I've been in cryptocurrencies/blockchain since 2012. I "missed" the BTC boat and got into ETH early. I'm of the thought that CeFi services like Ftx, Nexo, Coinbase and similar are stupid. The only thing that should exist is simple Exchanges between Fiat and cryptocurrency. But everything else is just a scam IMHO. Why would you do a CeFi in crypto , when theres more TAM in doing it normal FIAT? Because you want to Avoid regulation and scrutiny.
Anyways, through all this saga, I see ETH is still at $1200, which has held pretty well. I think the right price is around $600, how it was on Nov 2020, before all speculation. The rest of the price is just people playing around. But that's not what ETH is for, and these high prices are hurting it's real goal.
I'm definitely still holding crypto. Mostly ETH, because I believe in the core technology. I've done some smart contracts and have a couple ideas for the future.
But man, I surely hope all cryptos crash and burn this time, so that speculators stop polluting the technology.
But again, despite lots of people "believing in the core technology", nearly everyone who holds crypto is doing so for speculation - they want to get rich by greater fool theory.
Even people/groups using it for putatively useful purposes, those purposes often tend to be 10x more complicated or risky than standard financial mechanisms (or, they are using crypto specifically for various forms of money laundering).
I think this is my biggest problem with cryptocurrency. I thought it was cool technology with potential usecases back when I heard about it in 2013 or so; but it's become clear 99.99% of people involved with crypto only see it as a speculative asset.
Almost nobody cares about optimizing for real world use, just optimizing for "price goes up".
We now have a litmus test for this: If you are truly in it for the technology and not to get rich then obviously you would only use/develop stablecoins because they have the benefits of crypto without that pesky volatility. Virtually no one fits this description.
I can see a future where payments happens over lightning, BTC is savings, and apps/games/entertainment are built on ETH.
However I’ve grown less confident in ETHs longevity following the move to PoS. I’m concerned about the centralization of control and influence (eg transactions being dropped, tornado cash), lack of ability to withdrawal staked ETH, and general lack of trust created by the extreme number of scams. How do you view ETH long term, particularly wrt the proximity it has to these seemingly endless scams?
Can you point me in the direction of how to reliably setup a cold wallet for ETH? Apparently much harder to find a guide for than BTC. A wallet generator I can run on a tails USB would be ideal.
An ETH wallet is just a private/publik keypair. You only have to generate a compatible pair [1] and write it in a piece if paper. What makes it "cold" is that you dont place your keys sonwhere online (myetherwallet, exodus,etc) so it cant be hacked.
Personally I liquidated all remaining crypto. I think these are the end of days for crypto and before the end of this year anyone still holding crypto assets will find them significantly less valued. There is no path to increasing value.
All of crypto is speculation. Nobody pays for anything with crypto and most of the time the price movement of Bitcoin seems pretty close to the movement of NASDAQ.
ETH provides value but it’s moved to an unproven model.
The who crypto ecosystem is filled with charlatans and crooks who want to rob you and your only other alternative is to be your own bank and store in a cold wallet. Not something normal people are interested in.
That process is not at all streamlined for the layperson, and the structure of crypto has only existed to make it harder, and to further divorce from what could otherwise be a straightforward process for 99% of folks.
