Thanks to MachineFi blockchain can finally talk to the real world

In a conversation with long-time partner IoTeX’s MachineFi Lab, IOSG Investment Partner Queenie Wu talks about the difficult bear market and how blockchain and NFT communities are distancing themselves from each other. 

IOSG Ventures Partner Queenie Wu said that now that the blockchain and crypto space is going through a bear market again, it is an excellent opportunity for projects to focus on resolving the actual pain points barring the industry from achieving mass adoption.

When asked what advice she has for those web3 projects building during the bear market, Wu said it is a perfect time to expand or pivot, but most importantly, it is "really important to solve the true pain points and try to get more funding." 

"There are still a lot of problems (in web3), like user onboarding. There is still room for improvement and better user experience from the (crypto) wallet side," Queenie said.

She's not alone in this assertion, as experts worldwide agree that one of the main issues blocking mainstream crypto and blockchain adoption is the need for improved user interface (UI) and experience (UX).

A recent article on Nasdaq says, "web3's mainstream adoption won't happen without better UX." It goes on to say that the solution is "not Matt Damon or Kyle Lowry shilling for crypto.com and BitBuy in Super Bowl commercials. It's not even Coinbase's viral bouncing QR code, which enough people scanned to temporarily crash the website."

The May 2022 report states that, if anything, those Super Bowl commercials demonstrate that awareness is not the problem. "The issue is UX. Across the board, crypto wallet and DeFi product UX are not up to par," it adds.

Eric Ly is a LinkedIn co-founder and the founder of Hub Token. He recently wrote that blockchain and crypto companies "need to focus on ease-of-use. We should spend as much time considering user experience as we do on smart contracts and blockchains. Truly secure wallets, one of the foundational elements of this technology, are still too complex for the average person."

IOSG also sees MachineFi as a path to adoption

Queenie Wu spoke of other concerns, such as the crypto winter and how it affects many projects. She also expressed concern over deviations in the true purpose she believes blockchain should have. However, she reiterated now is the time to focus on infrastructure and user experience.

"Blockchain was not born as a tool for casinos or other types of money games," she said. "Instead, it should be a tool to empower people's equal rights and also for a more resilient economy."

But Wu found praise for IoTeX, saying their MachineFi Lab "provides a possibility that finally, blockchain can talk to the real world. And we can finally onboard some real use cases on the blockchain. That is very exciting."

IOSG Ventures is a true IoTeX believer. The VC firm participated in the 2018 IoTeX token sale and, more recently, with Samsung Next, Draper Dragon, Xoogler Ventures, and Escape Velocity, among others, led a $10 million MachineFi Lab seed round. MachineFi Lab is IoTeX's core developer.

IOSG Ventures is a community-friendly and research-driven early-stage venture firm. Its portfolio includes Polkadot, Near, Arbitrum, 1inch, Galaxy, and MachineFi Lab. This blockchain infrastructure is built to democratize the Internet of Things (IoT), creating a web3 reward economy that could benefit billions of people with the power to profit from their data for the first time.

Like many other IoTeX partners, Wu believes the MachineFi-focused project appeals to the greater global community. It aims to help in ways they can repurpose their intelligent devices and machines to mine data and contribute it to research for the greater good and rewards. MachineFi is poised to bring the next wave of people into crypto.

The other MachineFi Lab investors

"What we look for are companies that will help bring the next wave of people into the crypto economy," said Draper Dragon Senior Manager Kavan Canekeratne. "And what I mean by that is that (web3) right now it's been built by developers for developers. So, how do we make it an ecosystem that's usable by everybody? And I think those will be the next great companies."

In that sense, said Canekeratne, "IoTeX's MachineFi vision fits really well into what we are looking for but also just like an actual concrete use case for web3 and crypto because data is super important. Everybody is trying to figure out more ways to collect data. And then what we can do with that data and the insights are typically very powerful."

Currently, there are nearly 20 billion IoT-connected devices and machines. That number could reach 60 billion by 2025 and 125 billion by 2030. Billions of people own smartphones and other intelligent gadgets and vehicles, but the related data is centralized off the blockchain and not in crypto where it could benefit users rather than corporations who have built trillion-dollar empires with data that is not theirs.

IoTeX Head of Business Development Larry Pang told Escape Velocity Ventures Co-Founder Mahesh Ramakrishnan that his team views machines and devices as becoming the most significant users of blockchain. And their owners, the users, will benefit from the intelligent device and machine connectivity.

"This is what will help reach a more critical mass, not just the investor base. That will genuinely bring the next big wave of people into crypto," Pang said.

Ramakrishnan said, "I agree," and added:

"That is what MachineFi can do by empowering people, not by doing anything other than just living their daily lives and carrying a bit of technology with them, creating more value for themselves."

The technology to achieve its goals

IoTeX CTO Qevan Guo reveals that soon, MachineFi Lab will launch W3bstream, one of the world's most advanced technologies dealing with machine data. "We already have a very secure, fast, extremely low-cost, and scalable multichain," said Guo. 

"Our technology supports IoT-friendly crypto curves, SDKs, and bridges to connect other blockchain and blockchain assets. We are also close to releasing W3bstream for data streaming, gathering, and serving," he concluded.

The technology has the clear potential to enable millions of people to connect billions of smart devices and machines. It gives users back control of their data and the power to benefit from sharing it as they wish. 

Each person's data could be worth up to $3,000 a year on average, according to Coin Geek, and Ramakrishnan believes that with the growth of IoT device usage by people, that could increase to $10,000 yearly.