Phew, I'm happy to see this short rundown after the large heaping you served a few days ago that I'm still trying to digest. This pairs nicely as a dessert.
2 random thoughts today:
Do you still consider ETH an altcoin? I'm on the fence because on one hand it still is directly affected by any medium to significant move that bitcoin makes. On the other hand it really is its own thing-personality, maxi / mizi communities, growth future etc are all very different from BTC.
I've given Ether a promotion to its own column in my macro investment spreadsheet - BTC, ETH, ALTs now.
The other thought is, I don't understand how ETH can maintain it's dominance and popularity in the non-BTC space. The first argument you hear is the immense utility of the Ethereum Network. Smart contracts, DeFi, NFTs, staking for 2.0 etc. I used to agree with this and was extremely bullish on it. From an investment angle I'm still bullish.
But I don't understand how. Who is using Ethereum for any of its impressive offerings when it costs absurd amounts in fees, even for just sending token A to place B?
I know there are millions of people interacting with Ethereum. The recent NFT hype is evidence enough. But again, how and who?
Personally, any service or transaction that has a fee more than 1% of the total cost is hard-stop for me. I'm not moving, let alone spending 5, 10, 20k USD regularly. If I were to explore Ethereum again (I did one time, long ago, after mistakenly hitting "OK" to sign a tx for approx $200 of a token that literally cost an extra $62.34 in fees) my zone is going to be $1000 or under. With a minimum fee of around $10-20 that's 2%! At $500 it's 4%. I won't even discuss the joke of borrowing $100 on DeFi. End result is back in Nov, Jan, Mar and now, actually using Ethereum for anything is completely out of the question for me.
Who and where are all these millions of users who are buying NFTs , borrowing and lending DeFi, and playing GAMES of all things on Ethereum? Nobody I know. How is this sustainable? Sure, there are many hundreds of people who are crypto rich that can throw around 50 ETH for a flex jpeg. I get that.
But surely there are way way more regular ppl or new-to-crypto ppl who navigate to a DEX w the hopes of snagging a gem only to see 1inch or Sushi or God forbid, UniSwap, demand a fee that's more expensive then the tokens they're trying to buy. I've since moved to Polygon, Avalanche, BSC etc for anything useful many months ago.
But it recently got me thinking, why am I bullish on ETH as a "price" when all the great stuff it has to offer is absurdly and offensively expensive? And it gets more expensive as it upgrades and rises in price? There must be tons of new ppl finally expanding from Bitcoin store of value mindset all excited to check out some NFTs, lend some coin, use some Dapps who get all the way to the last step (i.e. YES, I'm buying this NFT of a penguin) only to get smacked in the face and priced out of participating whatsoever. I'll consider spending hundreds of dollars on a jpeg, but no way am I spending upwards of 5-10% of that on fees.
Why would anyone use Eth, therefore, why is anyone, vs just going to the numerous other chains that have fees in pennies, therefore why would anyone invest in buy n hold ETH if it can't scale to include the poor man in it's wonderland? And who are these 20 somethings taking $20-$50 hits on fees?
Yet of course, I'm not selling my ETH, not even considering it. But that doesn't mean I have to like it while I hold it.
Phew, I'm happy to see this short rundown after the large heaping you served a few days ago that I'm still trying to digest. This pairs nicely as a dessert.
2 random thoughts today:
Do you still consider ETH an altcoin? I'm on the fence because on one hand it still is directly affected by any medium to significant move that bitcoin makes. On the other hand it really is its own thing-personality, maxi / mizi communities, growth future etc are all very different from BTC.
I've given Ether a promotion to its own column in my macro investment spreadsheet - BTC, ETH, ALTs now.
The other thought is, I don't understand how ETH can maintain it's dominance and popularity in the non-BTC space. The first argument you hear is the immense utility of the Ethereum Network. Smart contracts, DeFi, NFTs, staking for 2.0 etc. I used to agree with this and was extremely bullish on it. From an investment angle I'm still bullish.
But I don't understand how. Who is using Ethereum for any of its impressive offerings when it costs absurd amounts in fees, even for just sending token A to place B?
I know there are millions of people interacting with Ethereum. The recent NFT hype is evidence enough. But again, how and who?
Personally, any service or transaction that has a fee more than 1% of the total cost is hard-stop for me. I'm not moving, let alone spending 5, 10, 20k USD regularly. If I were to explore Ethereum again (I did one time, long ago, after mistakenly hitting "OK" to sign a tx for approx $200 of a token that literally cost an extra $62.34 in fees) my zone is going to be $1000 or under. With a minimum fee of around $10-20 that's 2%! At $500 it's 4%. I won't even discuss the joke of borrowing $100 on DeFi. End result is back in Nov, Jan, Mar and now, actually using Ethereum for anything is completely out of the question for me.
Who and where are all these millions of users who are buying NFTs , borrowing and lending DeFi, and playing GAMES of all things on Ethereum? Nobody I know. How is this sustainable? Sure, there are many hundreds of people who are crypto rich that can throw around 50 ETH for a flex jpeg. I get that.
But surely there are way way more regular ppl or new-to-crypto ppl who navigate to a DEX w the hopes of snagging a gem only to see 1inch or Sushi or God forbid, UniSwap, demand a fee that's more expensive then the tokens they're trying to buy. I've since moved to Polygon, Avalanche, BSC etc for anything useful many months ago.
But it recently got me thinking, why am I bullish on ETH as a "price" when all the great stuff it has to offer is absurdly and offensively expensive? And it gets more expensive as it upgrades and rises in price? There must be tons of new ppl finally expanding from Bitcoin store of value mindset all excited to check out some NFTs, lend some coin, use some Dapps who get all the way to the last step (i.e. YES, I'm buying this NFT of a penguin) only to get smacked in the face and priced out of participating whatsoever. I'll consider spending hundreds of dollars on a jpeg, but no way am I spending upwards of 5-10% of that on fees.
Why would anyone use Eth, therefore, why is anyone, vs just going to the numerous other chains that have fees in pennies, therefore why would anyone invest in buy n hold ETH if it can't scale to include the poor man in it's wonderland? And who are these 20 somethings taking $20-$50 hits on fees?
Yet of course, I'm not selling my ETH, not even considering it. But that doesn't mean I have to like it while I hold it.
Thoughts? (-: