By Guy Noir, Private Investigator (not an actual private investigator)

PUBLIC EMAIL: Guy.Noir.P.I.713@protonmail.com

DONATION WALLET ADDRESS: 0x0DE4C6EAcc31435A15f6505DBe6d0da8B1D253E6

PREFERRED NETWORKS: MATIC, ETH, FTM, BNB, AVAX, MOVR, CRO

Please use the respective network tokens on their network. I’ll explain how to do so in this article. ETH on ETH, FTM on FTM, BNB on BSC, etc.

MY CURRENT EDTIONS: Thich Nhat Hanh, and Shunryu Suzuki

DIFFICULTY: N/A

DESCRIPTION: I draw your attention to my first and most beloved collection by a wonderful budding artist.

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What follows is a short exchange over Discord with an artist I met on the Opensea server. Zaldin Tarot posted his work there and I had the privilege of being his first customer. My first few weeks on Opensea were a delightful deep dive of scrolling through a myriad of categories and subjects. There were so many styles that drew me. I loved AI collaborations, collectible cards, scanned hand drawn work, abstract pieces, and much more. During my wanderings I came across pepe tarot cards totally by random, and remembered my love of all things tarot. I was inspired to search for more tarot cards in general, and stumbled on Zaldin.

I loved his work right away. I'm not an authority on art, and might embarrass myself using incorrect terminology for techniques and bombastic comparisons. Nevertheless, the style almost brought to mind what few Van Gogh pictures I've seen, like Starry Night. The strokes almost look like he'd applied stippling techniques to brush work, poking in colors one at a time. It was visually compelling. The characters and scene choices for the traditional tarot settings were well done too. The magician had his traditional tools, but also wielded them with multiple arms that appeared to embody elemental powers. Death wasn't his usual sack of dried bones, but instead a Queen of fungus. That distinction was an excellent reminder of the transformative process of death, rather than a simple finale humans equate it with.

I saw the cards and thought, "I want this completed deck in my hands some day." They were priced too high for me to dive in right away at 1 ETH. I don't mean to say I didn't want to pay that much. I genuinely think every one of them is worth a whole ETH. The price just made me decide to put them on the back burner is. Eventually, however, I had the chance to speak with the artist. I was surprised to find him actively involved in the Opensea Discord. He struck me as a passionate and sensitive soul. My love of his work and hesitancy with the cost lead him to reduce his asking price. His engagement however, inspired me to pay the whole ETH for at least one of his pieces. I happily shelled out for "The Magician".

I believe this simple tale offers a number of object lessons and observations. Some might only be personal to my experience as a collector, but some might also be more fair and objective assessments. First, you never know who might be watching. People are browsing these marketplaces all the time. People are watching these discords all the time. People are curious. They might search names and collections just to check them out. Any chance to get new eyes on you is a chance to get a customer.

Secondly, the flea market isn't dead. It could be the majority of people are just trying to make a buck. It could be the biggest winners will be those who promise win/win tokenomics and generative rarity. I however, hope they're not the only winners. What I'm saying is, I didn't buy The magician because it had a gold border and "legendary" in it's description. There's no rarity hook gimic in the collection. There's a thousand of each card, and it's a chance to help fund publishing for the physical deck. I didn't see it as an investment. I bought it because I liked it. If anything, it was philanthropy. So take note. You don't have to make the next cryptopunk, or learn how to program generative rarity into a cartoon collection. Pure talent, and doing what you love has a chance to get noticed here.

Lastly, don't be a loner. I get it if you want to be one. I'm one too. This blog is me screaming into the aether so I can stay a loner, but pretend I'm talking to people. I'm taking my baby steps. That's why I even bothered messaging people on Discord too. You never know how much you'll make someone's day being open to talk. You never know how much you'll make someone's day buying their work. Openness to talk can go a long way in this community. All that being said, it could be I'm just projecting all my feelings about this one interaction on the entire community. Clearly, cartoon monkeys sell like hot cakes. It could just be me wanting this guy to make it. I'll leave assessing the validity of my lessons to you all. Either way, I like the guy. Here's our short exchange. I'll give a little follow-up with my thoughts about his inspirations afterward.

Alright I wanna see how this goes over messages so this whole "interview" might take a couple weeks, but no rush for answers. Respond whenever convenient. So your Tarot was the collection that caught me. What inspired that project? It's a very distinct style you've maintained through the whole run. If you had to pick, what's your favorite piece from it and why?

Well, it is always something I've had in my head to do, but it wasn't until I was dealing with a very difficult time that it sort of became a mission. This was well before I even knew what NFTs even were and art along with exercise were how I dealt with the stress of those times. It all started with the Hierophant, and so many tears, but then The Tower followed and I knew that regardless of how long it took at the end of this journey I'd have significant healing, because I already felt lighter with those two pieces. Several months later, a friend of a family member had seen my work and told me to start selling them as NFTs, and it stuck with me in my head for days after. It was a leap of faith, entering the NFT space, but not one that wasn't heavily guided by my own intuition. Not even a week into slowly uploading the pieces that I had prepared, I had my first sale, and I broke down into tears. It was like a confirmation from the universe. Of all the pieces that I've made for the project, still to this day, The Tower is my favorite because making it was a part of accepting and dealing with the emotional difficulties surrounding the circumstances at that time. The outstretched arm of the tower sometimes holds what we know we're losing or what we've lost, and it cannot stand to the forces of nature that surround it. Sometimes the tower holds all that remains, and the rest is what's lost, providing a glimmer of hope. I'm taking it very seriously, and there are certainly pieces I've made for the collection I'm not very fond of, but it is more about me creating something that is emotionally authentic to my own interpretation of each of the Major and Minor Arcana. I know that some of them are probably strange and don't resonate with everyone, but I intended them also to be regarded as individual pieces as well. Once all 78 are done, I just hope people purchase the ones that speak to their hearts. Making the Hierophant was a very deeply emotional and spiritual experience for me. It was so cathartic for me that I have it listed as my most expensive piece currently available. I think the fact that it was the first to sell was a form of spiritual confirmation from the universe.

Do you have any artists or people you consider your inspiration? What drew you to them?

Right now, I'd have to say my favorite artist is J. Hunsung, who is a master of watercolor portraits. I am completely enthralled by his videos and works. I also love Jean Giraud a.k.a. Mœbius for his sci-fi and fantasy scenes. When I was younger I absolutely loved the work of Tite Kubo, the mangaka of Bleach. Also, Yoshitaka Amano and Tetsuya Nomura also get a huge shout out because I was absolutely obsessed with Final Fantasy concept art and character design when I was young. There are plenty of other artists that I love either for their traditional works or for their digital works but right now I am especially enjoying the works of Lauren Marx, Peter Mohrbacher, Salem Beiruti, and Anato Finnstark. Now, since I have sold work I really have seen most of my family members do a complete u-turn with their attitudes on crypto. My parents went from "THIS IS A SCAM" to "our son sells art". It was so cathartic to experience that with them, and the others that were apprehensive on crypto and NFTs. There is a ton of education that is required for people to enter into the space safely and successfully, but it certainly changed my life and my perspective as an artist when I got my work out there. It is certainly a vibe when resistance turns into support and celebration.

That's spectacular to hear. Closing it out one more just fun/silly question... You can only play one dnd class again. Which and why? And bonus same question but for cyber punk rpg.

I would normally choose a druid or wizard, but I like the potential world-breaking aspect of an industrious tinkerer more. I could go off building machines, brewing potent potions, or blasting away with powerful tools alongside a freshly armed peasantry. I suppose the same could work for a small outpost in the asteroid belt besieged by constant pirate raids too.

I just wanted to continue a little bit with my thoughts on his taste in art. I love when people I like tell me about people they like. I love rabbit holes to dive into and kill an hour with. The names he mentioned helped pad out my art collection on my data hoard. I didn't lose myself in their biographies and bios, but I definitely want to show examples of their work.

