According to Coinbase Head of Protocol Jesse Pollack, at least 8 billion people will become crypto and blockchain users in the next decade.
Speaking with Decrypt on the sidelines of the EthCC conference in Paris on Wednesday, Pollack said that although crypto adoption has grown exponentially in recent years, there is still much more to come.
“Our feeling is that we have a lot of development ahead of us. Today there are less than 10 million people on our chain. There will be 8 billion people on the chain in the next decade,” he said.
world population
Pollack’s prediction is huge, considering that it is essentially equivalent to the entire world population today, a large portion of whom currently do not even have access to the Internet.
The optimistic forecast is even higher than the goal Coinbase has set for its own blockchain project Base, an Ethereum-based layer 2 without its own token, which aims to “bring the next million developers and the next billion users on-chain” — a goal that many would argue is ambitious enough for an exchange-funded blockchain project.
“With Base, our goal is to make Onchain the next online and bring 1B+ users into the cryptoeconomy,” said Coinbase at the time the Base blockchain was first unveiled.
Adoption is happening ‘right before our eyes’
In his interview, Pollack explained that he believes crypto adoption is “happening right before our eyes”, and predicted that the technological advancements now being seen will “change the lives of billions of people.”
“Eventually everyone will be put on a level playing field, where they will have access to the same products and services regardless of where they were born or where they live,” he added.
coinbase diversification
Coinbase is currently facing pressure from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the US, and the emphasis on decentralization with Base Network could potentially be a way for the exchange to diversify from its core business.
The company has also launched its own international exchange to bring more flexibility in what it can offer users as the SEC continues to investigate its US operations.
Coinbase International is registered in Bermuda and is supervised by the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA).