Normie Series: What Is a DEX and How Does It work?
To understand what a DEX means, a good place to start is the meaning of the word, what an Exchange is in the finance world, and then on to what a DEX is.
**The Word - Exchange**
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines Exchange as “the act of giving or taking one thing in return for another”. This means many things can be exchanged including ideas, money, etc. Similar words include Swap, Trade, etc. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/exchange
**So What is An Exchange in the Finance World**
According to Investopedia – ***An Exchange*** “is a **marketplace** where securities, commodities, derivatives and other financial instruments are traded”. In other words, an exchange is a place where people meet to trade, either in a physical location or via an electronic platform(Internet). The keyword is **Marketplace** where people exchange stuff. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/exchange.asp
An Exchange will typically specify the characteristics of the items that they like to change and in what form or sizes for example Stock Exchanges sometimes require companies to meet a minimum threshold to be listed on their exchange. The advent of cryptocurrencies has seen the rise of a new kind of exchange focused on digital assets /cryptocurrencies..
**Digital Asset-Focused Exchanges**
This kind of exchange started in 2012 and they mainly exchange cryptocurrency and tokens. You will usually find many Cryptocurrencies and tokens on one blockchain. There are many different blockchains each with its own sets of cryptocurrencies, just as you will find a currency in a country and there are many countries each country with its currency
Only Cryptocurrencies and tokens on the same blockchain can be exchanged for each other although this is changing. To execute these exchanges you can either use a
1. Centralized Exchange (CEX) OR
2. Decentralized Exchange(DEX)
**Keyword- Centralized**. According to Binance Academy- When a system is centralized, it means that the planning and decision-making mechanisms are concentrated at a particular point within the system. https://academy.binance.com/sv/glossary/centralized
**A Centralized Exchange (CEX)**
According to Business Matters - A centralized exchange is operated or controlled by a single authority. It is responsible for executing transactions, holding ledgers, securing user data, and much more. CEXs are custodial. They hold user funds and digital currencies on the exchange and act as the central authority that verifies and authorizes all transactions. In addition, they also take care of the financial infrastructure as a whole and provide a wide range of services https://bmmagazine.co.uk/business/centralized-vs-decentralized-exchange-which-one-is-the-best-for-an-sme/
This form of exchange is similar to traditional asset exchanges like stock exchanges. Examples of traditional exchanges include the New York Stock Exchange and the London Metal Exchange. In the crypto sector, CEXs include Binance, Coinbase, Gemini, and Kraken.
**A Decentralized Exchange(DEX)**
According to decrypt.io - Decentralized exchanges allow people to swap crypto tokens directly with each other. DEXs allow trading without an intermediary and users don’t need to give up custody of their coins. However, you are responsible for the security of your digital assets. https://decrypt.co/resources/what-is-decentralized-exchange-dex
On a decentralized exchange, peer-to-peer (P2P) trades are facilitated by smart contracts. Smart contracts are simply tamper-resistant programs on the blockchain that automatically self-execute upon certain conditions being met.
A DEX smart contract is custom-tailored to efficiently match crypto buyers and sellers, once a match is found the transaction is executed from one person to person without an intermediary and withholding of any party’s digital assets. Source Defiplus https://www.defipulse.com/blog/what-is-a-decentralized-exchange
DEX is relatively new, but they’re recording rapid growth. The first modern DEX, Bancor, started in 2017, others include Balancer, Curve, Uniswap, and Sushi.
The Differences Between a DEX and CEX adapted from Business Matters https://bmmagazine.co.uk/business/centralized-vs-decentralized-exchange-which-one-is-the-best-for-an-sme/
According to Coindesk, Exchanges are the most valuable businesses in the crypto world, according to a 2021 report by global accountancy KPMG. And that as of February 2022, CEXs are still far more common than decentralized exchanges (DEXs). KPMG found that they accounted for around 95% of exchange crypto trading. The largest crypto exchange in the world is Binance, which is centralized. https://www.coindesk.com/learn/what-is-a-cex-centralized-exchanges-explained/
Remittance: Bank Alternatives Use BlockChain To Reduce Recipient Cost
*About a billion people are involved in remittances globally. Remittances play a critical role in the livelihood of so many people; every savings on fees is a life-saver.*
Remittances make it possible for many people in developing countries to eat well, afford life-saving healthcare, get an education and provide basic amenities for themselves and their extended family.
What Are Remittances?
According to the IMF, When migrants send home part of their earnings in the form of either cash or goods to support their families, these transfers are known as workers’ or migrant remittances. https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/basics/76-remittances.htm
The Life Saving Roles of Remittances In Developing Countries
According to the United Nations(UN), eight things you may not know about the transformative power of the money sent back home by migrants include https://www.un.org/en/desa/remittances-matter-8-facts-you-don%E2%80%99t-know-about-money-migrants-send-back-home
1. About one in nine people globally are supported by funds sent home by migrant workers. That is about 800 million persons
2. What migrants send back home represents only 15 percent of what they earn. On average, this is between US$200 - $300 every one or two months.
3. Remittances remain expensive to send, on average they cost about 7 percent of the total amounts sent.
4. The money received is key in helping millions out of poverty.
5. Half of the money sent goes straight to rural areas, where the world’s poorest live.
6. Specifically, remittances can help achieve at least seven of the 17 SDGs. Namely: SDG 1, No Poverty; SDG 2, Zero Hunger; SDG 3, Good Health and Well-Being; SDG 4, Quality Education; SDG 6, Clean Water and Sanitation; SDG 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth; and SDG 10, Reduced Inequality.
7. Remittances are three times more important than international aid, and counting
8. The UN is working to facilitate remittances worldwide
The World’s Top Remittance Recipients
Sending Remittances
A typical remittance transaction takes place in three steps
The migrant sender gives the sending agent the remittance.
The sending agent instructs its agent in the recipient’s country to deliver the remittance
The paying agent makes the payment to the beneficiary.
The Problem: Remittance Is Still Too Expensive
According to the UN remittance fees can cost up to 7% of the amount sent. The costs of a remittance transaction often include
A fee charged by the sending agent, often paid by the sender
A currency-conversion fee for delivery of local currency to the beneficiary in another country.
Other fees include charging the beneficiary a fee to collect remittances.
Bank Alternatives To The Rescue
Many alternatives to bank remittances are coming up with blockchain-based remittances that greatly reduce the time and cost of remittance. A few examples include Fluid, Moneygram(Stellar), etc.
Whilst Fluid is one entity with traditional Bank features on Blockchain, Moneygram is an integration with Stellar.
Fluid by design is digital in nature and globally available, and because it combines the best of traditional banking and decentralized finance in one app, it can move money seamlessly from Fiat to Digital and Digital to fiat allowing remittance to happen in near real-time at a reduced cost. http://fluid.ch
In a use case, the migrant sender mints the money she wants to send from her bank account directly to her Digital Account DigitalDollar (DUSD) and sends the money from there to the recipient’s Digital Cash Account, the recipient redeems the money from there directly into her Bank account. https://blog.cryptostars.is/digital-dollar-the-best-stablecoin-597d88bbfc5f
Advantages of Fluid
All middlemen are eliminated
Fees and charges are 0 –1% at most
Remittance is near Real-Time
This is no Remittance Advice but an opinion, please do your own research.
Kindly follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/home?lang=en
The Best Bank Alternative
The Digital age has made it possible for complete banks to live in an app, with no brick and mortar shop. These bank alternatives are making it possible for your money to yield higher returns and service you at lower fees
But bank alternatives that merge the two financial worlds of Traditional Finance (Banks/FI) on one side and Decentralize Finance (Crypto/Digital Assets) on the other side into one entity are the best.
**A Review of Several Lists of Bank Alternatives Returns Results Like**
Credit union
Wise
Neobanks
Online Banks
Certificate of Deposits
etc.
Essentially the result is a variation of traditional banks and not a new approach. None of these options merged or bridged the financial divide between traditional and decentralized finance. Fluid- The Bank Alternative does.
*Before we get into how Fluid does this, let’s get on the same page with what the traditional & decentralized finance world means.*
**The Traditional Finance (Banks/Financial Institutions) World**
Traditional Finance is financing obtained from the banking system and/or capital markets. Users have to go through Banks & **Financial Institutions**, to access services such as deposits, loans, investments, and currency exchange. Banks and FIs are well established and regulated. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/financialinstitution.asp
**The Decentralized Finance (DeFi) World.**
**Decentralized Finance** uses cryptocurrencies, digital assets, and blockchain technology to manage financial transactions, such as everyday banking, loans, mortgages, complicated contract relationships, and asset trading. DeFi aims to replace, centralized financial institutions with peer-to-peer relationships. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/cryptocurrency/defi-decentralized-finance/
**Bank Alternatives: The Emerging Financial Reality**
In reality, tradfi-only proponents are ok with traditional banking, while DeFi users often need to move between these two financial worlds of fiat currency and digital assets.
Since banks do not presently accommodate digital assets, we will need a Bank Alternative that seamlessly allows users to go from Traditional Banks to DeFi and back. Fluid app merges the two financial worlds into one app.
**Why The Demand for Bank Alternatives**
Some reasons for Bank alternatives include
Reduced transaction fees
Interests on savings
Global reach and availability
Near real-time transaction execution globally.
Global access- all you need is internet no matter where you are
**How Fluid Does It: Two Worlds In One App**
Fluid’s revolutionary technology uses both traditional finance and decentralized finance infrastructure and **bridges** fiat and cryptocurrency into one app. https://fluid.ch/our-products/bridge-to-crypto/
Fluid Finance has integrated a full bank account + access to crypto for the first time in **one app**. We have done this by creating a stablecoin-the DigitalDollar that is fully backed, transparent, and always verifiable 24/7 on-chain. DigitalDollar (DUSD) — real money on-chain. https://medium.com/coinmonks/app.fluid.ch
You can mint your stablecoins directly from your bank account to chain. When you want to cash out, just redeem the **DigitalDollar** for ordinary dollars back to your account, in seconds. https://fluid.ch/dusd/
**Fluid — The best bank alternative**
Fluid Finance is a revolutionary new approach to banking, built for the digital age. We’ve integrated all the benefits of traditional banking with all the benefits of crypto — within **one app**. https://medium.com/coinmonks/app.fluid.ch
Enables you to manage multiple currencies AND cryptocurrencies.
