NEAR Protocol co-founder Ilya Polosukhin said during a conversation with Incrypted at TOKEN2049 that broader adoption of privacy technologies will be needed for further development of the institutional crypto market. He said privacy could become a powerful catalyst by enabling institutional players to move fully onchain and benefit from blockchain technology.

Polosukhin said industry participants would continue experimenting with new products and concepts against the backdrop of a bull market. However, he expects the strongest growth in areas that have already demonstrated practical value, including tokenization, integration with traditional finance, payments and cross-border transfers.

“I think privacy is extremely important because without it, institutional players won’t be able to do a lot onchain. For them to truly benefit from blockchain, privacy will become a kind of powerful catalyst,” Polosukhin said.

He said greater use of privacy technologies would lead to new projects and infrastructure. Over time, privacy features could become a mandatory component of products from the moment they launch, he added.

The next billion users

Asked what the crypto industry needs to attract its next billion users, Polosukhin jokingly replied, “just use Near.com.”

He said a convenient interface alone would not be enough to drive mass adoption because users also need a reason to switch to crypto products. One potential incentive is access to assets and financial instruments that are unavailable in a user’s country, he said.

Polosukhin also identified convenient methods of moving between cryptocurrencies and fiat money as an unresolved issue.

Post-quantum security

Polosukhin called post-quantum security the most overrated topic at this particular moment, while emphasizing that NEAR is working in the area. He said the issue remains important and will require substantial work over the long term.

However, he said a degree of “doomerism” had developed around the subject because it is relatively easy to present post-quantum risks as a potentially catastrophic scenario. The narrative involves considerable technical work that must be completed at the infrastructure level, but current attention to the subject is ahead of its immediate relevance, he said.

Consumer applications

Polosukhin described consumer applications as the most underrated segment of the crypto market. He said the market has historically had a noticeable gap between major platforms such as Coinbase and Robinhood and most other mass-market applications.

He attributed that gap in part to inadequate user experience. Polosukhin said the industry has now reached a point where developers must focus not only on infrastructure but also on products that people outside the crypto community can use.

Source: Incrypted