Despite their revolutionary potential, existing cryptocurrencies lack the qualities required to attract the mass consumer. There are three main hurdles in today’s environments: The established blockchain networks — Bitcoin and Ethereum — play important roles in the ecosystem, but don’t have the capacity to replace VISA or Mastercard. In their current architecture they are limited to a maximum of only 7 transactions per second for Bitcoin and 15 transactions per second for Ethereum, resulting in insufficient speeds and higher transaction costs. Regular users starting to engage with Bitcoin and similar technologies often get confused when trying to buy, store, and send their coins. The market of goods and services that can be bought with cryptocurrencies is limited, and the demand for crypto-assets comes mainly from investors, not consumers. The current state of blockchain technology resembles automobile design in 1870: it is promising and praised by enthusiasts, but inefficient and too complicated to appeal to the mass consumer. As a result, no cryptocurrency or decentralized platform has gone truly mainstream, and centralized solutions continue to dominate the market. Outline of the Vision Exchanging value should be as easy as exchanging information, and blockchain technology offers the ideal foundation to make this a reality. To reach mainstream adoption, a cryptocurrency — and its underlying blockchain design and ecosystem — requires: Speed and scalability that allows for processing millions of transactions per second and accommodating hundreds of millions of active users and millions of applications. Intuitive user interfaces that enable an average user to easily buy, store, and transfer value, as well as use decentralized apps in a natural way. An engaged user base that serves as the pre-existing critical mass necessary for the ecosystem to grow and eventually become adopted by hundreds of millions of users. 4 / 23