You can move quickly and seamlessly between these two worlds whenever you want.
Read more about Fluid **here**. https://fluid.ch/
*I invite you to join the* fluidfam *with any channel you find convenient below.*
**Twitter** | **Telegram** | **Announcement** |**Discord** | **GitLab** | **YouTube** | **website:** **fluid.ch** | **DigitalDollar(DUSD)** | Sign up for an account at: **app.fluidfi.ch** https://twitter.com/fluid_fi https://t.me/fluid_fi https://t.me/fluid_fi_ann https://discord.gg/xbu3qhrxps https://gitlab.com/fluidfinance/stablecoin2.0 http://youtube.com/c/fluidfi https://fluid.ch/ https://medium.com/fluidfi/introducing-digitaldollar-dusd-7ef626bb9958 http://app.fluidfi.ch/
**CAVEAT:**
*Note- This is not financial investment advice.*
*All financial investments involve risk DYOR (Do your own research) before making any financial investments*
*This article is my thoughts and opinion about the subject matter*
The Normie’s Series: An Introduction to Web3, DeFi, and Cryptocurrency
Amidst the scam, Web3 has real value, utilities, and opportunities. Don’t miss out on account of your distrust. Get a Crypto Wallet. A BlockWallet
Yes, there are a lot of scams, loads of confusing jargon, and layers of complexities ensuring that entrance to normies is difficult, and helping the rich to get richer. In a few years when all the complexities have been abstracted most of the opportunities will be gone and you will likely become the next user of the new big tech not a part of it.
For every circle of innovation, there are early adopters, normies, and unbelievers. History tells us that at one time the earth was believed to be flat, and proponents of spherical earth faced the wrath of the people. Despite the disbelieve of spherical earth the earth remained spherical, neither will your distrust make Web3-Blockchain go away.
The Normies series is targeted at Crypto Normies. It intends to provide some infotainment in a simplified conversational manner on the jargon-filled normie confusing subject of cryptocurrency, DeFi, and NFT. Crypto Native is gone. Sounds like a statement in crypto space. Welcome
**A Normie**
A Normie is a **Straight**. According to **Dictionary.com** — Normie is slang for a “normal person,” especially someone seen to have conventional, mainstream tastes, interests, viewpoints, etc. It is intended as an insult but often used ironically. I am a normie, you know who you are so let’s back to our subject matter. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Normie https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/normie/
**Web3 a Small Leap With Major Impact, so We Are Told**
Although Web3 has promised to build castles in the sky for everyone- Metaverse (pun intended), if we go by cryptocurrency, it has so far been a leap for scams and the rich getting richer (Crypto Whales). However, Solis, B. of CMO Network in his **Forbes** argued that Web3 will deliver in future on Utility, Value, and Empowerment as I believe. https://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolis/2022/04/04/building-on-the-promise-of-web3-to-deliver-a-future-of-utility-value-and-empowerment-that-benefits-everyone/?sh=31bdd9876c50
Normie’s don’t jump in to be a part of the gold rush you could likely get scammed, yet you must not be dismissive of the potential and Utility of Web3 to bring you real opportunities. Caution is the keyword.
**What is Web3 (scary name-Crypto) (geek name- Decentralized Protocol)**
Web1 (Static Web) — Web1 was the first version of our Internet. It’s known as a read-only era of the Internet because you mostly used it to read data that others had posted! — According to **Eyes of the World** by Daniel Schlabach https://eyesoftheworld.substack.com/p/the-promise-of-web3?s=r
Web2 (Interactive) — Web 2.0 is the current state of the internet, which has more user-generated content (social media) and usability for end-users, according to **Investopedia**. The internet of big tech explosion. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/web-20.asp
Web3 (Decentralized & User Owned) — According to **Coindesk** Web, 3 is the next generation internet, one that focuses on shifting power from big tech companies to individual users. Web3 is yet evolving we will see what it ultimately brings. https://www.coindesk.com/learn/what-is-web-3-and-why-is-everyone-talking-about-it/
**Common Use cases of Web3 –Decentralize Protocols**
The most evidential use of Web3 decentralized protocols is in Cryptocurrency, Decentralized Finance, and Non-Fungible Token, now all this may fail or succeed but the technology will not go away, even governments are getting in on the act via creating their own Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC).
**Cryptocurrency 101 for Normie’s**
Crypto and Currency = Cryptocurrency
The word Crypto comes from a security method of encrypting and decrypting information called CRYPTOgraphy.
According to **coindesk**, Cryptocurrency is a new type of money that operates in a completely different way than the traditional currency we all use every day. The most basic difference is that it’s exclusively a virtual currency, meaning there are no physical cryptocurrency coins or notes you can keep in your pocket. https://www.coindesk.com/learn/what-is-cryptocurrency/
It is not issued by a central bank or government, like U.S. dollars, euros and other fiat currencies are, new cryptocurrency units typically enter circulation through a technological process that involves the participation of volunteers from all over the world using their computers, thus its description as decentralized.
According to **Statista**, by Feb 2022 there were over 10,000 coins in circulation. https://www.statista.com/statistics/863917/number-crypto-coins-tokens/
Bitcoin launched in January 2009, by Satoshi Nakamoto is the first viable cryptocurrency and is valued at about 33% of the total crypto market
**Decentralized Finance (DeFi)**
Decentralize Finance (DeFi) is the second most popular use case and it is more or less the same thing as traditional finance which is Investment, Lend, Borrow, Save, Trade, etc. The difference between DeFi and traditional finance is mainly that DeFi uses cryptocurrencies and Web3-Blockchain technology, which allows the financial services to be decentralized, another word for saying no one is in control. Scary stuff right!
**Non-Fungible Token**
What Is an NFT
According to **Simplilearn** — A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is a digital asset that represents internet collectibles like music, games, and artwork with an authentic certificate created by blockchain. It cannot be forged or otherwise manipulated. It can have real utility or just a lowly image on Blockchain https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/blockchain-tutorial/what-is-nft
According to **Noah Davis** of Christie’s, the biggest benefit of NFT is that it creates a mechanism for assigning value to digital art, and I agree. https://amplify.nabshow.com/articles/what-is-the-value-of-an-nft/
To explain Fungible and Non-Fungible, Zikomo, J. used an example — If I gave you a 20-Euro bill and got four 5-Euro bills, we would have the same value because they are fungible. However, if I gave you an NFT worth 20 Euros and got another NFT worth 20 Euros, we would not have the same value — you’d have my NFT, and I would have yours because they are non-fungible.
**A Crypto Wallet**
In each of the use cases mentioned above, you will likely need or use a Crypto Wallet. So what is a crypto wallet
According to **DeNicola, L. of Experian** — A cryptocurrency wallet is what you need to buy, store and send cryptocurrencies. Unlike physical wallets, a cryptocurrency wallet doesn’t hold any money; instead, it holds the keys needed to access and control cryptocurrencies on a blockchain. https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/what-is-a-cryptocurrency-wallet/
The Wallet holds a
1. Private key
2. And a Public Key.
3. A Private key is your access to control your cryptocurrency
4. And your Public key is more like your account number
5. Your wallet address is an extra layer of security, it is created from your Public Key and it is what you share with others to receive cryptocurrencies.
There are many great crypto wallets out there DYOR (Do your own research) but I am only going to tell you about the one I know. BlockWallet.
**About BlockWallet**
**BlockWallet** protects and ensures your privacy by default. When you make transactions or interact with blockchain apps, BlockWallet routes all node requests through Privacy Proxies, which masks the IP address and other metadata that can be used to identify and track you on a blockchain. http://blockwallet.io/
You can also use the Privacy Pools feature, powered by **zk-SNARKs** technology, to deposit and mix funds in a smart contract. This allows transferring funds without links to your history and identity on the blockchain, effectively rendering them untraceable. https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/zk-snarks
BlockWallet offers integrated Flash-Bot Protection, shielding you from sandwich attacks when you trade on DEXes. Meanwhile, the Phishing Protection feature combats phishing scams by generating unique artwork on all sensitive pages.
BlockWallet is a privacy-first non-custodial browser extension wallet where you can store, send or receive crypto and interact with your favorite blockchain apps privately.
As crypto sees mainstream adoption, blockchain’s lack of privacy poses real security risks. BlockWallet is here to ensure that on-chain privacy does not lag. The wallet provides a set of advanced privacy tools wrapped in a familiar and user-friendly wallet experience, eliminating friction and making privacy accessible for everyone.
CAVEAT:
Note- This is not financial investment advice.
All financial investments involve risk DYOR (Do-Your-Own-Research) before making any financial investments
This article is my thoughts and opinion about the subject matter.
BlockWallet can be reached on
**Homepage** | **Medium** | **Twitter** | **Telegram** | **Discord** | **GitHub** | **E-mail** https://blockwallet.io/ https://blockwallet.medium.com/ https://twitter.com/GetBlockWallet https://t.me/blockwallet https://discord.gg/69gvNKatdb https://discord.com/invite/EKVZ2xWXEH
What Is The Value of an NFT: $2.9m or $6,800 or
Your NFT may be worthless or worth a ton of money, you will never really know until you sell it
$6,800 is what Sina Estavi got offered, less than a year after he paid $2.9m for an NFT of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet in March 2021. Estavi listed the NFT in the OpenSea NFT marketplace for $48m– according to The Guardian. March 2021, was good for NFT because another NFT *Everydays: The First 5000 Days* sold for $69 million at Christie’s Auction House. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/apr/14/twitter-nft-jack-dorsey-sina-estavi
**So How Did this Happen?**
Understanding that NFTs have ***no real-asset backing*** and that their value is dependent on demand driven by feelings and emotions is fundamental to understanding how this happened. For example, a football fan will pay £100 for a march and a non-fan will consider it a waste of money. And so I guess Estavi’s NFT had only a fan willing to pay $6,800.
