Source: Cointelegraph Original: "{title}"

According to Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, the current state of cryptocurrency is akin to the "AOL" era of the late 1990s, when user experience was clunky, highly technical, use cases were limited, and the speed was as slow as dial-up internet.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Nailwal pointed out several key areas for improving user experience, including seamless fiat on- and off-ramps, custodial solutions with key recovery features, and hardware wallets built into mobile devices.

"We are in the dial-up era of the internet, where connecting to the internet itself was a cumbersome task, as if you had to become a small engineer to connect to the internet — we are still at this stage in the cryptocurrency space." — Sandeep Nailwal

"We may still be at the level of 1998, and it will take at least another 10 to 15 years to see the full glory of cryptocurrency," the Polygon founder added.

While considered revolutionary at the time, the internet during the AOL era had limited functionality and high entry barriers. Source: PC Magazine

It took the internet 30-40 years to achieve mass adoption, initially with a limited number of use cases. In the late 1990s, the AOL era of the internet primarily focused on email and basic web browsing, but today, the internet encompasses the entire economic system.

Nailwal stated that the current state of cryptocurrency is similar, primarily focusing on financial use cases, particularly market speculation.

However, he noted that once financial use cases are fully developed and achieve sufficient adoption, the applications of cryptocurrency will expand into other areas such as decentralized social media, gaming, and other niches.

Nailwal pointed out that even the basic use case of cryptocurrency — financial applications — has not yet been fully developed.

According to a report by Bitcoin financial services company River in February 2025, only 4% of the global population owns Bitcoin (BTC) — the original cryptocurrency with the largest market capitalization and mainstream appeal.

The adoption path of Bitcoin. Source: River

The report found that when considering institutions, the total addressable market, and appropriate portfolio allocation, BTC has only achieved about 3% of its total adoption path.

This small portion of BTC holders indicates that mass adoption of cryptocurrency will still take years and suggests that the entire industry is still in the early adoption phase of development.

Related: Cash-based cryptocurrencies can achieve financial inclusion for billions.

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