Crypto is obsessed with the future.

We’re building the future of finance.

We’re paving the way to global participation.

Or a particular favorite: We’re onboarding the next billion to web3.

This focus on the future is understandable when the KPIs in the here and now don’t look so rosy. Who cares if only 10 people are roaming your metaverse? 10 years from now, the whole world will be vibing here.

All flippancy aside, it’s natural that crypto should be forward-facing. Challenging the status quo and transforming legacy industries is why we’re here. It takes time to upend centuries-old ways of moving money and settling accounts. Rome wasn’t disrupted in a day.

But in our eagerness to stress how good tomorrow’s web3 could be, we risk losing sight of what’s happening in the onchain landscape today.

Take a Look Around

Tracking socio-economic activity across 20 EVM chains, we have a good perspective on what’s being done in web3. And while crypto’s a long way from hitting the mythical one billion mark, there’s still a respectable tranche of users doing their business onchain.

They’re settling debts, paying employees, taking out loans, playing games, collecting sports cards, applying for jobs, gambling, trading, and engaging in all the other activities that constitute modern work and recreation.

These users aren’t waiting till the onramps are easier or the UX is smoother. And they’re certainly not waiting until the next bull market is confirmed to get involved: they’re using web3 protocols today for fun, profit, experimentation, and work.

Like everyone else who’s building in web3, we’re long crypto and are intent on being here when the magical one billion users arrive. But if that estimate turns out to have been a tad optimistic, or takes longer to manifest than predicted, that’s okay.

Because in the here and now there’s work to be done in providing the tools for real users, helping them solve real world problems today. Cielo is currently serving over 41,000 users who are tracking 135,000 wallets and these figures are growing month over month. In the grand scheme of things, those numbers constitute a fraction of the global population. But each of those users is relying on tools such as Cielo to help them complete their onchain journey. Each one is a walking, talking use case for crypto in 2023.

It’s true that the industry’s best days lie ahead, when the decentralized infrastructure has been built out, integrated, and ossified. Things are only gonna get better.

For that reason, we remain aware of the bigger picture and where the industry’s headed. But our focus is on creating practical solutions for the current onchain environment. In other words: plan for tomorrow – ship for today. The future of finance is already here.