J. Hunsung is indeed a master water color artist from the republic of Korea. It's obvious to see with a single piece. His work is incredibly vivid. He apparently prefers people for his subjects, and his finished products look like they had to be produced with graphics design software. They're not. He's that good. I couldn't find any biographical information about him from my simple internet searches. I didn't devote much time to it, as Zaldin is the star here. I fully encourage you to learn more if his work intrigues you.

However, I was already aware of Jean Giraud. He’s a famous French artist who specialized in sci-fi illustrations. He provided the art for an esteemed comic book series "The Incal", and the concept art for the unproduced adaptation of "Dune" which was the brain child of Alejandro Jodorowsky. He also contributed concept designs and storyboards for such films as "The Fifth Element", "Alien", and "Tron". As "Dune" is my favorite sci-fi series ever, I'm naturally quite fond of Giraud as well. This conversation reminded me I'd yet to read "The Incal", which has been on my list for some time.

Bleach and Final Fantasy need no introduction or association. I wasn't aware of their concept artists specific names and was thrilled to be handed them to lose myself in such famous illustrations as you'll see below. I was intrigued to see the same artist also collaborated on some spectacular art for "Vampire Hunter D".

From my basic research, Lauren Marx appears to be a rising star who specialized in pen, ink, and water color, and focuses on natural decay and gore as her subject matter. She's successfully marketed her work with prints and stickers on Etsy, has done a number of interviews candidly discussing her struggles with anxiety and barriers during her education, and has a sizable following. Many of her pieces translate over to tattoos very well, and I'd say she's as proficient in water colors as J. Hunsung, albeit with different tastes in style.

I especially have to thank Zaldin for bringing up Peter Mohrbacher. He was in the category of people I knew about, but didn't know I knew about him, and wanted to know more about him for years. I'd stumbled on on his work several times over the years without knowing him or the name of his collection. Mohrbacher's "Angelarium" is his claim to fame. It's an astounding collection of very well illustrated biblically accurate angels. He's also released a deck of oracle cards incorporating the collection, and I believe he's contributed art for the Wizards of the Coast on multiple occasions.

Salem Beiruti appears to specialize in erotic/seductive art centered around the male form. He also appears to have a decent following. I couldn't find any descriptions about his preferred medium. Most appear to be digital illustrations or watercolors to my untrained eye. I couldn't find any biographical information about him.

Lastly, Anato Finnstark is also a spectacular illustrator who's been a major contributor to wizards of the coast for Magic the Gathering, and Dungeons and Dragons. I'd say their work shares similar qualities to Mohrbacher, which is understandable if they've both acclimated to the same patron. The main difference is Finnstark produces a wider fantasy based subject matter. I saw no attempts at personal collections similar to Mohrbacher's Angelarium. Nevertheless, I was astounded. Finnstark seemed mildly more skillful at producing a variety of fantasy landscapes to place subjects in.

With that, we have my first favorite artist in the NFT space. I hope Zaldin continues as a rising talent. There's no speculating or gambling on my part here. You couldn't pay me enough to part with what I've bought of the collection. Fortunately there's availability if you too want to say you were there at the beginning. I sincerely hope the best for this kindred spirit.

As for my own role-playing preferences, I've only had a few campaigns. My bard I'm currently playing is my favorite personality thus far, but I'm secretly curious about trying a ranger next. I'm also getting more used to the dungeon master's chair more recently. On a related note, I'm thinking I'll skip next month's article to focus on some games and relax. Tabletop RPGs could make a great topic for my next piece. It's that or the story of trying to level up and prepare for a bankless life, and navigating tax season following my exceptionally profitable year in 2021. It's time for a breather, and I'm having fun trying to finish my next edition. There's a cat in the picture, and fur is proving to be a particularly annoying texture to reproduce. That's all for now.

Best of luck. Stay safe out their gamblers.

Thankyou for reading my blog post.

