Ensuring Ethereum will be adopted by the masses may turn out to be a much bigger challenge than was originally assumed. In fact, it is not something that may occur automatically unless some convenient solutions are created. Whether or not an application called Dether is the key to doing so remains to be seen. This peer-to-peer Ether network powered by Ethereum smart contracts can be accessed on mobile devices with ease.
Dether could Turn out to be Convenient
There are many different things one can achieve by deploying smart contracts in a proper capacity. Bringing the entire concept of the Ethereum network to the masses is just one of those outcomes, even though it may require a lot of work. While the Ethereum ecosystem is incredibly powerful and has a lot of promise, making the everyday person on the street care about it is not necessarily easy by any means. If consumers can interface with new technology using a mobile app, things may become a bit easier.
What Dether does is provide consumers all over the world with a mobile peer-to-peer marketplace to buy and sell Ether in a convenient way. Using centralized solutions such as exchanges or brokers can be a costly and time-consuming venture. There are thousands of people who own Ether and most of them are willing to part with it for the right price. Finding those buyers and sellers and bringing them together is a different matter entirely, though.
Moreover, the continued reliance on centralized entities will further hinder the global adoption of Ethereum. There are over 2 billion banked individuals who may want to access Ether in one way or another, but that remains a cumbersome venture. Moreover, billions of unbanked individuals are not in a position to buy or sell Ethereum despite lacking access to bank accounts and other financial payment tools the rest of the world takes for granted. A peer-to-peer marketplace such as Dether makes a lot of sense, especially with its strong focus on the mobile side of things.
As the name somewhat suggests, the main objective of Dether is to let anyone buy or sell Ethereum in exchange for cash. Although the LocalEthereum platform does the exact same thing, it is good to have competing services in this regard. A mobile solution will be especially appreciated by the younger generation, as fewer people are starting to pay attention to websites. Apps are the new hot trend, and Dether checks all the right boxes in this regard. It is a fast and easy solution everyone can get comfortable with in a matter of minutes.
Moreover, it appears there is an additional feature that will make Dether especially worth checking out. This mobile application will also provide services to locate Ether-accepting locations near users. Although the number of merchants accepting ETH payments is very small right now, things may start to pick up sooner rather than later. Especially if solutions such as Dether gain major traction, local businesses may start to benefit from this momentum pretty quickly.
It is not entirely surprising to see Dether work with its own customer token as well. The DTR token uses the ERC20 token standard, but it seems people will still be able to use this mobile app without DTR as well. Then again, we will know more when the team kicks off their crowdsale, which is expected to occur at some point during the next few months. No official date for this ICO has been announced so far. The roadmap, as outlined on the website, has some interesting goals, to say the least. It will be interesting to see if the team can deliver on these promises.
