๐ ๐ ๐ผ๐ป๐ฏ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ๐ป๐ฒ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ๐
If you're reading this, I just want you to know that we're no different.
What may set us apart is the fact that you may be the version of me 2 years and 6months ago, when I was a hungry 16 year old High School kid who just wanted to be productive outside of school and make money online.
Apparently, my journey into DeFi (which led me to falling in love with Ethereum-centric utilities) began with me losing my device whilst I was still in High School on Valentine's Day in 2022.
A week before the incident, I had just registered for a Network Marketing Smart Contract business on the Binance blockchain.
Fortunately, I had made necessary connections with my team lead, and other important team members before my phone got stolen on my way home from school.
It was really difficult cause noone had a mobile device I could use around the house and I didn't have funds to go get one my self.
So what I had to do was, head over to my oldest sister's place and borrowed my nieces device which she uses to play around the house.
It made some few fixes I could afford and tried to reconnect with my team lead and that was how it all started.
Then, I didn't know anything about Web3, or that what I was involved in was built on the blockchain, until we started having daily and weekly presentations on what it all entailed.
That was my first ever successful online business as I was able to make $198 whilst still in high school through network marketing.
Moving forward, I began to grasp the concept of DeFi and I paid for two educational courses to further my knowledge.
Afterwards, I began engaging on Discord, trying to get NFT free mints and assisting NFT communities as a moderator. Unfortunately, all my efforts yielded no results and its probably because I wasn't consistent enough.
However, with my experience from two DeFi class courses and the network marketing smart contract, I ventured into another network marketing smart contract on Polygon in July of 2022 and within 4 months I compounded over $400 by building an active structure.
Yet, I felt I wasn't doing enough and that feeling brought imposter syndrome coupled with my personal problems which made me depressed for the first 5months of 2023.
What elevated that depression was the fact that I had bad finances and didn't even save to get a better device.
From June-September 2023, I had no device anymore cause my niece's device got spoilt.
Shockingly, my Dad bought me a new device on Sept. 30th 2023 and ever since then, I started creating content for projects.
Within 7months (November 2023 - May2024) I compounded $3,000 payments for creating content.
Within that same duration of time creating content, two drastic experiences I had was my wallet getting hacked and I also participated in a liquid staking protocol where I burned $120 just for gas fees.
So that's my journey on how I got onboarded into Web3, the mistakes I made with my finances and my small wins.
Now let's explore how to make this journey seamless for you.
๐จ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ช๐ฒ๐ฏ3.0
Web3.0 is simply the next generation of internet, focused on decentralization, user ownership and enhanced privacy.
In today's digital age, the current web (Web2.0) is censored and dominated by centralized platforms like Google, Facebook, Amazon etcetera etcetera,.
On the other hand, Web3.0 is built on something called "Blockchain Technologyโ and it aims to give us more control over our data, digital identities and online activities.
Let's proceed further to uncover what a blockchain particularly Ethereum
The Ethereum Blockchain is like a giant, secure digital ledger that keeps track of all transactions and actions on its network.
Imagine a book where every time you make a payment, sign a contract, or do anything digital, it gets recorded in a way that can never be tampered with or erased.
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Ethereum's vision is to create a decentralized, secure, and scalable platform that enables the development of a wide array of applications beyond just currency.
On the blockchain, DeFi replaces Banks with Wallet, Account Numbers with Wallet Addresses, and intermediaries/third parties with smart contracts.
So Wallets are used for holding your digital assets just as banks holds your fiat currencies.
Wallet addresses are used to send and receive digital assets just as bank account numbers are used to send and receive money IRL.
Having said that, let's take a deep dive into what smart contracts are.
๐จ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฆ๐บ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ ๐๐ผ๐ป๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐๐
By the way, unlike Bitcoin(the first cryptocurrency) Ethereum does way more than just just recording transactions.
It also lets you create and run something called "smart contracts".
Now, what are these smart contracts?
Simply put, they are self-executing programs that automatically carry out transactions when certain conditions are met.
Just as robots are programmed to function in a certain way, similarly, these contracts also run exactly as programmed.
The amazing thing about them is that due to their nature as codes stored on the blockchain, they don't have emotions, and they aren't susceptible to greed.
So they don't get tired, they can't defraud you like some greedy humans in Web2 and they also eliminate the presence of third parties.
Before we proceed any further, you should know that one thing that'll help you easily grasp our discussions in this article and smoothen your onboarding process to Ethereum, would be understanding what DeFi encompasses.
So let's go ahead and demystify DeFi.
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Now, the concept of DeFi revolves around creating solutions to IRL (In Real Life) problems and building or deploying these resolve on the Blockchain.
These solutions brings multiple usecases for Ethereum such as:
1. Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs):
We have platforms like Uniswap app.uniswap.org and SushiSwap sushi.com that allow us to trade cryptocurrencies directly from our wallets without intermediaries.
2. Lending and Borrowing:
We also have Aave and Compound protocols which enable us lend our assets to earn interest or borrow against our holdings, all without traditional financial institutions.
