Raising The Stakes

chekohler(76)

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#money

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Hey Jesscoiners

I've been in the crypto space for some time now, and I've seen some crazy things unfold over the years. Bitcoin has kept secure and continues to do what it does best, secure transactions, distribute coins and allow people to own their stake if they so choose. A lot of people feel they've "missed the bus" with Bitcoin, I do feel it sometimes too, but I'm still committed to my goal of having one BTC set aside for my 21 club membership and messing around with the rest.

Then we get the alts, the wild west of crypto, where everything is made up, and the values don't matter. One of the most popular of these alts in Ethereum, a lot of people are bullish on this chain, and I'm pretty confident in Vatilak's abilities.

I own ETH myself; I use it now and again with their shitty Dapps, its got some promise yes, its also full of bugs and has pivoted more times than I can count.

First, it was a smart contract play; then a fundraising ICO plays, later a dapp play now it's all about De-Fi. Do I think this play will stick for ETH as their use case? I don't assume so; it will continue trying to find something that sticks of that I'm sure.

DE-FI'ing the odds

As banks continue to lower interest rates or in some cases negative interest rates this punishes savers for doing the right thing, we're being forced to de-fi the odds to speak. De-Fi offers consumers a place to park their money to try and beat inflation at the least and protect the wealth they've worked for, and I think it's going to only get more popular with time

If we look at how many people are living paycheque to paycheque, savings is something we need more of in this world. As De-Fi heats up, you'll get some pretenders, and I think its important to make the distinction.

Faux-De-FI

I openly use services like BlockFi, Crypto.com and the Celsius Network, they give me a return for the use of my funds, just like a bank would, just because the measurement is in crypto doesn't make it DE-FI. This is blockchain banking and custodial ownership, you're still an unsecured creditor in this scheme, and there's always a systematic risk.

Companies can be hacked, as we saw with BlockFI this year to targeted with regulation and taken down, their insurance may not pay out during a collapse just as a bank would, and these companies won't get sweetheart deals by government.

There is a risk, but I am happy to take it on. The rates are favourable, and the asset range and ease of use are worth taking it on for me, that is.

Real De-FI

Real De-Fi to me is when you have ownership of your stake and can access it at any time and make decisions on what to do with it, without having to ask permission. Currently, coins I stake are STEEM, HIVE, TRON, TEZOS, ATOMIC Wallet Token and I Soft stake Kucoin shares and NULS.

I'll be staking one more in Cardano once Shelley is finally up and running too. Staking allows me to earn passively in that native cryptocurrency at various intervals. I could go through when each one pays out and the percentages they provide at the moment, but this blog post would then be a mile long.

Is their risk in this? Yes, many of these altcoins are still centralised, you can be forked out, the network can be taken over, the project can be scrapped or abandoned by the original team and so much more. Yes, you have ownership of your stake, but you need to have trust in the network and the governance which is a whole another story.

A stakeout

What I am doing is spreading my risk and trying to get the best yield from what I am willing to invest. I think staking is going to become more popular as coins try to seduce investors into their ecosystem to either participate or have them part with their BTC.

I think staking is essential because it takes an already deflationary based asset class and takes the concept of saving and pushes it to new levels, it makes weaker hands stronger and drives home a habit we've lost, the practice of wanting to save.