What’s Happening to ‘Money’? Take the MetaMask Pill…

A gateway into a larger world...

 

Bitcoin has risen back to new heights, and a lot of folk are pinning this purely on the current climate and Covid-19 fall-out concerns. While this may have given Bitcoin a boost, it’s only part of the story. The bigger picture points to market and monetary cycles and the advent of some fundamental changes. 

 

If you’ve been ‘into’ cryptocurrency for some years, perhaps trading it, researching it and - more importantly - experimenting with dapps and new projects, you might be beginning to realise something, even subconsciously. You might be going ‘down the rabbithole’ as it’s referred to. This isn’t just about discovering the many diverse, promising - and not so promising - crypto projects, or that you’ve been tracking all the daily price movements and news updates. You might be realising that much more is happening... 

 

Bitcoin is just the first - and still vital part - of the story. It showed the way by being the most trusted, and will likely become more interesting as it develops. For now, it still does exactly what it’s supposed to. New networks and projects are attempting to tap into its huge liquidity and its adoption, not as competitors but as enhancers. Blockstack, is an interesting example. 

 

But the real story... is that money is changing. Technology is changing money. 

 

How do you know you’re experiencing it? A symptom of this evolution is having money or ‘value’ invested in multiple projects and in different ways: staking, collecting, liquidity mining, topping up... Ethereum in particular has pioneered a new universe for money. 

 

ade’s press

 

 

Fundamentally, why be bullish on Bitcoin, Ethereum and Cryptocurrency?

 

Well, many people are still in the dark about the ‘rabbithole’. They are still in the dark about the ‘ecosystems’ or ‘vending machines’ that cryptocurrency has built and is building. When you add some Ethereum into a crypto-wallet, via MetaMask etc, you are entering a universe where tokens can be invested to secure networks, sent to anybody securely, used as currency or transformed into other valuable assets. You start to spread that value, to become an investor, to even lose track of what value you may be accumulating. Value is zipping around that universe faster and faster. Traditional financial instruments are becoming accessible to everyone, and are assuming new forms designed to increase value in a more direct, trusted arena. Yes, there are still hacks and there are losses - you hear about them - but these are mostly human error; not any weakness in the tech itself. We will have to adapt better to the tech, and be more aware of how we use it.

 

This sheer accessibility is also not possible with traditional forms of money. You cannot invest so quickly and so easily. Sure, you can control value via your banking apps. You can move it between accounts or invest in stocks or ‘pseudo-cryptos’. And you can get ‘locked in’ to years of debt with middlemen. 

 

Traditional ‘money’ has enabled cryptocurrency. However, it is now holding it back, for those already inside this much larger universe. We need better, faster bridges built and clearer regulation, probably relating to how our ID data is handled. These are coming. A digitised dollar or euro will only bring more value to major crypto networks like Ethereum. ‘Money’ will flow and spread as water down so many rivers, without us even having to change the mode of transport. 

 

Meanwhile, traditional ‘money’ is not decentralised. Its universe is limited. This is not your value you’re controlling. And most importantly, there is no ecosystem there. There are no dapps. There is no de-fi. And banking institutions can collapse or go offline. Crypto will force us to stop offloading the responsibility of ownership of our ‘money’ and assume control.

 

If you trust others with your crypto, in any way too, you are risking this lack of control. You are giving away your responsibility to manage it. You might have to give somebody a call on the phone to find out where your money is… eg. A ‘crypto-bank’ like Coinbase. We’ve covered their weaknesses before. Alternatively, with a dapp like AAVE, for example, you should never have to call anyone, even if you could.

 

Since with cryptocurrency, you now have amazing new tools to manage it. They are called crypto wallets, and they can live on a phone, in a browser, or offline. 

 

Suggestion: go and download MetaMask and get on board the greatest revolution in value since the internet’s first iteration.  

 

This post is to encourage you to experiment. To get your ‘money’ out of bank custodianship and into a new universe. Be brave. Metamask is one portal. And yes, if you do, you can increase its value there, since the universe is expanding rapidly, and you can be part of the expansion. In fact, it is already a metaverse, and there are numerous portals and platforms. Start with Ethereum, and dapps like Yearn.finance, PoolTogether... Check out Uniswap and buy a token like $GHST. Join a DAO and help govern a protocol.  

 

This Christmas, remember to watch ‘A Christmas Carol’ with its eternal message: Spread the love. Spread your crypto. Feed the new economy. New platforms and networks are coming, and this time, they are open to all. 

 

Happy new year from GrabFreeMoney.com ! Happy Bitcoin 20k and rising… falling… rising again! This is because it’s telling you something. The party’s only just beginning. 

 

We’ll be back in 2021 with more exciting dives and overviews relating to this exciting financial territory. Keep on saving up those points for completing simple tasks via your very own dashboard.

 

Contributed by Ade @ Ade’s Crypto Press (Dec. 2020)
Also find more crypto-tips and NFTs at my site above.

 

Disclaimer - Always do your own research. This is not professional financial advice so you invest at your own risk. There is always risk with early projects. The cryptocurrency market contains speculative and volatile projects so never invest more than you can expect or afford to lose.