3. Stablecoins:
DeFi supports stablecoins like DAI, which are pegged to fiat currencies but operate on the Ethereum blockchain.
They provide a stable store of value and facilitate cross-border transactions.
4. Yield Farming:
Here, you can earn rewards by providing liquidity to DeFi protocols, which are then used by others for trading, lending, or borrowing.
5. Insurance:
To cover smart contract risk failures, DeFi platforms like nexusmutual.io offer decentralized insurance products.
6. Asset Management: as users, we can manage and grow our crypto investments automatically and without needing a middleman, using platforms like Yearn Finance yearn.fi to get the best returns.
7. Derivatives:
In here, people can create and trade financial products, like synthetic assets that copy the value of real-world items, giving them more options to manage risk and bet on price changes.
8. Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs):
DAOs govern DeFi protocols and other projects through token-based voting systems, allowing for decentralized decision-making.
9. Cross-Border Payments:
These offers faster and cheaper alternatives to traditional banking systems, especially for remittances and international trade.
10. Crowdfunding and Tokenization:
In DeFi, projects are able to raise funds through token sales or Initial DEX Offerings (IDOs). Tokenization then enables people own a fraction of assets like real estate or art.
Basically these 10 usecases are the foundation from where all other DApps (Decentralized Applications) emerge.
Here are also a few contributors to DeFi & Web3
1. AI, DePIN, RWA, GPU & Privacy centric projects, amongst others:
2. P2E (Play-to-Earn) Games:
Normally, when you play games in Web2, you waste valuable time and significant efforts but you don't get anything in return apart from joy and entertainment.
So P2E allows you to earn as you utilize your time and efforts, resolving the issue with centralized games where only the developers and publishers get monetary value.
3. NFTs
NFTs are unique digital assets that represent ownership of a specific item or piece of content, such as digital art, music, videos, or even virtual real estate.
One important thing you should know is unlike Ethereum that can be exchanged on a one-to-one basis, NFT can't be exchanged like with another NFT.
That explains why they are called Non-Fungible Tokens.
For a pictorial understand of how they look like, you can go ahead and check out opensea.io
It's the largest NFT marketplace.
4. Airdrops
Basically, airdrops are a method used by blockchain projects to distribute free tokens to members of the cryptocurrency community.
These airdrops are often distributed to users who hold a specific cryptocurrency, like Ethereum (ETH), in their wallets, or to users who meet certain criteria set by the project conducting the airdrop.
Airdrops can serve various purposes, such as:
-marketing and awareness
- rewarding early supporters
- decentralizing token ownership
- building a loyal user base
A very important thing to note is that airdrops can be valuable, but they also carry risks.
So, you'll have to be very cautious, as some airdrops might be scams, and receiving unknown tokens could expose your wallet to phishing attacks or other security threats.
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1. When I was sharing my experience, do you remember I mentioned that my wallet got hacked?
If you do, you have a pretty amazing retentive memory! If you don't, it's alright too.
So what happened was I didn't update my Trust wallet (a crypto wallet) for over two weeks.
I kept ignoring the update notification as I hurriedly just wanted to copy my address and leave the app and one morning I got drained.
Thus, lesson number 1, update your wallet regularly.
2. Another, thing you should do to stay secure is to never try interacting with suspicious tokens in your wallet.
Why? Let's flashback to age 16, when I was still involved in my first network marketing smart contract business in high school.
It was a Saturday evening. I had just woken up, opened my trust wallet and saw $3500 worth of a token called MINEREUM.
Supposedly, if you were to withdraw, the criteria was needing to send $10 worth of BNB for gas fees. And I was earning some $BNB from my smart contract business soni could afford it.
But, it was with patience and research I discovered that every single person who had tried to sell the MINEREUM token, got their assets liquidated.
Thus, lesson number 2 โ to avoid dust attacks, don't interact with suspicious tokens you didn't put in your own wallet.
3. When creating a digital wallet, you'll be asked to store your seed phrase or pass keys. These serve as your password to accessing your Wallet.
Store them in a safe, dry place and under no circumstances should you show anyone. Else, they could move your assets to their wallet by importing your account on their own end.
4. 2-Factor authentication is also a way of securing your assets in DeFi. but it has its drawbacks if you lose your device or swap SIM and it also relies on third parties.
In a nut shell, I also saw a lot of friends lose their seed phrases, got exploited through airdrops, phishing attacks amongst other ill methods performed by bad actors.
So stay SAFU.
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To kickstart your onboarding Journey into Ethereum, you'll need Wallet, and here are a few types:
- Software Wallet: with options like Trust Wallet, MetaMask, TokenPocket etcetera etcetera,.
- Hardware Wallets: such as Ledger and Trevor for those concerned about security.
- Mobile Wallets like Coinbase.
Particularly, you need Software wallets for most things Web3 and a Centralized Exchange like Binance, Bybit OKX where you can acquire cryptocurrencies from like Ethereum.
That said and done, I am definite that this article will be valuable to your onboarding journey.
As usual, I am watching from afar and Iโm rooting for you!