By Guy Noir, Private Investigator (not an actual private investigator)

PUBLIC EMAIL: Guy.Noir.P.I.713@protonmail.com

DONATION WALLET ADDRESS: 0x0DE4C6EAcc31435A15f6505DBe6d0da8B1D253E6

PREFERRED NETWORKS: MATIC, ETH, FTM, BNB, AVAX, MOVR, CRO

Please use the respective network tokens on their network. I’ll explain how to do so in this article. ETH on ETH, FTM on FTM, BNB on BSC, etc.

MY CURRENT EDTIONS: Thich Nhat Hanh, and Shunryu Suzuki

DIFFICULTY: N/A

DESCRIPTION: I introduce you to my personal tech philosophy, and show you all the apps/software I use on my computer/phones for everything I do professionally and in private.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION description of my attitude towards tech in general.

TABLET PARTITION 1 description of the business side of my main device.

TABLET PARTITION 2 description of the fun side of my main device.

PHONE 1 description of my phone set aside for productivity.

PHONE 2 description of my phone set up for entertainment and amusement.

PARTING THOUGHTS what, if anything, I hope you get out of sampling this slice of my life.

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INTRODUCTION

I promised this blog would be more than crypto shilling. Finally we've arrived to a "slice of life" topic for me. What's my tech stack? Nobody asked, but I love talkinig about it. Nevermind that I'm likely talking to myself. The first thing you might notice is that I have multiple devices and setups within them. Changing my operating space helps me shift gears in my head space. If I want to be productive, I leave the fun phone behind and pick up the business phone. Sure I have the option to download the same fun apps at any time, but there's a barrier of download time. That's always kept me honest. I don't have the same content stored on the business phone either, so the apps to view fun content are useless on it.

You're likely seeing some personality indicators with that information. I'm wise to how the brain works. I know myself. I don't try to fight my nature. Instead, I try to work with the grain of the monkey mind. I can be plenty productive if there's no options to distract me. The fun center in my brain sees there's no options and quiets down once you get used to it.

I have 3 devices for this strategy. I use a rugged tablet for the 2 partitions.I wan an operating system available to me outside Android. Both my phones are Android. I really don't have any options. I've gotten used to the platform. Both partitions on the tablet use Linux. One partition is Linux Mint, the other Manjaro. There aren’t many reasons justifying my particular choice in distributions. I just wanted a partition running something based on Debian, and another based on Arch.

I used to run just windows for a while. I've flip flopped back and forth and back and forth between OSes. I've dualbooted Windows and Linux, lived with nothing but a phone for a while, wanted to run alternative android ROMs and thereby needed something to boot it other than the phone alone, fucked around with Apple, fucked around with thin tablets, 2-in-1s etc. I needed to calm down over the last year. I have sensitive encrypted database files and note archives to work on. I needed a stable committed strategy. No more distro hopping.

Recently, when I took one more stab at dualbooting windows 10 and linux, I found Microsoft had started altering my BIOs. I got an RST error in the installation process for Linux Mint. I don't doubt there's some way to resolve it while keeping windows accessible, but I was really quite infuriated with Microsoft for that. I anticipate a future where they make their desktop environment as locked down as mobile OSes on phones. In my mind, it meant they were giving me a choice of only Windows or only Linux. I've always hated ultimatums. They made the choice easy. I'm committed. I literally can't use Windows anymore. Apple? Nah. Fuck Apple too. They were always over priced garbage and we all know it. Stop status signalling with glass rectangles literally made to break.

Both the phones are Samsung. One's a galaxy A51, the other's a S21 Ultra. I originally bought the A51 to just be THE crypto wallet. I was even going to use the Samsung Blockchain wallet baked in with their keystore chipset. I got the S21 Ultra purely as a consumer whore. I justified it in my mind thinking "I want the most recent one with support for 4 years". Lies. Consumer whore gonna consume. Eventually, I committed completely to my tablet as the main trading device after a complete migration to new wallets. I decided I didn't even want Android anywhere near my fucking wallets. I walked around with all my six figures in my pocket for a month, then realized I'd never conquer this crippling anxiety. I couldn't carry my entire bank literally next to my crotch 24/7.

