When I first embarked on my crypto journey, I felt like a traveler with half a map. Despite my roots in traditional finance, which provided some initial clarity, the technological aspects were murky. The jargon felt opaque, if not totally impregnable. Not to mention, the prevailing sentiment among enthusiasts appeared to be that crypto’s interlocking economies were expected to operate on an erratic clockwork. Coming from a world where markets opened and closed with the ring of the bell, this accelerated, decentralized model of transacting felt as dizzying to comprehend as the words themselves.
But that’s old hat now. After riding out the waves of Terra/Luna, FTX, and the ongoing rumblings in the banks and regulatory landscape, I like to think I’ve earned my stripes. But I bring this up because it’s a perspective I don’t want to forget. After fully assimilating into a new environment and beginning to understand its movements, it can be easy to repress the work it took to achieve that confidence. If it’s helpful (and you work in crypto), imagine trying to explain your current role to an entry-level you. While this can feel daunting, keep that person in sharp focus. That’s your audience.
Let’s perhaps start by being honest: to the uninitiated, crypto is complicated. How could it not be? Sitting at the intersection of technology, finance, and cryptography (think ciphers, codebreaking), even carefully written content can quickly collapse under its own weight. To make matters worse, this can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, where the expectation of a knowledge-gap cements the experience of alienation for would-be users. Whether by assuming too much of the reader, or presenting a dense thicket of information, there are plenty of ways for content to shepard curious participants to get lost in their feeds.
To be fair, this phenomenon is not unique to the crypto space. Every industry has its own, shifting vernacular. Maintaining a voice in corporate communications often requires a new vocabulary and syntax with each career progression. Admittedly, when my own pathway led to the crypto ecosystem, it took a certain amount of bushwhacking to find my bearings. And it wasn’t just the technological deep dives. The inverse was stumbling on content shallow enough to stub a toe. Thankfully, there were always exceptional examples of work that eschewed the complexity of wonky white papers and line-goes-up style reporting. But I had to go looking.
Since securing my own footing, I’ve made it a priority to extend clear, concise hospitality to all those seeking a safe port of call along their DeFi journeys. Below are a few key principles to consider when crafting content that nurtures curious participants, and encourages conversations beyond theoretical profits.
Cut Confusion
Imagine the difference between a game of hopscotch versus jumping from rock to rock across a river. While one is an ordered, viable pathway, the other is an ad hoc, haphazard endeavor at best. These are rough encapsulations of the two most common experiences new participants face when entering the ecosystem. However, industry leaders can help users avoid the latter by thoughtfully presenting processes in a sequential order, and committing to that structure in their materials. Is discussing staking before wallets the most logical choice for educational content? What’s better to define first: hash rate or rollups? Making deliberate choices, and approaching the content through the eyes of your less-experienced self is paramount to constructing a firm foundation, and scaffolding future knowledge.
At a base level, leaders should prioritize providing clear explanations, and introducing new concepts piecemeal to help gradually focus the aperture of user understanding. In turn, participants who are better versed in how systems and services interact will enjoy greater literacy to parse signals from the noise. Given the overwhelming amount of data generated in the crypto space, the ability to differentiate between useful resources, and erroneous or potentially harmful ones can be invaluable to determining one’s overall success. Not only will this encourage greater consensus among one’s readership, but it leaves the conversation open for community updates when new or developing information becomes available. That way, users can prioritize charting their next movements with confidence, and hopefully avoid getting wet feet.
Draw Comparisons
Despite the always-on nature of the media’s buzz around innovation, truly disruptive technologies are in fact a rare commodity. Often, a contributing factor to the allure of these developments is the exponential growth compared to prior iterations. This presents a unique challenge for communicators to make the new and unprecedented feel familiar and approachable. Early descriptions of automobiles are a great example of industry meeting its audience in their comfort zone. While “horseless carriage” is an incomplete description of a car by contemporary standards, at the time, this helped bridge the gap in the public's understanding of these new contraptions. One can almost picture an antiquated marketer gazing streetward and thinking: who considering an automobile hasn’t also ridden in a horse-drawn carriage?
For leaders in the crypto space, especially those dedicated to attracting long term believers with its mission, digital assets should be made to feel equally relatable. While this is a broad target, 19th century advertising can once again provide some hints: when in doubt, use your surroundings. What existing product, service, or system does this crypto innovation resemble? Is there a process in nature, an historical event, or a cultural phenomenon that could help elucidate this topic for the reader? For example, smart contracts clicked into place for me when described in the language of vending machines. The ubiquity and familiarity of this action made it the perfect analogy. Think about it: who considering crypto hasn’t also used a vending machine? Wash. Rinse. And repeat.
Prioritize the “Why”
The notion that “crypto’s a solution looking for a problem” is a common refrain for folks who don’t understand the merits of the industry. However, there’s work to be done among the community to better articulate the functional purpose that many projects aim to provide. For example, coverage that only assesses the price movements of assets fails to capture or interrogate the purpose of their existence. Such surface level analysis runs the risk of allowing curious users to walk away thinking the crypto ecosystem turns on speculative value alone. Unfortunately, this is the inevitable fallout of uncritical content: it fails to capture the nuance and complexity of the crypto space.
To counteract this problem, leaders and industry partners should always strive to take that extra step when discussing trending or emerging tech. If a project is deploying a novel consensus mechanism, or claims to be redefining digital communities, these facts should inform and appear alongside the price reports. Does a company like Apple only make revenue for shareholders? Just how regulated, vetted exchanges do their part to protect their corner of the ecosystem, platformed voices should work to elevate the conversation, and cultivate inquisitive behaviors among their audiences. By peering behind the shock and awe of an asset’s performance, assiduous researchers stand to gain unique perspectives on potential investments.
Build a big tent
Much like the assets themselves, the presence and prestige of the crypto industry has had its ups and downs. It’s telling that veterans of the community will often signal their activity in relation to a bull-run or high-profile bankruptcy. Typically, these moments correlate with the industry reorienting its pitch to the public. When markets were booming, we saw stadiums and Super Bowl ads spreading FOMO with the help of household names. As we’ve seen, not all those endorsements have aged favorably. While it’s unfortunate that the industry writ large has had to suffer for the actions of a few misguided individuals, there’s a lesson here about what type of posture the space should set for itself.
Rather than vacillating between aggressive marketing campaigns and issuing aftermath mea culpas, industry leaders should strive to walk a more reasonable line from the onset to avoid ricochets in perception. If your product or solution helps streamline a crypto service, users should be given insight into how these systems work to bolster their overall understanding of the digital economy. “Showing versus telling” is a common adage of writerly advice that should be applied across the space. In turn, rather than simply saying your products are intuitive, safe, and efficient, break down how their makeup achieves these goals. Similar to laying out information in a thoughtful order, educating your audience about ongoing developments will allow them to better approach and navigate a shifting landscape.