customers, but this requires extensive crypto education.

Related: How Crypto Education Can Boost the FinTech Industry

What is cryptocurrency?

The most popular Google searches about cryptocurrencies are: “what is cryptocurrency”, “how to invest in crypto”, “how does crypto work”, etc. After almost 15 years since its creation, there is still a lack of educational content and resources for people and institutions to understand and adopt cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

This lack of crypto education leads people to make uninformed decisions when investing in cryptocurrencies, which usually end up performing somewhat worse than they first thought. For example, a recent survey shows that nearly 50% of Americans who have invested in crypto say it has “performed worse than expected.” Despite this, over 60% of American parents believe that children should learn about cryptocurrency in schools.

Related: 5 Things You Should Know Before Investing in Cryptocurrency

Why crypto education is necessary for crypto adoption

To achieve mass-scale adoption, it is necessary to spread cryptoasset financial literacy and blockchain education to understand how this technology and the overall crypto space works – and make education more accessible.

A more educated user is less likely to fall for the common traps in the crypto world, such as blanket pulling or phishing scams. Businesses can benefit from exploring and adopting blockchain technology and avoid certain pain points.

For example, the immutable nature of the blockchain does not allow rollback; transactions are immediate and irreversible. And chargebacks are often used as a tool to commit friendly fraud, a significant pain for sellers due to false positives, operational costs, chargeback fees and fines, which had cost SMEs over $35 billion in 2021.

Should companies be crypto-educated?

Companies can scale internationally via affordable and fast international payments using cross-border blockchain-based solutions. Moreover, the Ethereum merger marks a significant step for the blockchain to become more scalable, cost-effective and energy-efficient for users and businesses looking to build on the ecosystem.

The merger transferred Ethereum from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). This means that the network does not need to rely on miners to create and validate transaction blocks, but on a set of network nodes that use ETH to validate and create these blocks, reducing energy consumption by 99%.

Related: It’s Time to Get Interested in Ethereum Again

How do institutions and universities spread crypto education?

Fortunately, many initiatives are being taken by crypto institutions, universities and even countries around the world, not only on an economic level, but also on a technical level. Popular examples of universities are the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). From an early age, crypto education should be available to anyone interested in this sector. It will guarantee future prosperity and accelerated adoption. Global universities can help the community to be educated about crypto.

Blockchain firms are also funding a number of universities to help accelerate research and growth. Other examples are the Algorand Foundation, which invested over 50 million dollars in funding a virtual research program.

As mentioned earlier, the Philippines is one of the leading countries in the crypto adoption rate and one of the main reasons is that almost 80% of Filipinos are unbanked. Philippine universities will offer free courses on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies after a Senate hearing discusses financial inclusion and regulatory frameworks for the country.

Several crypto institutions offer great educational content on all things crypto. These and other companies also offer training courses and interactive videos where people can learn about crypto and earn rewards by completing quizzes.

Lack of crypto education prevents mass adoption

The lack of crypto education is what is hindering crypto adoption after nearly 15 years of creation. The good side of the story is that institutions are taking a number of initiatives, companies, universities and countries all over the world. The next two or three years are fundamental to massively spreading crypto and blockchain education and resources so that users, developers, startups and businesses of all sizes can start investing in it as well.