I've fallen into a good rhythm with both those phones now. I love the S Pen paired with the 21. I stumbled on some easy creative drawing apps and office suites. I became determined not to throw away the A51, frustrated by my history of E-waste. I set it up with all my entertainment apps sourced from F-droid and use the phone without any Google account attached to it. It probably counts for next to nothing in the greater scheme of privacy, but it feels good to support free open source software. Speaking of software. Let's finally dive in to said software shall we?

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TABLET PARTITION 1

The "business" partition in Manjaro is the easiest to summarize. There's nothing installed there but Brave browser and Keepass. Lol. Lmao. It seemed like a good idea to have some sandboxing of my sandboxes in my sandboxed devices. Simple as. Hell maybe I'll get some virtual machine software to load yet another Linux distribution inside the Linux distribution. I’ll use it for nothing but the browser formerly run within the previous Linux distribution. lol. Would that add more security? I really have no idea. Maybe. I could encrypt the machine running inside it I suppose. You might've accurately drawn the conclusion by now I'm only slightly more knowledgeable than the average user. I figured out enough to flash distros on flashdrives and access my bios to boot and install them.

I've spoken to actual smart people a time or two. They nod their head and say "yeah that's all well and good, but what are you doing to police your router?" They proceed to grimace when I tell them I just hotspot my phone, then attempt to advise me in jargon that's lost on me. I have topics for further research thanks to them. For the time being however, the only changes to my strategy are removing my sim card and only hotspotting on the outskirts of suburbs when absolutely necessary. I am living a mobile life at the moment mind you. I literally have no other options other than public WIFI... and yeah... I don't wanna do public WIFI.

You have an idea of how much use I make out of that simple browser from that screenshot too. I have many, many, many bookmarks related to cryptocurrency and various DAPPS. That might very well make a good article topic on its own. For the time being, you can see my organization style with DAPP use cases. Farms and DEXes seem related enough to clump together, but there's so many NFT marketplaces to keep up with they deserved a folder of their own. The "other" section isn't very populated yet. I haven't used many services outside art and finance. I'm aware of insurance services. Some insurance providers are in my "other" section. I haven't used them yet.

I use Keepass on Manjaro differently than my phones. I made a little mistake with committing to Linux. It's harder to use my Yubico hardware keys on keepass in Linux. It's supposed to be possible with some terminal commands and configuration fixes. However, I'm literally too lazy to deal with that. My hardware keys and the databases tied to them were setup on windows. They still work with android, so I just go back and forth from my copies editing them as needed when needed. I keep a temporary database on the Manjaro partition. Passwords are just stored there for short intervals between complete updates. I trust android with my databases, so long as they're doubly secured with the hardware keys. That pretty much summarizes my Manjaro partition.

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TABLET PARTITION 2

Now we get closer to some fun. My linux mint partition has some interesting productivity software. You've likely never heard of it. Keepass is here as well, but there's no databases on this partition. I just like it to be available just in case. I have 2 browsers here, namely chromium and Firefox. I rarely use them. Chromium is just to manage my most public wallet. There's only a small amount of my funds here. It's the one you see at the top of my articles for donations. Firefox is for my dungeons and dragon campaigns on Roll20. I could probably do everything on Chromium without worrying about Roll20s security. I'm just stuck in my ways with all this sandboxing and compartmentalizing.

he next piece of software with the little bird and ball icon is called Kiwix. It's a zim browsing application specifically made to view offline versions of wiki based sites. They've done a ton of work in conjunction with wikipedia and a few sister services to get complete web rips of their services. You can get a completely offline copy of the entire wikipedia site, among other services. I think it's kind of nifty. I have some wiki rips in my library. Any chance to up my ante with data hoarding is welcomed. I don't really use kiwix on my computer. They have an android app. You can view those same web rips on your phone. I'd advise you to store them on an external SD card. They can get fucking huge. Complete wikipedia rips are like 60 gigabytes. I just like to have Kiwix on my computer as well for redundancy.

