Most everyday consumers neither understand nor particularly care about blockchain technology, despite potential benefits from cryptocurrency’s faster transfers and reduced costs. This disconnect creates an opportunity for “invisible integration”—embedding cryptocurrency functionality within familiar applications without requiring users to understand the underlying technology.

Coinme CEO Neil Bergquist articulates this vision: “People who maybe don’t care about crypto will be using crypto and blockchain technology, and it might not be terribly obvious.” This approach makes cryptocurrency accessible not through education, but by making the technology fade into the background.

The User Experience Challenge

Cryptocurrency remains intimidating for many. Coinme’s 2024 Crypto Literacy Survey found “26.6% of respondents need to understand what gives a cryptocurrency value,” while “only 22% correctly identified a private key as the critical tool for managing cryptocurrency.”

“Anyone who has ever sent Bitcoin or digital currency on chain, I think you can agree that it’s scary,” acknowledges Bergquist. “You’re entering in a 16-character alphanumerical phrase… once you click confirm, there’s no going back.”

Rather than expecting consumers to navigate this learning curve, Coinme focuses on embedding crypto capabilities within familiar interfaces through business-to-business services.

Integration Examples

MoneyGram exemplifies this strategy. “MoneyGram selects Coinme to power its mobile-based crypto offering,” according to Coinme’s 2022 review. This allows customers to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrency through the familiar MoneyGram app, while Coinme’s technology handles cryptocurrency operations behind the scenes.

Similarly, at retail locations, Coinme announced that “after crypto is purchased with cash at over 6,000 Coinstar® kiosks, it is now automatically loaded into the Coinme wallet in seconds.”

“When you’re creating an account with Coinme, you’re also creating a wallet. And so, when you put cash in the machine to buy Bitcoin, we just deposit it into your Coinme wallet. You don’t even need to know what your wallet address is,” Bergquist explains.

Hidden Complexity

Behind these user experiences, Coinme manages significant technical complexity:

• Private Key Management: Providing custodial wallet services that shield users from key management risks
• Blockchain Network Interactions: Handling transactions, fees, and confirmation times
• Regulatory Compliance: Managing KYC verification and AML monitoring

“We do KYC. KYC is Know Your Customer. There’s no anonymity. We do anti-money laundering, so we have controls and transaction monitoring in place,” explains Bergquist.

Practical Use Cases

This approach enables practical applications beyond speculation:

Cross-Border Payments: “There’s $50 billion a year of cash that’s sent from the United States to Latin America… now you can put that cash into a Coinme location, get crypto and send that anywhere faster and cheaper.”

Tokenized Loyalty: Companies can “tokenize some type of a reward” that users experience simply as a more flexible rewards program.

Remaining Challenges

Despite progress, several barriers remain—price volatility, technical limitations during network congestion, regulatory compliance requirements, and cryptocurrency’s perception primarily as an investment rather than utility.

For cryptocurrency to achieve the invisible utility Bergquist envisions, technical improvements must continue, regulatory frameworks need clarity, and stablecoins may play an increasing role by reducing volatility concerns.

“We just want to make bitcoin accessible,” says Bergquist. “A lot of people hear about it at the Thanksgiving table, but that doesn’t mean they can go buy it right then and there.”

This invisible integration strategy represents a pragmatic path forward—cryptocurrency might gradually infuse existing financial systems with new capabilities, becoming mainstream not by revolution but through quiet utility.

Related: Coinme Neil Bergquist on the Evolution and Current State of the Crypto Market