Konstantin Gladych is the CEO of Atomic Wallet, and he tells Coin Rivet of the huge and enduring potential of cryptocurrency wallets and explains its USP.

How did you end up doing what you do now? Where did you work previously?

Formerly, I’m CEO and co-founder of Changelly, one of the most popular crypto exchanges for now. I worked there for three years. The prospects of cryptocurrency wallets are huge, so now I’m running my own wallet project, Atomic Wallet. It is a custody-free solution that supports over 300 cryptocurrencies and allows to secure and exchange them one place.

What makes Atomic Wallet different to other wallets?

Atomic Wallet aims to become an all-in-one solution for cryptocurrency holders. We support more than 300 cryptos and have a bunch of features that enable users to secure, manage and exchange their cryptos in one interface. For example, we provide Atomic Swaps, a relatively new method to exchange BTC, LTC and QTUM without middlemen. For some of other currencies, we have also built-in exchange APIs provided by Changelly and Shapeshift. In addition, we provide our interface for custom tokens and also run our native AWC token on IDEX.

How do you break down the barriers to people using crypto daily?

By providing a good quality product. A friendly UX/UI and good customer care are the keys to mass adoption. To break down the barriers, we must understand the needs of users, what they love and what they don’t.

The take-up world wide is really low, still, compared to fiat currency? Will this change?

Cryptocurrency is fairly complicated for masses. This will change once there are easy-to-use applications and facilities. Also there are still issues with scalability. And volatility, since users prefer to use bitcoin as an investment tool, rather than as an everyday payment method. Probably the lightning technology will solve that.

When is the market going to bottom out?

It will certainly happen, but unfortunately no one can exactly predict when. As the history previous bitcoin bubbles shows, usually market falls about 80-90% from the all-time high. But we see number of crypto users increased 10 times from that moment.

Did you predict this would happen?

Every market has its ups and downs. It happens suddenly, so our prediction may be far from the truth. For example, no one expected Bitcoin soared up in the end of 2017. But it happened. Now the market is down, but it doesn’t mean something bad is happening. Market swings are cyclical. We’re experiencing just another cycle.

Will the good times return?

Definitely. The market is still small, however. Only no more than 20-30m users really own crypto. Anyway, the potential of growth is huge, since people are looking for financial freedom.

Should people just stick with Bitcoin or do alt coins have their place too?

Bitcoin is a pioneer cryptocurrency that laid a foundation. Cryptocurrency is not simply Bitcoin. There are plenty of other promising projects to invest in. I think that’s the only beginning. We will also see the next wave of tokens. Each huge project will have its native token for various purposes, like internal payments, community rewards, etc. Also we will see security tokens and regulated crowdfunding campaigns.

Does it bother you that there’s a gender imbalance in the space?

Frankly, I don’t experience such issues, since I have 50/50 males and females in my team.

What more can be done to make it appeal to young women as a career?

Each industry requires specialists devoted to their job. Crypto is not an exception. I know many women working in this sphere, and they are feeling happy with that.

What are the main benefits of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology?

Apart from transparency, security and traceability, blockchain brings us to an era of decentralisation, where we no longer need servers and central information hubs. It changes everything, starting from the way we keep information and ending with reducing costs to sustain business.

Why are people so slow to embrace it? Is it the fear of the unknown?

I think blockchain at its current state is too complex. It’s not just the fear of the unknown, rather it’s a technically challenging technology requiring profound knowledge to interact with. People will embrace crypto once it’s easy enough. That is the reason why every business working with crypto should carry the responsibility for users’ education and awareness.

Is the lack of regulation a good thing or do you believe there needs to be more regulation to improve public faith in the technology?

It’s important to understand that the crypto industry as a whole is in its early days. It’s raw, so now we all are literally stumbling in the dark and trying to find the right way towards mass adoption. It won’t hurt to remember the early days of Internet, a weird and too complex technology that was known to only very few people. The same is happening to crypto now.

Some people are already writing off cryptocurrency as a result of the dramatic fall in its value this last few weeks. Isn’t this a little premature?

In this stormy times, the fear of losing everything is natural. People are feeling panicky and there is nothing wrong with that. I believe this is a transitional period caused by market correction. We are standing on the verge of changes that will transform the existing understanding of the industry. I am expecting the new era of startups.

What potential do you see for blockchain?

As I said before, the new era of startups is coming. Blockchain opens up new methods for capital rising and project funding. The EU, for example became more friendly towards crypto and releases new directives that stimulate the production of new prospective projects. Given this fact, the potential of blockchain seems to me huge.