Next up you'll see libreoffice. That’s a wonderful opensource replacement for Microsoft office. It's completely free and as old as time. You'll literally be perfectly at home in that app if you want to swap your wares. Don't let my screenshot scare you. It normally has a toolbar. I always remove all toolbars/ribbons in all of my setups. I hate visual clutter. The smaller menu bar has all the same function. Toolbars are stupid and redundant to me. What's more, I'm familiar with plenty of keyboard shortcuts, as should you be. It's faster, and becomes second nature easily enough. Either way, I hardly use any office suite these days, open source or proprietary. What would I use them for. I'm a grown ass man. I have no more book reports for professors to worry about any longer. My book reports are just for me, and I never need to print them. The traditional page layout informed by sizes of paper cuts is obsolete. I want text editors with wordwrapped infinite scrolling. Which brings me to my next app.

That weird ass little cherry icon takes you to a hierarchical note taking application called "Cherry Tree". Go figure. It's a Onenote replacement, but better because it doesn't suck. I never understood why there wasn't an option to continue making sections past an arbitrarily set amount. Also again, the page layout is abandoned as it should be. All I want is section after section after section as deep as I want whenever I want. I don't draw notes. I don't like taking handwritten notes. I type at 80 words per minute. Why would I want to hand write my notes and cut my potential volume of information by magnitudes. Cherrytree is even more elemental. There's no reason to copy the physical look of a note binder. Section trees are even easier to understand. Expand, collapse, right click to add nodes, simple as. Again, ordinarily there's a toolbar. I cut that shit here too.

Up next we have the text editor I'm writing this on called Ghost Writer. It's got the spooky little ghost icon. Here you have a screenshot of me writing this very article on it. I absolutely love minimalist distraction free text editors. Keep on keeping on with the infinite scroll and centered text. Fuck format. I got content to shit out. Just gimme words. I also switch to dark mode immediately in any and all software. My eyes aren't getting any younger. Dark mode is the correct mode. If it was my call, it'd be the default. This is the only ware that actually doesn't even come with a toolbar. It's a pure text editor. It doesn't need one anymore than notepad. The only added function I actually appreciated was a word count at the bottom.

Lastly for the desktop world is what's called a mindmapping applicaiton. I settled for an app called freeplane. I've used Freemind in the past as well, I just saw freeplane first in the linux mint software center, and was lazy. I don't usually like the more visual outlining methods with bubbles and lines and whatnot. I only use freeplane for one purpose, and that's campaign planning for dungeons and dragons. I did find it useful for scenario planning moving around possible scenario and lore options depending on player choices. I use Cherrytree too, but more for lists of NPCs, items, and session summaries.

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PHONE 1

My “work phone” has quite a few more apps than either of my partitions on my tablet. It’s also my only device actively signed in on any accounts. I prefer to only use for a specific set of activities. Namely, managing my finances, using communication applications, mobile office work, drawing, and holding my passwords tied to hardware keys. I think having some kind of device directly tied to big tech accounts just comes with living in this modern day. Additionally there’s a function I wanted access to that required it. Samsung phones come with a more secure work profile application baked in. You need an account to use it, so I yielded. The secure folder is where I use all my finance applications. Otherwise, I keep my presence and activity on this device much more low key.

Starting with the home screens you’ll see I’m a big fan of widgets . I enjoy seeing a calendar with my events for the day, as well as updates for my cryptocurrency positions, and a calculator. I don’t keep apps on the home screens. That’s degenerate. They belong in the drawer, the tool bar, and the edge screen. Period. That’s my stance and I’m sticking to it. You’ll notice my bread and butter apps on that bottom bar are all productivity based. I thoroughly enjoy Samsung notes, autodesk was free so there was no reason not to take up drawing, that middle application is an open source office suite called “Collabora”, then brave browser, and my communications app folder.

I’ve collected a decent number of COMM apps alone. I don’t use many all the time. Obviously the top 4 just came with the phone. The Gmail exists only because my google account exists. I use it for literally nothing else. Fuck google. Proton mail is allegedly much more private. I doubt anything is truly private. Simply announcing you use it may draw attention because it announces your desire for privacy. Naturally, wanting privacy means you have something to hide to the nosier elements of law enforcement. Nevertheless, I want my tools to announce my desires. I want people to value privacy, so I want to use a tool meant to represent that. It’s the most I can do. I don’t know how to make my own email server.

