Last week we covered composability, community and culture, music, climate and decentralisation. This week, in the fourth part of our crypto challenge, we’re going deeper down the rabbithole.

Let’s get to it…

Hour twelve

It’s time to go deep on digital identity and credentials. One of the promises of the technology is to be able to build an online reputation, linked to your wallet, that enables you to move around the web and unlock different experiences. This could be based on your education, memberships or experiences that you have. But there are difficult elements within this, including around privacy.

Two recent conversations are worth diving into.

1. An interview with a16z and HBS researcher Scott Kominers.

2. An interview on the Bankless Podcast with Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and Evin McMullen. Evin’s company Disco.xyz is definitely worth exploring to get a sense of what is being built. They describe it as your data backpack.

Hour thirteen

You have probably heard the term DeFi or decentralised finance used a lot. But what does it mean?

• Try this 15 min explainer to start…

• And this conversation with Nat Eliason is a good follow up to go into more of the nuances.

Hour fourteen

One of the most pressing issues that web3 tools could help to solve is disinformation. In this Money Reimagined podcast, there is a really interesting conversation with Jonathan Dotan of Starling Lab, a research institute thinking about these issues.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0OZTu8b34WmEDo4fJTcEmH?go=1&sp_cid=1c83e3c8cc053889f45eb4367fe9c379&utm_source=embed_player_p&utm_medium=desktop&nd=1

Hour fifteen

It’s time to try it yourself! For those that haven’t already, we will explain how to have a go… This is not financial or investment advice, and anyone following these steps does so at their own risk.

There are a few parts.

1. Create a Coinbase custodial account. There are detailed instructions here. But it’s just like creating any other account using your email and passwords. This will allow you to then buy some crypto currency. You could test the water with Ethereum…

2. Next you need to set up your own unhosted wallet. This is the part that is still a bit scary… It requires you to keep your private key (also known as ‘seed phrase’ or 12 word string) safe. The most widely used wallet is Metamask. There’s a guide here, and numerous videos on youtube.

3. Transfer some Eth from your coinbase wallet to your metamask wallet. Why? Because your coinbase wallet isn’t really controlled by you, but by the central coinbase authority that operates like a bank. To enable dApps that we’ve talked about at Vellir, you need some assets in your wallet. There’s a video here on how to do this. Definitely test the transfer with small amounts first!

4. Now you can go and try all sorts of dApps. From DeFi like Compound or Aave, to buying NFTs on platforms like Opensea. But i’d recommend playing around with Rabbithole.gg, which is designed to help people through the process of getting started, including with NFTs, DeFi and DAOs.

Have fun!

We hope you found this set of materials interesting and thought provoking. Next week we’ll be diving into the final set of materials that cover the metaverse, crypto being like nations, and more.

If you haven’t already, please sign up the community for future Vellir posts.

Last week we covered composability, community and culture, music, climate and decentralisation. This week, in the fourth part of our crypto challenge, we’re going deeper down the rabbithole.

Let’s get to it…

Hour twelve

It’s time to go deep on digital identity and credentials. One of the promises of the technology is to be able to build an online reputation, linked to your wallet, that enables you to move around the web and unlock different experiences. This could be based on your education, memberships or experiences that you have. But there are difficult elements within this, including around privacy.

Two recent conversations are worth diving into.

1. An interview with a16z and HBS researcher Scott Kominers.

2. An interview on the Bankless Podcast with Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and Evin McMullen. Evin’s company Disco.xyz is definitely worth exploring to get a sense of what is being built. They describe it as your data backpack.

Hour thirteen

You have probably heard the term DeFi or decentralised finance used a lot. But what does it mean?

• Try this 15 min explainer to start…

• And this conversation with Nat Eliason is a good follow up to go into more of the nuances.

Hour fourteen

One of the most pressing issues that web3 tools could help to solve is disinformation. In this Money Reimagined podcast, there is a really interesting conversation with Jonathan Dotan of Starling Lab, a research institute thinking about these issues.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0OZTu8b34WmEDo4fJTcEmH?go=1&sp_cid=1c83e3c8cc053889f45eb4367fe9c379&utm_source=embed_player_p&utm_medium=desktop&nd=1

Hour fifteen

It’s time to try it yourself! For those that haven’t already, we will explain how to have a go… This is not financial or investment advice, and anyone following these steps does so at their own risk.

There are a few parts.

1. Create a Coinbase custodial account. There are detailed instructions here. But it’s just like creating any other account using your email and passwords. This will allow you to then buy some crypto currency. You could test the water with Ethereum…

2. Next you need to set up your own unhosted wallet. This is the part that is still a bit scary… It requires you to keep your private key (also known as ‘seed phrase’ or 12 word string) safe. The most widely used wallet is Metamask. There’s a guide here, and numerous videos on youtube.

3. Transfer some Eth from your coinbase wallet to your metamask wallet. Why? Because your coinbase wallet isn’t really controlled by you, but by the central coinbase authority that operates like a bank. To enable dApps that we’ve talked about at Vellir, you need some assets in your wallet. There’s a video here on how to do this. Definitely test the transfer with small amounts first!

4. Now you can go and try all sorts of dApps. From DeFi like Compound or Aave, to buying NFTs on platforms like Opensea. But i’d recommend playing around with Rabbithole.gg, which is designed to help people through the process of getting started, including with NFTs, DeFi and DAOs.

Have fun!

We hope you found this set of materials interesting and thought provoking. Next week we’ll be diving into the final set of materials that cover the metaverse, crypto being like nations, and more.

If you haven’t already, please sign up the community for future Vellir posts.