An NFT of A Van Gogh painting is a limited digital representation of the painting, you have zero rights to the painting itself, and the value of your NFT is dependent on finding someone willing to pay more than you paid or not for it. NFTs could have utility values, mainly used in the game world to buy or represent skins or earned as your play.
**What Is an NFT**
According to Simplilearn - A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is a digital asset that represents internet collectibles like music, games, and artwork with an authentic certificate created by blockchain. It cannot be forged or otherwise manipulated. https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/blockchain-tutorial/what-is-nft
Simply put an NFT is an image (even lowly JPEG) created by anyone, puts on a blockchain like Ethereum, and then puts a price to it. Simple. According to Noah Davis of Christie’s, the biggest benefit of NFT is that it creates a mechanism for assigning value to digital art, and I agree. https://amplify.nabshow.com/articles/what-is-the-value-of-an-nft/
**Fungible and Non-Fungible**
To explain Fungible and Non-Fungible, Zikomo, J. used an example - If I gave you a 20-Euro bill and got four 5-Euro bills, we would have the same value because they are fungible. However, if I gave you an NFT worth 20 Euros and got another NFT worth 20 Euros, we would not have the same value – you’d have my NFT, and I would have yours because they are non-fungible https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-value-nft-zikomo-joseph
**The Value of NFT is Emotional and Risky**
As we mentioned earlier the value of an NFT is largely driven by sentiments and this can change quite rapidly this explains the volatility in the NFT marketplace. Volatility is the biggest risk to your NFT investments. https://fortune.com/2022/03/04/nft-bubble-market-crash-price-value/
**Can I Make Money From NFT**
Lots of money is being made from NFTs and yes you can get involved by making an NFT of your own or flipping NFTs, which essentially means buying at a low rate and selling at a higher price to make a profit. My position is, that as long as it is not illegal or harming humans directly or indirectly then if it's your thing get involved.
**However You Will Need To**
1. DYOR –Do You Own Research; you need extensive education and research to understand what you are getting into
2. And an abundance of caution – the space is rife with a relatively high level of crime, I am certain over time this will reduce but for now be careful there are essentially no regulations in the NFT space.
That said good luck.
*CAVEAT:*
· *Note- This is not financial investment advice.*
· *All financial investments involve risk DYOR (Do your own research) before making any financial investments*
· *This article is my thoughts and opinion about the subject matter.*
Ban Phishing From Your Crypto Waters
*Everyday, I read fishing attacks costing millions of dollars and I wonder why will anyone waste so much money attacking anyone with fish? She asked. They mean* **P-H-I-S-H-I-N-G** *a tech terminology that simply means stealing from others by pretending to be something that you are not. He explained. Wow! that is a lot of stealing she exclaimed. I certainly don’t want to be in Crypto waters, I could be phished-she thought*.
**Phishing** has become one of the leading sources of hacks in the blockchain space, so much so that in addition to other crypto hacks and scam they threaten the very existence of Crypto, NFTs and DeFi(more on this later). The only saving grace appears to be the growth in crypto adoption. According to **CNBC**, **Crypto News Flash** and many others https://halborn.com/what-is-phishing-attack-techniques-and-examples/ https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/06/crypto-scammers-took-a-record-14-billion-in-2021-chainalysis.html https://www.crypto-news-flash.com/crypto-fraud-increased-by-over-80-percent-in-2021/
1. Scammers took a record $14b in crypto related crime, a growth of upto 79% in 2021.
2. Of that, Cryptocurrency theft increased 516% from 2020, to $3.2 billion worth of cryptocurrency. Of this total, 72% of stolen funds were taken from DeFi protocol.
Yes crypto bad actors are shooting crypto in the leg, impeding its growth and adoption. **AtlasVPN** continue to report higher crypto-hack growth rates. https://atlasvpn.com/blog/blockchain-hackers-stole-nearly-700-million-in-q1-2022
**Some Major 2022 Q1 Phishing Attacks**
There seem to be no let up, no one is spared, normies, experts, Dapps, Chains, DEX etc and despite the slump in price of crypto and tokens in 2022-Q1 crime and hacks continued its growth. According to **Techcrunch** 2022 Q1 saw crypto losses spike 695% year-on-year, some 2022 Q1 losses include https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/04/q1-crypto-losses-spike-695-on-year-following-massive-hacks/
1. Wormhole, a popular cryptocurrency platform that offers bridges between multiple blockchains, announced it suffered an attack that exploited the bridge between the Ethereum and Solana blockchains and redirected around $320 million worth of ETH to crypto wallets that don’t belong to the Wormhole team.
2. In February 2022, users of NFT marketplace **OpenSea** were a victim of phishing attack to the tune of $1.7m in ETH. https://beincrypto.com/opensea-ceo-clarifies-phishing-attack-did-not-originate-on-platform/
3. In March 2022, users of **Axie Infinity** sidechain Ronin Network were victims of phishing attackers who stole 173,600 Ethereum and 25.5 million USDC worth over $600m argueably the biggest ever phishing hack in the history of crypto. https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/29/axie-infinitys-ronin-network-suffers-%e2%89%88625m-exploit-in-largest-defi-hack-to-date/
**The Threat to Crypto**
No surprises that, this relatively higher crime rate is not going unnoticed, by regulatory hawks and rightly so, no government will simply allow this to continue without intervention, and therein lies the big problem- What kind of interventions is crypto crime inviting, outright bans are on the table and has seen increase, and increased calls for stricter regulatory climes. Recently Janet Yellen — The U.S Treasury Secretary suggested while speaking in American University in Washington that **Crypto scams** and increased fraud cases, are forcing governments to regulate the crypto industry. https://www.cryptopolitan.com/janet-yellen-crypto-regulation-based-on-risk/
*Bad Boys –by Bob Marley starts to play in the background “****Bad boys, bad boys whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do? When they come for you?” (*** *Lyrics) listen* ***here****. Sorry just making a bad situation light, luckily there are a few things that can be done to reduce the risk; read on.* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXJsT7WSwjo
**So What can you do to protect yourself from Phishing attacks**
I have read many ways to reduce the risk, one I have not read though is moderate your expectations (i.e. “Be less greedy” greed plays a key part in most crypto phishing attacks), if you cannot moderate your expectations, there’s probably not much the list below can do for you, although a **BlockWallet** Phishing Protection feature will protect your crypto wallet, you need totally out phishing in all ramifications. So back to how to avoid phishing attacks https://blockwallet.io/
1. Employ common sense before handing over sensitive information.
2. Never trust alarming messages.
3. Do not open unsolicited attachments or from known senders.
4. Avoid clicking embedded links.
5. Keep your software and operating system up to date.
6. Read your mails and messages carefully paying attention to details
7. Keep your private keys securely, on a physical paper away from your device.
8. Strong passwords and 2-factor authentications.
9. Deal with reputable companies this is critical in Crypto, too many outright scam companies.
Get a Wallet with Phishing Protection like BlockWallet https://blockwallet.io/
***CAVEAT:***
· *Note- This is not a financial investment advice.*
· *All financial investments involve risk DYOR (Do your own research) before making any financial investments.*
· *This article is my thoughts and opinion about the subject matter.*
**References**
1. Sigalos, ****M****. Crypto scammers took a record $14 billion in 2021.(2022,01,06). **https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/06/crypto-scammers-took-a-record-14-billion-in-2021-chainalysis.html** https://www.cnbc.com/mackenzie-sigalos/
2. William, S. Blockchain hackers stole nearly $1.3 billion in Q1 2022 (2022,03,06)- **https://atlasvpn.com/blog/blockchain-hackers-stole-nearly-700-million-in-q1-2022**
3. Faife, C. The Verge, Hackers breached Mailchimp to phish cryptocurrency wallets. (2022.04.04) **https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/4/23010317/hackers-mailchimp-trezor-cryptocurrency-phishing**
4. Nambiampurath, R. BeinCrypto, OpenSea CEO Clarifies Phishing Attack Did Not Originate on Platform. (2022.02.21) **https://beincrypto.com/opensea-ceo-clarifies-phishing-attack-did-not-originate-on-platform/**
5. DeMatteo, M. NextAdvisor. Scammers Stole $14 Billion in Crypto in 2021. Here’s How Investors Can Protect Their Coins. (2022,01,06) **https://time.com/nextadvisor/investing/cryptocurrency/common-crypto-scams/**
6. Muchai, F. Cryptopolitan.(2022,04,07). Janet Yellen calls for crypto regulation based on risk and not technology. **https://www.cryptopolitan.com/janet-yellen-crypto-regulation-based-on-risk/**
7. Melinek, J. Techcrunch. Q1 crypto losses spike 695% on year following massive hacks. (2022,04,04), **https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/04/q1-crypto-losses-spike-695-on-year-following-massive-hacks/**
8. Melinek, J. Techcrunch. Axie Infinity’s Ronin network suffers ≈$625M exploit in largest DeFi hack to date.(2022.03.29). **https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/29/axie-infinitys-ronin-network-suffers-%e2%89%88625m-exploit-in-largest-defi-hack-to-date/**
9. BlockWallet. Introducing BlockWallet Phishing Protection. **https://blockwallet.medium.com/introducing-blockwallet-phishing-protection-69d1b284e90**
10. **https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/preemptive-safety/phishing-prevention-tips**
11. **https://markshirecrypto.com/crypto-security/how-to-protect-against-cryptocurrency-phishing-attacks/**
FluidFi + Merkle Science: The Making of a secured Financial Platform
*Not a day goes by without a report of a scam or hack in the crypto world, everyone is vulnerable,* ***experts*** *are not spared, and phishing(Criminal –fishing) is reaching perfection level, see recent* ***Axie Infinity $620m hack****; seems scams and hacks are a part of Web3 life; well not for FluidFiers.* https://beincrypto.com/defiance-capital-founder-loses-over-1-5-million-in-hot-wallet-attack/ https://beincrypto.com/ronin-network-hack-axie-infinity-sidechain-swindled-for-over-620m/
Fluid Finance partnership with Merkle Science ensures Fluid’s integrated bank account and Web3Wallet infrastructure, are some of the most secure platform in the crypto space. These days when people own a **Web3 wallet** they practically have to keep one eye open the rest of their lives, the integration of Merkle Science predictive crypto risk and intelligence platform to Fluid platform ensures you can have peace of mind and sleep with your two eyes closed. https://bitcoin.org/en/secure-your-wallet
Indeed today, when the rate of scams and hacks continue to grow (over 695% in Q1 of 2022, according to **Techcrunch**) and threaten the very existence of DeFi, a partnership for security is critical to the survival and growth of any platform. **FluidFi** is thus proactively partnering with **Merkle Science** to provide a platform that is secured from inception. https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/04/q1-crypto-losses-spike-695-on-year-following-massive-hacks/ https://fluidfi.ch/ https://www.merklescience.com/
**About FluidFi**
*In a real life scenario where you have a bank account (traditional bank account), and a Web3 wallet (for crypto/DeFi) or you have a need to transact between them; this means that you will go through the* ***difficult,*** *costly, risky, delays, and errors and mistake prone, back-and-forth of going from* **BankAccount-to-Exchange-to-Crypto***, a Fluid Account eliminates all this and makes this transition seamless in both direction from account-to-crypto and back, all in one app and this is why fluid is revolutionary. As they say the best definition is tautology; if-you-know-you-know.*
Fluid Finance is a revolutionary approach to banking. A fluid Account gives you all the benefits of traditional banking and the benefits of crypto all in one- app.