Following those, we have Discord. Discord is another one the category of “tools I don’t like that I need”. My friends run D&D campaigns on that, ergo I need it to play with them. Alas. One day I’ll convince them to switch to "Element” next to it. That’s a much more private messaging service run on a newer open source network called “matrix protocol”. Think of it as a “whatsapp” minus facebook. It’s seeing impressive developments in adoption. State actors are even making their own official separate instances using the same protocol, so I presume it’s encryption is rigorous.

After that we have a couple more apps I’m really only using because I was dragged into them. Friends or organizations I want to interact with are on them. Signal is supposed to be good, possibly on the same level of quality as matrix. I’m not sure I buy it. I don’t see how any service that asks for a phone number could really be completely private. Either way, a friends trading buddies have a group on it, so I’m there. Telegram I got only to keep up with “The Rug News”. I love their parody newspaper page NFTs. I WILL buy every one of them they release. They announce them there first, so I needed Telegram.

Briar is a bit unique. I don’t use it, but I wanted it available to me. To my knowledge, it’s the only truly peer to peer messaging system. Like completely absolutely zero server involvement. It can hypothetically function with reduced internet connectivity. Messages can be pushed via bluetooth and wifi. It’s allegedly one of the most crucial apps for political activists and journalists. Messages are pushed via the TOR network for added privacy. The catch is it needs some kind of continued connectivity and has to stay open at all times. I’ve heard this can greatly affect the battery life of your device. Either way, like the matrix protocol, a phone number isn’t involved with using the service. There’s literally zero account creation process. You create a password for an identity that’s truly unique to the device while the app is installed on it. If you lose the password, you create a completely new identity. It seemed like a useful tool I wanted available to me. I might possibly use it for a private family group that can communicate without mobile data in an emergency situation some day.

After Briar we have Google translate. That’s self explanatory. Translation is also a useful tool to just have. So, lets move to the edge panel. I have some useful diddies there too. First, lets broach the entire idea of the edge panel. That’s a feature of Samsung phones I stumbled on accidentally. Most people don’t pay attention to the small little gray dash on the far right side, but I have an eye for detail. I liked that it’s a little out of the way. It’s almost like a minor security feature. People unfamiliar with Samsung phones won’t know to look for it if they steal it. It could add a minor delay for penetration to my secure folder if someone’s trying to crack that. Every technique to buy every second can count in the long run.

I keep my tools for security and file management on the edge panel. The very first icon is the secure folder I mentioned earlier. After that comes the basic Samsung file manager, then google’s (using nearby share is easier on google’s, that’s the only reason I have it), and Zarchiver. That last one is a useful tool for managing .zip files and password protecting smaller folders with stuff like .txt notes, or stuff like that. After those come my cloud managers with Dropbox and Gdrive. I don’t use Gdrive, but it comes with the phone, so fuck it. I don’t personally use Dropbox either, but I connect to my Dad’s dropbox so I can view family photos when i want.

Next down we have my beloved Keepass. I use a very stripped down version of it on Android that removes all cloud connectivity within the app. Then, you’ll see Norton app lock. I find that’s useful to fine tune phone access if I ever absolutely HAVE to hand it to someone else. Little known fact, cops are technically allowed to forcibly unlock your phone if you use biometrics. I can’t remember where I heard that so I’m playing a bit of a jailhouse lawyer in saying that, but really think about it. Biometrics sound like a good feature initially, but dig deeper and you’ll see where it’s fucking stupid. How many petty thieves do you think are capable of cracking a password? They pawn that shit right away.

Statistically, the people you should worry about are the one’s who’re closest to you. You give them more opportunity to steal from you. Putting your phone up to your face when you sleep or using your thumb if you’re a deep sleeper are easy. You think a cop wouldn’t wrestle your thumb from you if they wanted to know something from your phone bad enough? Information solely located in your head can be a more secure mechanism. With a savvy cyber criminal, yes, passwords can easily be cracked when not secured by 2 factor authentication (hint, hint, use that). There do exist however, scenarios where the involvement of passwords is more ideal. Law enforcement cracking your phone without a warrant is a criminal offense. Making them need to crack your phone puts the onus on them to go through more hoops and create a paper trail. You want them to document potential misuse of their authority.

