Why the Next Billion Users Won’t Know They’re on the Blockchain

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says crypto adoption won’t come from belief — but from invisible infrastructure users rely on without realizing it.

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, is reframing adoption not as belief but as silent utility. Rather than waiting for people to become crypto fans, he argues many will be using it without knowing they are doing so — a shift from ideology to invisible infrastructure.

Adoption Isn’t Belief — It’s Integration

Armstrong’s comments reflect a broader reality facing crypto today: the narrative is no longer whether skeptics accept crypto, but whether they use it in everyday tech and services without labeling it as such— through transparent, utility-driven systems.

At a recent talk, Armstrong predicted that people who loudly dismiss crypto will eventually interact with blockchain-based systems from payments to settlement rails and digital identity and often powered by blockchain-based payment infrastructure without ever calling it “crypto.” The implication? Widespread adoption won’t be borne of evangelism, but of integration. This is a fundamental departure from the old argument that mainstream acceptance depends on ideological conversion.

Invisible Crypto: The Infrastructure Layer

Armstrong’s viewpoint aligns with how much of today’s digital economy is actually built: users interact with tools, not the mechanics beneath them. Most people use:

• digital payments every day without knowing the backend rails;

• cloud services that rely on distributed data and consensus layers;

• wallets that connect to blockchains through simple, abstracted interfaces.

In this sense, crypto stops being a choice and becomes a default layer powering products. That’s a more durable path to adoption than asking people to “believe in crypto.”

Why Crypto “Haters” Might Already Be Using It

A lot of the services people consider mainstream — borderless payouts, loyalty rewards, provably fair systems — have crypto building blocks underneath. In online gambling and iGaming, especially:

• Provably fair games use cryptographic verification even casual players don’t think about.

• Instant settlements on chain feel like fast payouts, but players don’t label them as crypto mechanics.

• Smart wallets abstract the blockchain entirely, yet handle crypto value transfers.

So someone could be using a blockchain-based wallet for gaming or staking rewards without thinking they “use crypto.” Armstrong is simply naming what the technology itself has been doing for years.

What This Means for the Industry

Armstrong’s point isn’t merely philosophical. It's strategic. The shift from ideological adoption to invisible consumption changes how products should be built and marketed:

• Infrastructure wins over evangelism. Platforms that embed blockchain functionality without asking users to learn new paradigms are more likely to scale.

• Regulation tightens around use cases, not beliefs. As more systems embed crypto mechanics, regulators will focus on consumer protection and transparency and not theoretical debates about value.

• iGaming and fintech converge. Games, payouts, settlements, identity management — all become areas where crypto quietly adds utility.

This implicitly reframes the industry’s mission: crypto’s success will be measured by silent utility, not loud allegiance.

So, Will the Critics Really Use Crypto?

If history is any guide, yes — but not in the way critics fear.

People don’t need to be “crypto believers” to use blockchain-based services. They just need frictionless products that solve real problems: faster settlements, transparent mechanics, smoother payouts, and secure identity.

In that sense, Armstrong’s prediction is less about people changing their minds — and more about crypto becoming so ubiquitous that questions about whether someone is crypto-friendly become irrelevant.

Adoption Through Utility

Armstrong is reminding the industry that crypto doesn’t need approval — it needs integration.

Once the skeptics start using it as an everyday utility without noticing, adoption isn’t happening — it’s already happened.