1. in this regards a Fluid account is **better than banking** because it gives you more than a bank will give you with the addition of a Web3 wallet functionality in the same app.
2. And is also **better than Web3-Wallet** because it allows you to mint DUSD a stable coin directly from your bank account to DeFi without a crypto exchange.
3. All in one App. Fluid Finance the Bank Alternative
Read more about FluidFi here.
A revolutionary platform like FluidFi is good to have but less so without iron-clad security and a partnership with Merkle Scince makes FluidFi platform iron-clad.
**About Merkle Science**
Is a predictive risk and intelligence platform, that has established a reputation and trust for transaction screening and Wallet Monitoring, fraud prevention and complies with AML, KYC and CFT regulations. Merkle Science’s Compass easily identifies suspicious transactions on and beyond the blacklists and responds immediately.
Read more about Merkle Science **here**. https://www.merklescience.com/
This next generation crypto threat detection and prevention and risk management solution is now a part of the FluidFi App/platform that you get.
With FluidFi you get a secured financial revolution.
*CAVEAT:*
· *Note- This is not a financial investment advice.*
· *All financial investments involve risk DYOR (Do your own research) before making any financial investments*
· *This article is my thoughts and opinion about the subject matter.*
References
1. Bitcoin. Securing your Wallet. **https://bitcoin.org/en/secure-your-wallet**
2. Nambiampurath, R. DeFiance Capital Founder Loses Over $1.5 Million in Hot Wallet Attack. (2022,03,22). **https://beincrypto.com/defiance-capital-founder-loses-over-1-5-million-in-hot-wallet-attack/**
3. Melinek, J. Q1 crypto losses spike 695% on year following massive hacks. (2022,04,04). **https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/04/q1-crypto-losses-spike-695-on-year-following-massive-hacks/**
4. FluidFi. Meet our Partners: Merkle Science. (2022,04,06). **https://medium.com/fluidfi/meet-our-partners-merkle-science-20e9d2f7bcf3**
Cryptocurrency Regulations: Wallet Privacy and Anonymity remains important.
Cryptocurrencies continue to make progress towards mass-adoption, heist continue to remaining relatively high and governments around the world seemingly unable to discourage its adoption; many governments are turning towards cryptocurrency regulations as a means of retaining financial control of their national space; invariably this also means an increase in data and information collection to meet regulatory benchmarks. More collected data on you and about your crypto activities exposes you to crime.
Although governments across the world make the argument that as long as cryptocurrency continue to use stablecoins (i.e cryptocurrency that draws its value and stability by being backed by Fiat currency reserves) then they must be regulated because of their possible impact on banks and the fait currencies from which they draw their value-Hmmm; I would add that, the Crypto space continues to invite regulations to itself with near daily heist and hacks to the tune of millions of dollars; So regulations are definitely coming, and more data collection about your crypto activities.
**Standard Financial Regulators Data Collection Request: KYC, AML,**
Regulators can request for any information about you to be collected and stored as long as this is legal; some standard regulators data collection include KYC and AML, and crypto services providers may be required to follow this
1. Know-Your –Customer (KYC) which means gather all identification information about a user/client/customer so as to be able to tell each person uniquely from the other.
2. Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) which means know the details of the transactions so as to be able to tell who did what, when , how and what value and store same for a period of time.
**What this means**
The sum of this is that, an era of where your crypto activities will be subject to more data collection approaches; and this has implications including
1. The potentials for more data availability for crime fighting, and apprehending bad actors
2. OR as has often happened; poor data management has often led to data breaches which are then used to perpetrate crime, so users could end up being more exposed than protected.
**Maintaining Privacy and Anonymity in a Regulated Crypto Market**
Yes maintaining privacy and anonymity in a regulated crypto market remains important, one way to maintain privacy and anonymity will be to use services that does not have the ability to gather user data; how will that happen if the regulator insists on data collection right? It’s important to note that generally, regulators are less concerned about your privacy and more concerned about your anonymity. Privacy and anonymity could be maintained by -
1. Using crypto privacy focused products and solutions such as BlockWallet, who use Zero-Knowledge proofs like zk-SNARKS to ensure the privacy of your crypto activities.
2. This does not mean that the service providers does not know details of your internet data and so still have some info albert to a lesser degree.
3. To make all your internet data also private, you will have to use crypto privacy focused solutions that have integrated privacy focus internet provider/browser like Tor.
4. This combination protects both your privacy on the blockchain as well as protect your internet activities and data such that, even your crypto wallet providers do not have the entirety of your activities and at best can only provide incomplete information.
This may seem further provision of cover for criminals- far from it, think about it like this, there are good intentioned people that genuinely want privacy and anonymity; also there are many possible good outcomes from this, including
1. Reducing crypto crime; because criminals have less access to the information they need to perpetrate crime this will translate to less crime in the crypto space and a correspondent increase in credibility. Access to wallets has been a big source of Crypto Crime.
2. Good people, who do the right things and who sincerely want privacy and anonymity, will be able to use crypto more comfortably leading to more crypto adoption.
3. Recent developments have shown that Crypto has a very large percentage of bad actors, including service providers, criminals etc. So you are best protected from all kinds of bad actors.
**BlockWallet working on TOR integration.**
BlockWallet’s goal is to have zero information on users, and they aim to achieve this by working on features such as TOR integration to allow our users to completely protect their data even from BLOCKWALLET. This means if BlockWallet has no information or data about you there is nothing to share or to be manipulated, there is simply nothing we can help with even if they get asked.
**About** **BlockWallet** https://blockwallet.io/
Reclaim your financial privacy on blockchain
BlockWallet uses privacy-enhancing smart contracts to make your crypto transfers as private and secure as bank transfers, this is important because, you leave a trail of digital information on the blockchain. Anyone can find it and see what DApps you’ve used, transfers you’ve made, and the crypto assets you hold. What BlockWallet does
1. **Protects Your Finances**:- Your finances are a personal matter, and so you don’t have to reveal your balance and transaction history when making bank transfers. BlockWallet enforces these same fundamentals on blockchain and render your funds untraceable to everyone but you.
2. Your protected gateway to Unlock the full potential of Web 3.0, BlockWallet is your gateway to the decentralized web. Explore Web 3.0 with privacy-enhancing smart contracts at your fingertips. Connect to any DApp, across multiple chains.
3. Take back control of your data: BlockWallet empowers users by giving them full control of their digital assets. As a non-custodial wallet that collects no data whatsoever, you’re always in the driver’s seat.
***CAVEAT:***
*1. Note- This is not a financial investment advice.*
*2. All financial investments involve risk DYOR (Do your own research) before making any financial investments*
*3. This article are my thoughts and opinion about the subject matter.*
References
1. Kumar,A. XRP Lawyer Predicts SEC Will Come After Crypto Exchanges Next. (2022,04,02). https://coingape.com/xrp-lawyer-predicts-sec-will-come-after-crypto-exchanges-next/
The Best Crypto Wallets: Use Zero Knowledge Proof to Prevent Front Running Bots from cheating you
*Everytime you place a significant order on a blockchain, a Front Running bot could be scanning details of your transaction/orders; sandwiching your orders with a buy/sell or sell/buy of its own, resulting in you paying a higher price or earning less, whilst the front running bot makes more money at your expense. Protect yourself with low slippage, smaller size transactions and Zero knowledge encryptions solutions like BlockWallet.*
**What are Front Running Bot?**
Front Running Bots are bots that do zillions of insiders trading on blockchain. They place orders or transactions in front of yours (running in front of yours) to beat you to expected price changes that is most likely a result of executing your order or transactions, and by so doing make money off the market mostly at your expense. Front running bots are bots that place market orders/transactions in front of market impacting orders that are waiting in a line to be executed.
Front running bots are designed to run like insiders trading, they use privilege details information of your transaction to cheat the market. So front running bots are automated insider traders/cheats using privilege information to trade on blockchains and cryptocurrency.
Generally, transactions orders should line-up to be served in a first-come-first-serve basis; Front Running Bots are line jumpers/shunters they squeeze in-between the line in front of a market impacting order/transaction, they get executed first, and take a position before the market moving order, once the market moving order is executed they take advantage of this price movement and make a profit.
