Thread by @Stammy

🧵 Crypto for Beginners, from a beginner:

I've been reading up on #crypto lately, here's some thoughts from a relative beginner to the space.

First off, I read this DeFi book from @coingecko and enjoyed it - very quick read: landing.coingecko.com/how-to-defi/

https://twitter.com/Stammy/status/1412117317043953678

I've briefly touched crypto in the past. I first heard about and mined some bitcoin in 2011 (even mining on EC2 Tesla gpu clusters for fun) but didn't think much of it and ignored the space for years. Then got back into it, lost lots of money with trades and ignored crypto again

For years I had dozens of crypto-related terms muted on Twitter.

I didn't want to hear another person talking about HODLing, shitcoins or how crypto was doing to kill traditional finance overnight

https://twitter.com/Stammy/status/1390307019505106947

While I had heard bits about things actually being built on top of the blockchain, I had naively assumed that for the most part, the crypto buzz was purely around speculative asset investments for Bitcoin/Ethereum/etc itself.. The risky stuff you're told to avoid

I couldn't have been more wrong. Smart Contracts on Ethereum (And recently Bitcoin w/ Lightning network) have enabled multi-billion dollar crypto verticals.

Smart Contracts are essentially little bits of blockchain code that auto execute when certain conditions are met.

This has enabled a few things like:
- Stablecoins like DAI where volatility is managed by the contracts
- Lending/Borrowing services with @AaveAave, Oasis, @compoundfinance where you can earn high interest on your collateral

- Decentralized exchanges (DEX) like Uniswap and DEX and aggregators like Matcha where you can easily swap your ETH for other tokens
- Options & Derivatives with @opyn_, @synthetix_io & @kwenta_io and structured products tools @ribbonfinance

- Index investing in DeFi with tokensets.com and the DeFi Pulse Index defipulse.com
- and so much more from no-loss lottery games like PoolTogether to insurance, payments and governance services

There's just so, so much happening in this space. Every day I find another dApp (decentralized app- basically a site/app running on the blockchain/likely with smart contracts that can accept your crypto) with over $100M in assets or liquidity.

It's to the point where I think I'm financially at a disadvantage if I don't know how to employ some of these services.

Not even talking about hodling ethereum, but keeping your cash in high-interest stablecoins. Even the easiest routes earn 2%+ loanscan.io

But crypto is not without its challenges:

- Everything is confusing as hell, even if you've spent a week reading up. Big marketing/design challenge.
- It's hard to know what/who to trust. Most dApps have zero info about the people behind them

- Slow transactions along with high ethereum gas fees that are annoying for consumers & can lead to front-running vulnerabilities coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glo…
- Huge electricity use right now (but the pending move to Proof-of-Stake instead of Proof-of-Work should sort that out)

- Limited sites that can accept your crypto (crypto payment processors not quite common)
- Custodial vs non-custodial wallets: Both have pros/cons, but there's room for interesting models in the middle, like Argent where "guardians" can help you lock/recover your wallet.

- Are people okay with their wallet transactions being public? That's part of the power of the blockchain. But a future consumer-friendly service might need to enable people to use @monero, @TornadoCash or similar for private transactions when needed

If you hear about "Layer 2"/rollups, this refers to new tech that will help scale Ethereum and Bitcoin by taking some of the transaction load off the official blockchain ("Layer 1") and move it to a separate network that's faster and has ~10x lower fees. ethereum.org/en/developers/…

I've become optimistic and inspired by all the energy in crypto.. but it's also fun to explore as a designer. It feels like there's a lot more variance between sites. almost wild west early internet website vibes because folks are just exploring it all

So that's my quick rambling & high-level description of the crypto space as I see it today.

I'd suggest getting started and start playing with some dApps & DeFi things:

1) Buy some Ethereum (use Coinbase or any exchange that lets you transfer to your own wallet. not Robinhood)

2) Transfer your ETH to a wallet app. I love @rainbowdotme. rainbow.me

You don't need a chrome extension wallet (when have you ever wanted to rely on a chrome ext?).

Tons of dApps use the awesome @WalletConnect - just scan a QR code and you're paired

3) Use your ETH

Consider buying Stablecoins, an ENS domain for your wallet address with ens.domains, a blockchain domain unstoppabledomains.com

- Buy an index like DeFiPulse
- Swap your ETH using Uniswap (can do this in Rainbow)
- Explore etherscan.io

That's it! I've only skimmed the surface of the crypto landscape (still learning!) but what I was trying to get across is that there's so much happening here, so much insane talent pouring into the space and so many real uses that's _not_ hodling, shitcoins and memes.

If you're a crypto expert, I'd love to hear about more things a beginner should do/use to properly explore and learn and what I glossed over in this thread.

Just setup your eth wallet? Send me a transaction to test it out 😂