Introduction
Growing up in a third world country where educational institutions stifled creativity and innovation and enforced learning through indoctrination, it was difficult for me to see the potential of not just Ethereum but blockchain and Web3 technology in general. However, as difficult as it was for me to comprehend its ramifications and purpose, all it took was a slight shift in my formerly fixed perspective to understand the possibilities and prospects that Web3 technology and the Ethereum chain in particular presented.
In this article, I’d be explaining what, in my opinion, the ultimate onboarding experience to Ethereum should feel like. To do this, I’d be sharing my personal journey and highlighting based on it, the most important things to take into consideration when trying to introduce yourself to Web3 and the Ethereum chain.
My Personal Experience
My first experience with Ethereum and cryptocurrency in general came in 2020 during the Covid-19 lockdown. My elder brother was telling me about how the value of something called ‘Bitcoin’ had just increased exponentially over the past few days. Fast forward a couple of weeks and he was back telling me how the value of other cryptocurrencies, which I learnt was the general term for this ‘internet money’ had also increased dramatically within a short span of time. It was at this time that I first heard about Ethereum. He made me understand that Ethereum was the second most valuable cryptocurrency after Bitcoin and because there was a short amount of time between the increase in its value and that of Bitcoin, individuals who bought the coin before the increase in its value became multi-millionaires overnight.
Unfortunately, due to the influence of my background and my gross ignorance about the underlying mechanisms that made this so called ‘internet money’ thing function, I dismissed it as another scam where only the initial investors made any form of profit off it and the ignorant masses who foolishly rushed to invest in it next had all their investments stripped off them to make the creators of the scam rich.
Time went on and about a year later, my brother was back telling me about how he had invested in a cryptocurrency and how he had ‘tokens’ of this cryptocurrency. I called him a fool and told him he had gifted his money to the wind and he was never going to get it back. To my surprise, a couple of years later the tokens of the cryptocurrency he bought had become one of the most valuable on the market and while he didn’t become a millionaire, he certainly made profit off his investment.
Despite this, I still wasn’t convinced (don’t you dare judge me). I still thought that sometime in the near future, this entire cryptocurrency thing was going to come down crashing and its investors were going to suffer heavily. This was in part due to my laziness and lack of willingness to research and understand what made it function but the larger part of my apathy was due to my immediate environment. My parents continuously advised my brother and I against involving ourselves with this cryptocurrency thing, making statements like ‘no one can hold the wind’ and ‘the risk is simply too great.’
My brother however (God bless his adamant soul), didn’t listen. He continued in secret and became involved in something he described to me as ‘blockchain research and development’. He made me read an article he wrote where he explained why blockchains were important and gave a brief overview of how they functioned and it was at this point in time that my perspective finally shifted and my eyes opened to the world of possibilities. I realized that much more important than cryptocurrency and the profits that could be made off of trading them were the mechanisms that ensured their functionality i.e blockchains.
Since then, my interest in blockchains grew rapidly as I consumed materials like ‘Understanding Bitcoin’ and ‘Proof of Stake: The Making of Ethereum and the Philosophy of Blockchains’. I was able to perform transactions on the Ethereum chain and when the 2077 collective popped up, I familiarized myself with their content, particularly their Etherpedia and EIP wiki as it was an opportunity for a person like me who was previously a mere end user of the internet and its products and whose specialization wasn’t in anything remotely related to computer networks to familiarize himself with seemingly complex concepts and keep abreast of developments with the Ethereum chain and the Web3 space in general.
That’s basically how my journey began and now that I’ve shared my personal with blockchains with you, you probably still don’t know what Etherum or blockchains are and why you should give a flying fish stick about them if you’re anything like me before the intervention of my brother. This is addressed in the next part of the article which provides a brief overview of these concepts along with why you should care about them.
Why Blockchains and More Importantly, Why Ethereum?
It’d be difficult for you to understand why blockchains are important without understanding in some measure what they are. So, what is a blockchain? I know you’ve probably heard this before and I apologize for using a generic definition, but a blockchain is fundamentally a distributed ledger. It might not sound very impressive at the moment but stay with me now.
Imagine a system which publicly recorded all transactions made on it and enabled all its users to verify and validate that these transactions actually occurred. That’s exactly what a blockchain is and you don’t have to think too hard to see the possible applications and potential of this technology.
If you’re from a third world country like me where the government practically does what it wants without any supervision, then I’m sure you can see how the adoption of this technology could be beneficial. Besides eliminating the need for central clearing houses while performing international transactions, with Blockchains, you could view how the government spends all of your taxes rather than blindly trusting in the information they provide you with after performing ‘checks’ on themselves, essentially replacing ‘trust with truth’.
Even in more functional countries, it’s still one branch of the government checking another to assure that your tax money is being spent the way they say it is. With blockchains you don’t have to trust blindly in what the government says as you can verify the truth of the information provided yourself. There’s more to blockchains than what I’ve described here but this much should suffice for now. You can improve your understanding as you involve yourself and interact more with the technology.
Now that you have a basic understanding of blockchains, why Ethereum in particular? There are several other blockchains in existence that are also distributed/decentralized ledgers so why should you choose Ethereum specifically?
Well, besides the fact that it's the second most popular blockchain with the second highest market cap which offers it more stability and security than other blockchains,I discovered in the course of my research that Ethereum isn’t just a distributed ledger. Ethereum introduced a function known as smart contracts. Smart contracts are basically automated agreements between parties written into code which are trackable and identifiable on the blockchain once completed. Smart contracts elevated Ethereum’s status above a mere distributed ledger enabling a digital currency.
Smart contracts enable agreements within parties that don’t and shouldn’t trust each other and while it doesn’t totally eradicate the human factor in all situations, it has moved Ethereum one large step closer to state adoption than any other blockchain or cryptocurrency in existence. With the introduction of smart contracts and blockchain technology in general, Ethereum is one large step closer to wider adoption. The implication of the introduction of smart contracts is that Ethereum’s value will only increase with time and understanding and participating in its development now would be immensely beneficial to you.
What Next?
So now that you know why Ethereum and blockchains are important, what do you do next? And more importantly, how do you benefit from involving yourself with Ethereum. I might have focused on blockchain research and development in relating my personal experience but the opportunities Ethereum offers are limitless. Skills such as coding, marketing, article writing and designing are all in demand within the Ethereum and Web3 space. Taking a cue from my experience the two most important thing to do while attempting to involve yourself with Ethereum are;
Knowledge Gathering: I know I said you don’t have to be involved in research and development but it’s still important to understand what you’re getting involved with. Knowledge gathering is pertinent as it gives you a more complete understanding of the opportunities offered by Ethereum and where you fit in amongst all of it. Knowledge is power (another generic phrase, forgive me) and the higher your knowledge of Ethereum and proficiency in skills instrumental to its development, the higher your value.
Taking Baby Steps: I didn’t provide you with a guide on how to create an Ethereum wallet or how to perform transactions on-chain (you can view those here), it's still important to familiarize yourself with Ethereum. It doesn’t have to be anything excessive (that’s why this paragraph is tagged baby steps), it could be something as simple as funding your wallet or sending cryptocurrency to your cousin who lives in another country. It's however still important to make use of Ethereum, because only then will you begin to understand that the world’s eventual transition to blockchain technology is inevitable.
Thank you.