**Further explanation with a hypothetical example**
Mr.A places an order to buy 1m stones; a front running bot can see the details of his order while waiting to be executed and place an order to buy say 500k stones, in front of Mr.A order.
1. The bots order gets executed first before Mr.A orders say at $100/stone.
2. The Bots order may in itself raise the price.
3. Mr. A order gets executed for $110 because the order is big and further impacts the market.
4. The Bot sells his stones immediately Mr.A order is being executed at $110, Mr.A pays $110
5. The front running bot makes a spread of $10 at Mr.As expense.
6. If the Bot had not squeezed or run in front of Mr.A order the price may still move but may be to $106.
7. And so because of the Front Running Bot Mr.A is paying more for the stones and losing money.
8. Regardless the front running bot is doing this transaction because it has information about Mr.As pending order.
9. Front Running Bot another name for insiders trading on blockchain.
**But How does the Front Running Bot get insiders information?**
Remember blockchain is transparent and you are not anonymous; Also it’s a bot! It can execute lightning speed scans, order placement etc. From more powerful computers so it has a speed advantage, you place your orders generally from slower computers and these Bot just overtake you and also
1. Don’t forget Blockchain is transparent and you are not anonymous
2. Because orders are getting more and so they are waiting more and more in line to get executed by miners.
3. While they wait they are exposed to Front Running Bots who scan them see the details of the order.
4. And can use those details to identify market impacting orders and nd place an order of their own.
**Why are they allowed to jump the line/how are they able to jump the line**?
Miners! Yes miners allow it because of something called Miners Extractable Value (MEV) another word for tip, if you tip me I will serve you first, so
1. The Front Running Bots tip the miners to process their orders before yours by increasing the gas fees they pay.
2. The miner wanting to earn more takes the higher gas fees and process the Front running bots order.
3. The Miners actions aid the bots to jump the line to your front.
**What can I do to protect my Transactions and disincentives Front-Running Bots?**
1. Get a wallet that uses Zero-knowledge Proof like BlockWallet. Zero-Knowledge allows you to execute transactions without revealing details of the transaction; with the bot unable to see your transaction details it is unable to cheat you.
2. Split your transactions into smaller value, this makes it less valuable/interesting for the bots to front run your transactions.
3. Insert very low-slippage on your transactions making it more difficult for the bot to squeeze in and sandwich your big orders and also reduce the margin by which any bot can possibly increase your cost.
**Conclusion**
The thing about Crypto is that once something goes wrong, you can lose everything and never be able to reclaim it again, and so you really want to be careful and make some of the better choices to ensure your safety, privacy and unanimity in the crypto space, so you should always choose carefully.
***CAVEAT:***
*1. Note- This is not a financial investment advice.*
*2. All financial investments involve risk DYOR (Do your own research) before making any financial investments*
*3. This article are my thoughts and opinion about the subject matter.*
References
1. Anderson, W.P. Front-running, flash bots and keeping things fair in the crypto market. (2022,02,26) https://cointelegraph.com/news/front-running-flash-bots-and-keeping-things-fair-in-the-crypto-market
2. What is front-running in crypto and NFT trading? https://www.bitcoininsider.org/article/156321/what-front-running-crypto-and-nft-trading
3. Orieon. Art of Speculation. Front Running Bots in Crypto EXPLAINED! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7mfciHAcLc
4. Daniels, C.K. The Front-Running Crypto Bot SCAM - Avoid The PancakeSwap Front Run / Sniper Bot. (2022,01,22). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtIo_zozexg
5. Naz. How to Front-run in Ethereum. (2020.02.17). https://nazariyv.medium.com/crypto-front-running-for-dummies-bed2d4682db0
When am I ever going to catch up with the cryptocurrency jargon
*Tales of nouveau riche abound in the crypto-space and one would not be wrong to attempt to take a look and see where one could fit in; not to be greedy attempt to make earn some income passively from the crypto-space.*
I have been looking for a relatively short time now and I can’t find my way the in the maze formed by the cryptocurrency jargon; I am trying to get past what a cryptocurrency is, blockchain that seem straight forward , Bitcoin ok, no Altcoin or just coins, tokens which can be like a share but not a share, and Wallets which could be Hot or cold, or exchanges which could be centralized or decentralized or Managements which could be centralized or Decentralized Autonomous Organization(DAO) who votes on actions to be taken even though the market waits for no one, or staking, liquidity pools, farms, mining, decentralized everything including DeFi and if you think you have seen it all then you have not seen a cryptocurrency key, which can be public or private, o o o you should know that if you misplace your private keys you are done, kabish, finito, and then there is my personal favorite HODL (Hold on to Dear Life) interesting stuff. Phew! Get into crypto and you can never be bored ever again. So here I am wondering
1. When am I ever going to get all the jargons to even ever enter the rat race?
2. If techie’s get all the financial-Technology jargon then it can’t be that hard right?
**So let’s take a course of Crypto Jargons together**
In this course we would learn the meaning of the following below and how and when to use them appropriately including but not limited to
Adaptive State Sharding, Addresses, Airdrop, Airnode, Algorithmic Market Operations (AMOs), Algorithmic Stablecoin, Altcoin, Anti Money Laundering (AML), Arbitrage, Atomic Swap, AtomicDEX, Automated Market Maker(AMM), Beacon Chain, BEP-2, BEP-20, BEP-721, BEP-95, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Dominance(BTCD), Bitcoin Improvement Proposal(BIP), Block, Blockchain, Blockchain 1.0, Blockchain 2.0, Blockchain 3.0, Block Explorer, Block Height, Block Reward, Blockchain Transmission Protocol(BTP), Bots, Bridges, Burn, Casascius Coin, CeDeFi, CBDCs, CeFi, Centralized Exchange(CEX), Chain Reorganization, Chain Split, Change, Change Address, Circulating Supply, Cloud Mining, Coin, Coin Mixer, Coinbase, Cold Storage, Cold Wallet, Collateral Tokens, Collateralized Stablecoin, Compoable DeFi, Composable Token, Confirmation, Consensus, Consensus Mechanism, Core Wallet, Cross-Chain, Cryptoasset, Cryptocurrency, Cryptocurrency Pairs, Cryptographic Hash Function, Cryptography, Curve AMO, Custodial, Daedalus Wallet, DAO, Decentralized, DApps, Decentralized Currency, Decentralized Exchange(DEX), Decentralized Social Network, Decentralized Stablecoin, DeFi, DeFi Aggregator, DeFi Degens, Delegated Proof-Of-Stake(dPOS), Deterministic Wallet, Dex Aggregator, Diamond Hands, Digital Currency, Digital Dollar, DAG, Distributed Ledgers, DYCO, Effective Proof-of-Stake, ELI5, Enterprise Ethereum Alliance(EEA), Equity, ERC-1155, ERC-20, ERC-223, ERC-721, ERC-777, ERC-827, ERC-884, ERC-948, Ether, Ethereum Improvement Proposal(EIP), Ethereum Virtual Machine(EVM) …….etc
We would stop here for now and continue from where we stopped in our next class, we would also update the list with new words, names and meanings that may come-up before our next class, It’s almost as if there is a competition to form the most out of this world naming, and definitions, take for example-
**Cryptographic Hash Function** defined as (short definition) Cryptographic hash functions produce a fixed-size hash value from a variable-size transaction input.
**Long –Explanation.**
*A* ***cryptographic hash function*** *is an algorithm, i.e. a repeatable sequence of specific actions, that can be used to transform an arbitrary data string of a variable length into one of a fixed length and format, called the hash.*
*One of the simplest examples of a hash function is adding up the digits in a number until one is left with a single-digit output. If the input is 49, for example, then adding 4 and 9 yields 13, whose digits 1 and 3 are then summed up again to give the output of 4. Regardless of the length of the input number, the output will always be a single digit.*
*That is not a good algorithm, however, because, in order to perform its functions well, a hash function needs to possess several characteristics:*
*It should be easy to compute an output for any given input, but nearly impossible to reverse the process and calculate the input of a known output;*
***Determinism*** *— feeding a specific input into the algorithm should always produce the same output;*
***Collision resistance*** *— two different inputs should be very unlikely to produce the same output;*
***Avalanche effect*** *— changing even a single bit of data in the input should result in a wildly different output.*
*Hash functions are applied in many use cases, for example, as checksums to verify the integrity of computer files after their transmission of prolonged storage, or in randomizing functions.*
*They are also a key component in the mining of proof-of-work cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin (BTC), which uses the SHA-256 hash function. In order to add a new block to the blockchain and claim their reward of newly-mined Bitcoin, miners first need to produce a hash value that is below a certain threshold, called the target.*
*The fact that hashes are pseudorandom and it is impossible to predict an output of any input before actually running it through the hash function ensures that miners cannot print new Bitcoins out of thin air and need to prove the work they have performed.*
***There you go quite easy and straight forward.***
When am I going to learn all these terms, and how to apply them and then start my rat race. I have come to the conclusion that Cryptocurrency is not yet ready for mass adoption, when it does the nouveau riche opportunity would have been lost, so I thought to still get involve using simpler approach.
ValueFirst
Hi, My moniker says it all, its always value first for me, however as I approach 5 decades on earth, I do all I can to stay humane as the world strive to become inhuman. I like to recite my poems, all written in English but recited in broken English
Our world of conditional Freedom
*Let me tell you a short life changing experience that affected my appreciation of freedom and why everybody deserves it but...*
I was 19years and in my second year in the university when I truly appreciated the value of freedom, what started as a joke quickly deteriorated to my spending a harrowing night in a congested police cell with serial offenders and harden criminals, although I ultimately walked out of prison, I have carried with me, the feeling that stronger and more powerful people will always determine what freedom means and how much of it you are entitled to and that remains true till today.
