Since my previous post, the NFT art scene has seen massive growth and interest, which was widely anticipated across crypto-Twitter. You can learn a lot there. You can get shilled a lot there too.

Also, the price of ETH, BNB and the likes of CAKE etc. have exploded along with it, with the growing realisation of the potential for NFTs, and the growing realisation of the ease of using the Binance Smart Chain, BSC. I’ll mention the latter again shortly. But with NFTs, we’re only seeing the beginning wave, as people are still wrapping their minds around their use-case, details and potential.

What potential? In a nutshell: everything is an NFT! You are an NFT! Value is everywhere, and it’s waiting to be registered on a properly decentralised, global, universal ledger like Ethereum. [Note: Binance has just announced plans to launch its own NFT marketplace in June. Expect this to be multi-chain.]

Just be careful where the actual file(s) are stored: Does the platform hosting the artwork (etc.) run an IPFS node? Owners should make sure they take a copy of what they own. Where will you store it? Somewhere safe. Perhaps on a permanent storage network like Arweave? Perhaps you’d like your own drive on Arweave [using a dapp like Ardrive] to store your newly-owned files? I love the Arweave goal, and have covered this previously.

Then there are the rights attached to ownership – or fractional ownership – of an NFT for an artwork, music track etc. It might need to be clarified, but at least you can contact the creator. Can you mix the track for example? I’ve tried to specify some rights in some cases, for my own NFTs.

On a personal note, a lot of my own artwork NFTs have been selling within this hype, and I’ve got a lot of genuine collectors out there – possibly – wondering… what’s next? However, many of us NFT minters, although seeing the price of ETH explode, have been stuck in a rut when it comes to minting new artworks. It’s too expensive to transact on Ethereum! Minting, burning, organising our collection in our ideal way.This perhaps, is a good thing. It means many artists are having to think more carefully about what they’re producing! There are so many gimmicks and flashy things out there. Eye-catching yes, but what else?

I’ve been experimenting with BSC platforms as an alternative for some of my more experimental images. More about this below, but first…

Why BSC moon?
What’s happening in Crypto?
Should I invest?

Binance Smart Chain is cheaper to use, and is seeing huge developer ‘acceptance’. What blockchain innovators are understanding (and many still aren’t) is that this BSC network is enabling EVM (Ethereum-based) development to continue during times of high fees/congestion on Ethereum. BSC is like a filler for Ethereum, where the former will evolve and – hopefully – grow more decentralised and scale too.

In fact, all these promising young networks are taking the strain off Ethereum which was simply overloaded with the potential of DeFi in 2020-2021. But everyone should hodl some Ethereum, because not only will these newer networks help its own growth, but it too will evolve and be upgraded. As the blockchain space expands and dilutes, its power and trust should only grow.

But this also depends on the platform/protocol you are interacting with. Generally, people with big wallets are more comfortable investing large amounts on Ethereum. But soon, project trust will be paramount.

BSC has a different layer of trust behind it: That of Binance the company itself. It’s a bit like the Microsoft of blockchain. When things go wrong, (many) people do trust Binance to support its tokens and token value: BNB. But this can only go so far.. the BSC community must work to decentralise and scale too via its Cosmos, Tendermint tech, improve or expand validators etc…

So yes… invest in ETH and BNB, play around on BSC, and there will also be other networks and layer2 solutions to the rescue next to capture adoption… Polkadot, Tezos, Cardano, Zilliqa….

But just watch out for these projects building out – or planning to leverage – multiple chains? These teams will see their tokens blossom cross-network. Many BSC projects like Pancakeswap could – when they feel ready – adopt features from other, minor projects, or expand onto Ethereum.

Invest in projects with up and coming TVLs, proven audits, great websites…

Looking ahead, we might all start talking less about the underlying chain token prices, and more about projects like Pancakeswap, Yearn Finance, and what they’re up to next…. Why? Because not everyone has the time to give a hoot about the techie stuff, Chainlink under the hood etc. They just follow the crowd and they want something… fast. Some of us remember 56k modems. Some of them got thrown out of windows, along with Windows95.

The way ahead for Ade’s Press?

I will be writing less on this blog. The new economy on blockchain is moving too fast. You learn how to use and trust Metamask and you enter this unstoppable wave of monetized dapps. You invest widely, then you consolidate, then you invest widely again, maybe you learn to take some profit…

Maybe you just stick with the big picture: that most of these networks are here to stay, expecially Ethereum, and they will replace banks and take you to new arenas where value can be extracted from previously unimaginable protocols.

For one example, PoolTogether, (a ‘no-lose’ lottery) is still going strong. Enter a lottery, but withdraw your money anytime. I wrote a post on this ages ago and now it has its own governance token POOL, which has been airdropped to any early bird user of this dapp. The price of just one of these tokens has already hit $20 at least. That’s because it was always a brilliant idea: save money by entering an endless lottery where interest is shared from all users, to some winners, every week etc. Nice to see this project going strong. POOL holders can make decisions on the protocol, such as voting in new tokens for lotteries. Or still, they can create their own lotteries!

The message here is…. that your web3 address is more likely to be in for some nice surprises if you just… experiment. Explore. Research. Invest. Hopefully afford to HODL. It’s still early, early times for many of these prices.

Will there be more massive corrections? Probably. However…this bullish train is hard to stop, and harder to jump off…. Indeed, going ‘full crypto’ is scary, but it might start to be the easier, lazier option… ‘Don’t be a bear in crypto’.

New Ade’s Press NFTs

I plan to continue transferring my admiration for some of the projects and trends into new images and ‘hodl badges’, or ‘strong hand’ badges….

Thank-you to all you collectors and followers out there of this humble blog. Maybe some posts here hold some value. Posts are free and not yet tokenised!

But, now in future posts you’ll start to see bigger, or more careful NFTs in blogposts you can collect via Ethereum (Makersplace).

And also…. smaller experiments I will post, registered on BSC, either at Bakerswap or Juggernaut…. These will be even more affordable and collectible via BNB transaction.

These may contain clues or tributes to projects old and new.

‘Crypto moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around at Life a little (and Life on Web3)… you could miss it… or…something BIG.’ – degen ferris bueller

Stay tuned still for the occasional, free, (non-collectible but still valuable), insightful (and market-veteran) crypto-ramblings right here at Ade’s Crypto Press.

April 2021