The UX-compliance is a key for crypto’s success

Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of crypto.news editorial.

Many developers and companies are finally focusing on improving the user experience in crypto. This is a great thing, and we can expect the days of copying and pasting long strings of numbers, typing countless basic expressions, and dealing with transaction fees to be over soon. A seamless and intuitive interface can be used by a much wider user base; This increases engagement and, most importantly, mass adoption. However, UX is often thought of as its own silo, without taking into account other important factors in the product development process and necessary changes that may be needed in the future.

Regulatory compliance stands out as one of these key factors, as it can be quite complex for UX designers, product managers, and developers to understand. As the overall user experience gets better with wallets, protocols, and platforms, one of the last major hurdles is compatibility, and this is still under-considered.

Compatibility is permanent

Gone are the days of lack of regulation for the crypto industry. Governments around the world are tightening the reins to prevent financial crimes, and as the world continues to evolve, companies are forced to adapt to new financial regulations that require large amounts of resources. In many ways, this is not that different from the traditional financial sector, which underwent radical change from an adaptation perspective in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Think about how many times you’ve had to go through a cumbersome onboarding process that requires identity verification and disclosure of large amounts of the same data. While regulatory intentions are understandable, this is greatly to the detriment of the end user in terms of both usability and privacy.

The question I’ve been thinking about for the past decade is whether all these companies have to make the process so painful for the end user. My conclusion is that this is often not the case. Let me explain why.

Old and new way of doing things

Builders rarely consider regulations when designing a practice or protocol in the early stages of a project. Instead, they add the necessary layer of compatibility to the process as the product nears completion. This approach, which can be considered reactive, is usually done after consulting an expert and requires constant adaptation whenever the rules change. While reactive compatibility isn’t a big issue for large companies like banks, it can be particularly burdensome for smaller projects like crypto startups.

Instead, I advocate for crypto companies to take a proactive approach; In this way, regulators’ needs are addressed directly as a priority by directly incorporating compliance components into the product design. This approach is different because it involves long-term, directional predictions about what regulators will do. In other words, you won’t be able to predict the details of the new rules that will be implemented next year, and your product design will only need to be slightly modified according to future rules.

Leaving traditional inefficiencies behind

It is very important to understand this from a UX perspective. The reason compliance processes are so painful for banks right now is that the product hasn’t undergone many fundamental changes over a very long period of time.

One only has to look at how hyper-fragmented the industry is today to understand how likely we are to end up with a system that inherits the inefficiencies of the old financial world: If crypto companies could start talking to each other, it would open a new door. Wide range of opportunities, not only in terms of compatibility but also in terms of user experience improvements. Accurate data sharing is considered one of the best ways for virtual asset service providers to comply with Europe’s EBA Travel Rules Guidelines, which mandate that certain information must accompany fund or cryptoasset transfers.

Although cryptocurrency is inherently decentralized and permissionless, companies involved in the industry may have to go through many regulatory requirements that will negatively impact the user’s experience in the long run. To avoid inheriting the same regulatory inefficiencies we see in the banking industry, the crypto industry must proactively focus on compliance and make it central to product development. Therefore, the combination of UX compatibility is a marriage made in crypto heaven.

Saint of Bam

Bam Azizi is a technology entrepreneur and co-founder and CEO of Mesh. Bam has dedicated his career to developing cutting-edge technological solutions and reimagining how we interact with our digital environments. He previously founded NoPassword, a cybersecurity and identity company that was acquired by LogMeIn in 2019. Major financial institutions still use the integrations and identity services created during his time at NoPassword. Bam founded Mesh in 2020 to help create a new financial system that leverages technology and digital assets to give users more freedom and control. Under Bam’s leadership, the team at Mesh provides fintech companies with a seamless and secure one-click system for users to transfer their assets for deposit, deposit and settlement. Mesh’s APIs are available on hundreds of exchanges and platforms.