**My Generous Parents**
My parents have always been a model for others, middleclass but willing to sacrifice it all for humanity, kids and family, and so in my second year in the University my parents gave me their old car, it was a Peugeot 504GL, if you know how the model of that car then you must be at least 4decades old, anyway I had great parents and still enjoy the love of my mother whose lifelong partner rests in the Lord. At this time a child having a car was really a rare thing and so you can imagine how much I was the envy of my class and school mates because of my parent’s generosity.
**The Car -504**
504s were known to have a door problem at the time, so you find yourself having to slam the doors hard or lift them up by hand to reach the hinges, in addition mine was a very old and poorly maintained car largely from insufficiently skilled mechanics, so if you take a curve way too fast chances are that your door will swing open- living dangerously you say, we said young and wild.
**The Accident**
On this faithful day, I was riding in my 504 with my cousins, one of whom was driving the car and the other now of blessed memories; 3 young men on a jolly ride (may be a little careless but never bad kids or wrongful intentions), we took a sharp curve and trust our 504 to live up to its reputation, its door swung open and hit another car, this was not a major damage but the man was very angry with us, understandably so, we were asked to fix the car and we had to go home to my aunt’s to get some more money to fix the car, we eventually fixed the car and went home still very apologetic all through the event; we did note the owner of the damaged car a middle age man at the time saying why should we have a car to drive even though we were all of legal driving age and had drivers licenses but when you put it in the cultural context of an Anglophone African developing country where many people remained below the poverty line and when cars were an extreme expression of prestige you could understand the man’s statement and so we did not make much of it. Our mistake.
**The Arrest**
In the early hours of the next day, must have been about 4am, we noticed people jumping over our low fence all around the compound we were scared because they were in black, eventually we heard banging on the front door, naturally we refused to open until we were threatened that they were the police and if we did anything we would be shot, and so we opened the door, the police must have numbered somewhere between 10-12 officers because they came in 2trucks.
They got in and started searching everywhere, they made us seat on the floor in our underwear, initially they thought we were alone in the house and started to falsely accuse us of robbery unfortunately as this was going on my aunt’s much older women came into the seating area and in unison started chanting “Blood of Jesus, Blood of Jesus”, my aunts started to query what exactly they were looking for, the police had no explanation, she asked for their search warrant and she got called a prostitute for it, after ransacking the house and found nothing they concluded that we were armed robbers because we had very nice shoes and a car, all attempt to explain that this was a very old hand me down 504 fell on deaf ears, they cuffed and chained us and dragged us onto the back of their truck.
I was distraught.
**The Police Station**
On getting to the police station and indeed all along we were threatened to confess or we would be severely dealt with, on getting to the station we were processed and as this was going on several officers seem to wonder what evidence there was that warranted the arrest, since this was not a crime scene, why are these young men criminals, and then it came to light that the owner of the car we ran into the day before was affiliated to the police or a police officer and had tipped our home as a criminals hideout. Clearly the police officers who made the raid were disappointed when my aunt accosted them, and explained how every child was her kid (in African culture a mother is not only a mother to the kids she borne, she is mother to all kids born around her) but they won’t let go still, they simply could not accept they were wrong and so because someone was deeply offended that we had a car to drive and we had made the mistake of running into his car, four young men deserved to be traumatized and incarcerated(another cousin who wasn’t on the ride was also arrested).
Have you ever been in cuffs, distraught is an understatement, I could barely speak or walk, dried throat, fear ridden and palpitating heart, all in chains.
**The Cell**
And so I was thrown in a cell, as I walked towards the cell, my cousin held me back choosing to go in first before I followed, they had split us into pairs(I was the youngest and they were all at least 4years older), the cell was about 12ft * 12ft and was already congested with about 11 inmates, dark and smelly.
**The President of Cell**
I soon found out why my cousin held me back; as he walked in a man about his size approached him and gave a strong punch on his chest my cousin who had clearly been expecting it, responded by asking him were the president was, a few more persons got up and asked who he was to be asking for the president, this triggered more attack and all of a sudden I was been punched slapped all over, my cousin was braving it and throwing some massive punch but I was too distraught and taking a serious beating, through it I heard an officer shout he would soon spray the cell with teargas, at this statement one huge guy in a corner got up and ordered the attack to stop.
My cousin a relentless guy asked him are you the president he replied “Yes?” my cousin turned to the guy who initiated the attack when we came into the cell and gave him a massive punch, the already malnourished inmate who was not expecting the attack collapsed to the floor, my cousin quickly turned to the president and paid homage “***Presido you dey here and you let this rat come they nack me. I hail you o”*** the president laughed and said “***o boy you stubborn o, but I like you”*** he then invited my cousin to seat next to him- he was promoted, and my cousin shared his status with me by getting me to seat next to him away for the faeces in a corner of the cell.
**A Cell Day**
Remember the raid happened around 4am and so this was about 6am in the cell, and in the cell there is not much to do, no space to stretch-you remain cramped, no air, just empty and then your demons come for you, depressing you, sinking you deeper and deeper into a black hole in the center of your heart, destroying your hopes and only the addition of more inmates or extraction of some that is your reprieve from your dark reverie.
All day I was in the cell, my aunts came and tried to bail us but that proved more difficult than they thought, they brought us food but my throat will not cooperate I ate nothing all day but my cell mates were always too happy to help since no one was bringing them anything to eat. As the day got dark, darkness fell over my soul, a sink hole threatened to swallow my and hope faded, all through the night I felt sorry for my cousin he was more worried about my mental state than being in the cell and soon other cell mates became worried. I was despondent
By morning they were all calling officers to get me out of the cell to seat behind the counter, but all entreaties fell on deaf ears, somewhere about mid-morning they brought another man into the cell he was older say early thirties and he got a beating of his life, he started crying (I was way beyond tears, my soul was absolutely gutted) the new inmate held on to the bars as he cried, the other cell mates who had beaten him asked him to move away from the door and stop blocking the air, but he held on and wailed to be let out, a few cell mates started plucking the hair off his legs (he was a hairy guy) and they told him that they would skin him if he doesn’t stop blocking the air flow, I felt sorry, but I now knew in reality I had no powers to change the situation. I looked on.
**The Bail**
At about 4pm(next day) my aunt succeeded in getting us released to go home, as we were prepared to be released other inmates pleaded with us to help deliver messages to friends and family about their predicament and so we took some messages to be delivered as we walked out
**Freedom was a long walk home**
Although we had a ride home, I choose to walk it must have been about 4-5km home, my aunt pleaded, my mum who was now around pleaded and my defending cousin joined in to try to persuade me to take the ride home, but I wanted to walk and so I started walking, my cousin chose to walk with me, what I remember most about that walk was that it was a very silent walk and a lot of deep breaths and inhaling, as if I was trying to catch the breathe I missed while in cell, I knew the value of freedom, but I did not feel free because I also now know that in reality the more powerful or stronger define what freedom means no matter how nicely it is packaged and that definition will always determine the freedom of the less powerful and when they deserve to have it or not, and even today that remains true.
**Humanity above Everything.**
My life experience and realization shifted my attention to the value of freedom and so I did my best for humanity and continue strive for freedom, as a younger person I was more aggressive, but as I grew older I came to the realization that what I called freedom and what the victims called freedom may be different and so I often find that in reality it was a negotiated freedom or conditional freedom. Reality.
The Vultures are Circling Cryptos and only Bank Alternatives are position to weather the storm.
Vultures circling above often means something is in danger and its enemies are about to move in for the kill; I can’t help but think that this is the case of government regulations coming for cryptos as we know them today, now don’t get me wrong I am indeed for regulations especially if it will bring near elimination of widespread fraud associated with cryptocurrency, however I can’t help but think that government concerns are more about losing a key element of control- Money.
Recently there have been many policy statements, orders or directives to look at how best to regulate cryptocurrency and some examples include
a. China outright ban on crypto trading in Sept, 2021
b. President Biden executive order on risk and benefits of cryptocurrency
c. Canada, Australia, The EU, India and many other countries have one form of regulation or the other
d. Ranging from illegal to legal asset and even legal tender.
e. From registration requirements to taxability etc.
Although details of most of the regulations are not yet well articulately, I have no reason not to think that this is more about reducing the independence of crypto currency.
And let me emphasize again regulation is not necessarily bad for Cryptos, to quote Binance CZ as he shared his view on *“Regulation is bad for crypto.” Please don’t hold such a simplistic view. The real world is a gradient scale on multiple vectors, but it is still very simple. Good regulations will be good for crypto. Bad regulations will be bad for crypto. Having good regulations that protect consumers while encouraging innovation is important for growth of the industry.* And I cannot say I agree more.
The question though is what is good regulation, does that include stifling independence or not, how many will survive good or bad regulations? These are the questions on my mind and the simple answer is I do not know, what I do know is that any crypto that is not well positioned for regulation will probably have a hard time, lose the ability to operate across international boundaries or simply go under.
**The Regulation ready cryptos**
For any crypto to be regulation ready all it needs to do is to look at traditional bank regulations and begin to adopt these regulations some of which may be difficult for them to swallow, nevertheless if you want to be shock proof the cryptos must prepare and adopt some self regulations.
Cryptos that are model along a combination of traditional bank features in a crypto world are best prepared for this possible coming shock.
I don’t quite know many that are modelled like this but I do know one FluidFi.
**FluidFi is regulation proof. Why?**
Because
1. FluidFi is a hybrid integration of all the benefits of traditional banking and the benefits of crypto in one.
2. This means that FluidFi offers all the good features of traditional banks
3. To be able to do this FluidFi must of necessity meet traditional banking requirements and regulations
4. This implies that FluidFi is a well-positioned crypto to meet or withstand any form of regulations coming to Crypto space.
5. Coupled with the fact that FluidFi is located in Switzerland a country with some of the strictest banking laws.
About FluidFi
Fluid Finance is a revolutionary new approach to banking, built for the digital age. We’ve integrated all the benefits of traditional banking with all the benefits of crypto – within one app.
You get
· Free Digital Cash Account
· Free Traditional Bank Account
· Free global payments
· Fluid debit cards
and more…
Wherever you live in the world all you need is an email address to open your Fluid account.
**References**
1. Brown. R. CNBC. Biden just put out an executive order on cryptocurrencies — here’s everything that’s in it, (2022,03,09). https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/09/heres-whats-in-bidens-executive-order-on-crypto.html
2. Sergeenkov, A. China Cryptos Bans: A complete History. (2021,09, 29). https://www.coindesk.com/learn/china-crypto-bans-a-complete-history/
3. Binance Blog, CZ FAQ 5 - Why Binance Embraces Regulations. (2022,01,07). https://www.binance.com/en/blog/leadership/cz-faq-5--why-binance-embraces-regulations-421499824684903224
4. https://fluid.ch/
You can be stolen; How to achieve Privacy Protection on Blockchain.
Yes you can be stolen- its called **Identity theft**. In our digital/virtual world numbers and codes represent human beings, if I hijack the codes & numbers that represent you and gain access to your password etc. I can become you digitally.
Your bank will not know you, and so you will have no access to your money because they now belong to me; you will be arrested for bank fraud and impersonation, you will have to prove that you are who you say you are, but how will you do that? When everything you need to prove who you says you are is now me, tonight you are a jail-bird.
If you have a medical emergency, you could die because the medical records are of me and not you, if my bio-data is used to administer medication to you, things could really go wrong and it could be fatal, or if your medical record is inaccessible the resultant delay could be the difference between life and death.
I could steal your smart-car, smart-house, and pretty much anything you own that you think is smart, you in turn could be left homeless and at a great cost proving who you say you are. You and the police will be looking for you even though you are seated right in front of the police. Irony.
You get it, you need to protect yourself in the digital world, privacy protection is important as you could already be giving away too much info via your metadata and IP address to cybercriminals. Also there is the other matter of privacy that is not related in anyway to crime but a matter of right. For example you simple may not want anyone to know your worth, no matter how close they are to you. Whatever your need for privacy you should be able to achieve it.
**Why Metadata and IP addresses is the darling of Cybercriminals**
Look at it like this, if I have information about what you have in your house, where they are in your house and how you access your house and finally your house address then I it is easier for me to decide if your house is worth bugling and how to go about bugling it. Now that’s what Metadata and IP addresses can give to a cybercriminals.
Metadata is data that describes data, so your metadata will be data that describes information about you; and IP address is the address of where and how to connect/communicate with devices much like your home address and so securing it is essential, making this information private is a big step in ensuring your security.
SecuritySkeptics puts it like this https://www.securityskeptic.com/2016/02/identifying-cybercriminals-is-an-ip-address-sufficient.html
1. IP addresses identify Internet’s streets and house numbers
2. Autonomous System Numbers identify the Internet’s “neighbourhoods”
3. Domain Names provide user-friendly ways to remember addresses, e.g., “My friend Matt’s house”.
Your Metadata and IP address say a lot about what you.
**The Misconception of Privacy and Security**
Although I know you have $1m dollars in your house(no-privacy) I may not be able to steal it because you have secured it, so your privacy can be a disincentive for a cybercriminal or an incentive. The point is Security and Privacy are 2 different things, Security means freedom from risk and danger, it means safety but it does not mean that information is kept private.
**Privacy Protection is a right and an important tool against digital/internet crime.**
People want/need/have to keep things to themselves even from some of their closest relationship, it is their right to share what they want to share and with whom they want to, and this also applies to them in their virtual world. The point being that regardless of security issues I have a right to choose what I want to share.
Privacy protection is keeping the information you’d like to keep to yourself from getting into the hands of others. The definition of privacy protection varies from person to person. Each person has different expectations of privacy, so the level of security they need to feel that their privacy is truly protected ranges greatly.
**How to protect your Privacy online**.
Basic elements of privacy protection online often if not nearly always include VPN/proxy servers/software and IP masking, however there are some simple things you can do, including
1. Browse in Incognito or private mode
2. Use search engines that are focus on non-data collection
3. Limit the information you share on social media
4. Use strong passwords
**The Blockchain is secured but are not necessarily private**
Block chains are generally secured because
1. Activities are transparent and traceable to users.
2. Blockchain are decentralized so no single entry point into the database
3. Information cannot be altered once it is recorded; users credentials are revoked once altered.
4. Blockchain store data cryptographically.
However activities on blockchain often leave a trail behind, this is a weakness that can be exploited
**Blockchain is weak on Privacy**
You are not anonymous on blockchain; technically you leave a trail of digital information on the blockchain. Anyone can find it and see what DApps you’ve used, transfers you’ve made, and the crypto assets you hold and so you do not have privacy. To ensure you have privacy then you need to have solutions that can help you
1. Protect your address and activities
2. Protect your metadata
For this you will need solutions that are dedicated to Blockchain privacy like BlockWallet and Aleo.
Reclaim your financial privacy on blockchain with BlockWallet.
Reference.
1. https://www.securityskeptic.com/2016/02/identifying-cybercriminals-is-an-ip-address-sufficient.html
2. Rafter, D. How to protect your privacy online. https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-privacy-protecting-your-privacy-online.html
3. Stouffer, C. Blockchain security: How safe blockchain really is. https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-privacy-how-to-blockchain-security.html
4. www.blockwallet.io http://www.blockwallet.io
From Across the room
*A short poem about love at first sight*
*Although it had space for seating*
*And a counter that separates*
*A cubicle that bounds*
*Although a Hall*
*Love juxtaposes many odd things yet makes sense*
*And a hall is a perfect room*
*Routine routs the heart*
*Long labor dulls compassion*
*The joy of service satisfaction an antidote*
*Because emotions travel through space*
*Or How does a smile, sweeten a weary heart*
*Counters, cubicles not barrier enough*
*Because emotions pierces all things*
*Why does it always seem effortless*
*Why does it say peace and beautiful*
*Why does it give you hope and smiles*
*May be its its flutters, or its colors may be*
*Butterflies*
*I looked up in my cage*
*My heart fluttered*
*I saw a butterfly*
*Heat! It was too cold moments ago*
*My tie creased though perfect*
*My space too untidy*
*My smile too plain*
*When you beholden your beauty, your love*
*Everything becomes insufficient*
*A smile, no a warm gap toothed smile*
*A low cut, no ebony locks of beautiful hair*
*Tidy fingers; no slim exquisite gentle fingers*
*Spoken words; No melody*
*Love magnifies*
*Love beautifies*
*She is beautiful*
*Resistance is futile*
*As glances become stares*
*Manners are reminded*
*Love had taken charge*
*And resistance is futile*
*A sink-hole opened in my heart*
*My palms balmed*
*My heart conscripts, air? No. Fear*
*Strange fellows Love and Fear*
*For when you love you fear*
*You fear love lost*
*Love conquers fears*
*It conquers everything*
*It conquers your heart*
*Even from across the room*
*All these turmoil in you as time stood still*
*It is love at first sight.*
Cryptocurrency Use Case: The growing importance of Zero-Knowledge and Wallet Privacy
*There was a time not so long ago, when a heartfelt apology meant a lot, and was sufficient to express remorse, elicit forgiveness and compassion and a second chance, but gone are those days. In these times of culture wars and cancelling culture, no apology is sufficient enough; the world is a less considerate place to live in*
*I am sure you are wondering, read on and you will see the link to cryptocurrency*
1. If you make a mistake which as a human you are likely to make then you are in serious trouble.
2. If you make a mistake that was not a mistake yesterday but is today (seeing that definitions are now mostly a group-think) then you are in serious trouble.
3. If you made a mistake when you were young and stupid, the internet does not forget and the world will not forgive you
Whatever your genuine mistake is or was and you are caught in the culture war, or on the other side of the group think you are in serious trouble, you will be punished and there is no limit to the extent of punishment you deserve, everything is on the table, your job, your family, your investments and money, your sympathizers everything will be targeted. I am sorry is no longer acceptable.
Perceived wrong-doers suffer the same fate, I say perceived because the rules of right and wrong are now fluid and guided by group-thing or authorities-say, it does not have to be a formal crime or a judgment after your day in court; take the case of the Canadian Truckers(now it doesn’t matter if you do support them or not), you can’t just arbitrarily do what **gofundme** attempted to do, seized funds donated to Truckers and threatened to distribute it as they deemed fit, that is the seed of anarchy, where no formal process is needed.
Or your crime could simply be a different opinion, these days what constitute a crime is blur. whichever category you may find yourself, or worried about finding yourself you all of a sudden realize you need to protect yourself, starting with shielding your finances and investments; to achieve this you will need more control over your finances and have extensive privacy about your sources and uses of funds; And of course crypto comes to the rescue to give you more control and privacy wallets and zero-knowledge protocols on Blockchain platforms helps create privacy.
**So what are Privacy Wallets and what do they try to do.**
Contrary to what many believe, you are not anonymous on blockchains, You leave a trail of digital information on the blockchain, which can show what DApps you’ve used, transfers you’ve made, and the crypto assets you hold, what blockchain crypto ensure is that you have complete control of your funds globally not subject to government policies and exchange rules as in the case of fiat currencies, to have privacy in your crypto transactions you need privacy wallets that ensure that your activities cannot be traced, privacy wallets are often built using Zero-Knowledge(zk) protocols.
**So why don’t all web services use Zero-Knowledge?**
So the question on your mind is why do all internet/web services not use this technology, the system is slower than regular services, and so service providers who are really more interested in revenue are more interested in providing faster services for more people than securing you or ensuring your privacy online. This slowness of ZK-encryption has led to new approaches and zk-platforms like Aleo that use zk but are still fast
****Aleo**** a Zero-Knowledge platforms for developers to build zk-applications on blockchain, to achieve this Aleo developed a new language called Leo. https://www.aleo.org/
**The Privacy Wallet like — BlockWallet.**
**BlockWallet** uses Cryptographic proofs (zk-SNARKs) to allow users to make deposits and withdrawals using smart contracts that render funds untraceable. You can use BlockWallet to transfer funds to an address with no links to your history on the blockchain. All the while making the experience easier and easier to achieve. https://blockwallet.io/
**Conclusion**
By refusing to be humane, accept apologies, forgive and move on, society is invariably creating another use case or reason for the adoption of cryptocurrency, zero-knowledge protocols like Aleo and wallets built for privacy like BlockWallet
**References.**
1. Zero Knowledge Proof — **https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-knowledge_proof**
2. Geeks for Geeks, Zero Knowledge Proof.(2022,02,18). **https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/zero-knowledge-proof/**
3. Kath, H. What is Zero Knowledge Encryption?. (2021,11,30). **https://www.goanywhere.com/blog/what-is-zero-knowledge-encryption**
4. **https://blockwallet.io/technology.html**
**https://www.aleo.org/**
Cryptocurrency Poetry: Love and Hearts: ETFs and Cryptos
*Listen to the recital therein lies the beauty, and lets talk about what you think in the comments*
https://youtu.be/LD6HsqoFX7U
**Love and Hearts: ETFs and Cryptos**
Hearts and Crypto have a common
As emotions are to Heart
So emotions are to Cryptos
Given to overly reactions
Causing overly reaction
Evident in Volatility
In the Volatile Storms
Hearts and Cryptos find comradeship
As Love calms the hearts
So do ETFs calm the Cryptos
As love is the balm of the Heart
So does ETF for Cryptos
As Love persist
So does ETFs
As love warms a Heart
So does ETF
Love ETF
Love Cryptos
Originally published by ValueFirst here https://twitter.com/ValueFirst_/status/1492345474350784515?s=20&t=-WWH_Wsh6_HiPSjAgzqyMg
Get Get No Want; Want Want No Get - Abroad(2).
*This is are a series of 5-short poem(more soon-although you can find more on my twitter handle* *here**)) written in English and recited in broken English, truly enjoyable. Listen to the recital, tell me if you can make out what was said, the most important thing is enjoy it and laugh*. *Also try to connect the image and the poem, you will get fuller meanings and connection.* https://twitter.com/ValueFirst_
https://youtu.be/aAROYkaZcN0
**Abroad**
Some found their desires on the snow side
But miss the warmth of the motherland
And the baking of the sun
Said the migrant
Those who never pay for tan
Seek desires in sub-zeros Decembers
Not minding jingle bells alone
Responded his brother
Get Get No Want
Want Want No Get
They both said before the call dropped
Get Get No Want; Want Want No Get - LOVE
*This is are a series of 5-short poem(more soon-although you can find more on my twitter handle* *here**) written in English and recited in broken English, truly enjoyable. Listen to the recital, tell me if you can make out what was said, the most important thing is enjoy it and laugh*. *Also try to connect the image and the poem, you will get fuller meanings and connection.* https://twitter.com/ValueFirst_
https://youtu.be/RcG6cvb_Y98
**Love**
He pursues her ceaselessly
Love oozing, aromatic to his nostril
She whiffs and seeks another
That she desires pursues another
Get Get No Want
Want Want No Get
*you can find more on my twitter handle* *here**)* https://twitter.com/ValueFirst_
War is a tragic and Sad use case for Cryptocurrency; In the end there will be more adopters.
*War or Armed conflict is always tragic for all parties(people will die) and those involve often go through a horrible reality that others who are not witness can seat on an arm-chair and write or opinionated about without the horrid experience of living through it, and this can often come off as insensitive to the plight of the parties involved. I personally do not support any form of armed conflict as a means of resolution, and this article should not be misconstrued to supporting armed conflict as an acceptable means of resolution. It is important to state this at the beginning*.
Supporters of crypto currencies always argue in favour of escaping government control and the independence of cryptocurrency, and although there are many use cases for their argument, they are certainly getting some unwelcomed and unexpected support from the conflict in Ukraine to add to their bouquet of arguments namely
1. As government implements policies to try to control the fall of the fiat currencies, such as limiting users withdrawals and money usage, they invariably support the arguments of crypto enthusiast that government control may not align with your money use and since its your money you should ultimately decide what you want to do with it; crypto currencies allow you to do this; sounds very selfish-right? Well that is capitalism.
2. The decentralization of crypto currencies and its global nature argument is being supported also, as more people seek to escape the conflict axis with their wealth intact, they adopt a currency that can be accessed anywhere in the world as long as you have internet and crypto currencies can do this better than fiat currencies.
3. Although crypto currencies also tanked, they seem to be doing better in holding values than fiat currencies of the affected countries, their volatility being an advantage here, easily devalue and easily regain value, fait currencies cannot react that fast.
This conclusion are being supported by available information from Ukraine and to a lesser extent Russia, indeed another argument has been that cryto currencies availability can effectively counter the impact of economic sanctions although we are a big big step away from there.
**Increasing Crypto currency activities in Ukraine**
According to Bitcoin Magazine(Feb,2020) about 5.5 million Ukrainians, or about every eighth Ukrainian own cryptocurrency. The country was determined to be a top nation for cryptocurrency adoption according to a Chainalysis report in 2020. So it comes as no surprise that usage on the Kuna has jumped in recent days.
**Kuna** -Kuna is the most popular cryptocurrency exchange based in Ukraine– **https://www.bitrawr.com/ukraine** https://kuna.io/en/
An article in the News Press further captures the argument, see **here** https://newsprees.com/ukraine-bitcoin-exchange-volume-spikes-200-as-russia-war-sparks-currency-concerns/
Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoin trading volumes have surged at a major Ukraine cryptocurrency exchange in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion, data shows. According to monitoring resource CoinGecko, on Feb. 24, volume at Kuna almost trippled to over $4 million.
**Crypto on the radar of Ukrainians**
As the armed conflict with Russia began, the impact on the fiat currencies of both countries was immediately apparent.
While the Russian Ruble suffered noticeably more, the Ukrainian Hryvnia also fell, targeting 30 per dollar in what would be a new all-time low.
-The effect was obvious at seven-year-old Kuna, volumes at which were under $1 million on Feb. 21 but almost $4.1 million three days later.
As per the CoinGecko data, the fervor has already begun to subside after the initial rush, this coinciding with stabilizing fiat rates versus the U.S. dollar and other major currencies.
**Central bank tightens currency freedoms**
A separate argument for entry into Bitcoin meanwhile came from government currency controls this week.
On Wednesday, the National Bank of Ukraine began restricting cash, limiting hryvnia withdrawals to 100,000 UAH ($3,353) per day, and banning cross-border foreign currency purchases and withdrawals outright.
A Facebook post confirmed that the Bank also sought to establish a stable hryvnia exchange rate.
Russia’s central bank meanwhile began intervening in forex markets to prop up its nosediving ruble Thursday, with several moves seemingly occuring over the past 24 hours.
**Futures: Crypto Currencies an alternative to SWIFT**
Whilst the amount of transactions conducted via cryptocurrencies are a miniscule of what is conducted via the traditional monetary system the fact remains that the decentralized nature of digital currencies like bitcoin and ethereum allows governments and non-governmental entities alike the benefit of peer-to-peer transactions — as long as both parties agree a cryptocurrency as a means of payment they could ultimately do business directly without the use of SWIFT payment system.
This could also drive an unexpected increase in adoption for cryptocurrencies, thus strengthening them against Fait currencies something most government are fighting hard against.
**Russia lukewarm to Crypto currency**
The New york post report identified that Russian authorities view crypto currencies as a pyramid scheme and have a lukewarm attitude to it, but still proposed the creation of a Digital Ruble, which you could argue is closer to crypto currencies than Fiat currency the one major difference being government backed and the other decentralized.
The report also mentioned that 17 million digital-savvy Russians who are connected to the internet own some $23 billion worth of cryptocurrency.
Other arguments also show how Russia itself could undermine the effect of any sanctions with the use of cryptocurrency
**Support for Alternative Currency — CryptoCurrency**
The facts are
1. More activities were recorded on the Bitcoin exchange Kuna, from fait currencies, suggesting that more people wanted to move their money to cryptocurrency than hold them in fiat.
2. That as government act to stabilize their currency and as a result control withdrawals etc, these actions played directly in favour of crypto currencies who have always argued against governments control and determination of what you could do with your money when and how.
**More Cryptocurrency Adopters despite its shortcoming**
Yes the development in Ukraine is providing cryptocurrency use case justifications, and all the Decentralized Exchanges (DEX), Oracles, Lenders, ETFs etc will use this, and although the events leading to this justification remains tragic and sad. It is true that cryptocurrency is a miniscule alternative and many more people will look and consider spreading their portfolios to include cryptocurrency and blockchain technology investments;
As they do they will discover the complex nature of cryptocurrency, its volatility and its crime affinity, still in the face of the uncertainty in the world — the risk of investing in cryptocurrency for a chance to have money anywhere in the world diminishes and there will be more adopters.
Many will seek to find a safer-risk managed entrance, many will find cryptocurrency ETFs or crypto based Bank Alternatives to be a safer option to entrance, many will invest in Bitcoin being by far the largest cryptocurrency, others will look at less costly entrance, whatever they do, many more will come into the cryptocurrency space from the tragic events of the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
Once again death is always tragic, it knows no side, it is never the best way for conflict resolution.
(originally published on medium here) https://blog.cryptostars.is/war-is-a-tragic-and-sad-use-case-for-cryptocurrency-in-the-end-there-will-be-more-adopters-fc253cd293af
References
1. **https://newsprees.com/ukraine-bitcoin-exchange-volume-spikes-200-as-russia-war-sparks-currency-concerns/**
2. **https://nypost.com/2022/02/24/how-russia-can-use-crypto-to-avoid-us-sanctions-over-ukraine/**
3. **https://bitcoinmagazine.com/markets/new-law-makes-ukraine-the-future-of-bitcoin**
@ValueFirst