Lastly after security, we have a couple more basic tools, and the app stores. On the left is Samsung band selection. I like forcing my phone to ignore 5g signals if I wish, I wish their was a hardware solution to that honestly. On the right is an app called “Markor”. That’s just a text editor. I just wanted a text editor. Nothing Special there.

In the secure folder we have a couple of the same tools. Samsung notes differentiates between normal notes and secured notes. Movement between either side of the phone is pretty seamless. Really just using the file manager in tandem with Markor can do the same thing with ordinary .txt files too though. I have a different even more private proton mail profile I keep on this side as well. Gmail is there too. Whenever I get a new phone with a secure folder I set it up with a burner Google account. I never try to recover those when I change phones. I sometimes use the burner Gmail to set up accounts on services I only want to use once or just want to check out. Brave browser is self explanatory. The secure side also needs a browser so…

Security-wise, you’ll notice that little Authy application. That’s a separate 2 factor authentication service that some of my cryptocurrency services like crypto.com prefer. I’m indifferent to it, but like having an alternative to Google’s authenticator app. It works okay. It can however, fuck up saving linked services during migration to a different device. That’s only happened to me once, but it was exceptionally irritating.

then, we have my previously mentioned financial services. Navy federal is my bank. That is their app. One day I will have no bank, and will no longer use that or any banking app ever again. Some beautiful day, I swear. I’ve mentioned crypto.com multiple times in multiple articles at this point. It’s pretty good. It’s centralized, ergo I will cease to use it some day as well, but that’s a goal for another day. For the time being, I greatly enjoy it compared to all other centralized exchanges available to me. It’s simple, and they have the best selection in America.

Lastly, we have my beloved wallet applications. Truly, I don’t like needing any wallet applications on Android, but I do want easy access to some smaller pools on my person with just my phone. For Metamask, I settled on keeping only my most public address which you see attached to this service. Ronin wallet is the native network wallet for Axie Infinity. I have 3 accounts used by scholars a friend from Malaysia hooked me up with. I want to be able to pay them their share at all times, no matter what. Keeping an instance of my wallet mobile seemed prudent. Last of the last, you’ll see Exodus. That’s a proprietary wallet with an internal exchange function. I believe they use atomic swaps, which are a moderately more costly method for peer to peer to asset exchange. I don’t like using proprietary software either, but you do allegedly maintain private custody of assets held therein. I see Exodus as my last ditch decentralized exchange. It’s fees are hefty, but it works. I’ll likely rely on it more heavily in the future as well as I taper off crypto.com.

######

PHONE 2

Here we come to my “fun” phone. Here’s where all my bull shit lives. Best of all, there’s no accounts on it. Never signed in to Samsung. Never signed in to google. Never will. That’s where the first question “well then how do you use it” arises. The first 2 most important apps come in to play here. You need an alternative app store. I use Fdroid, and Aurora. In android, unlike IOS, you can install apps from untrusted sources. I’ve used Fdroid and Aurora for years, they’re as trustworthy to me as anything else. Plus, like I said, there’s nothing but bullshit on this phone. Movies, books, music, etc. Just google Fdroid and it’ll be the first result. Download the APK, navigate to it in your file manager, click and install. Too easy. Once you have it installed, you can get most of the apps I’ll cover here, Aurora among them. An app store for installing an app store. Lol.

Next you’ll notice my launcher looks very different on the fun phone. First of all, yes that background is the logo from Temple OS. Rest in Peace Terry. Secondly, yes there’s no icons on my home screen here. I use a launcher called OLauncher. I don’t use widgets on the entertainment phone. Thereby, I wish no options for widgets on the home screen. I also just like the hyper clean cut look with nothing but names of my apps. Those 8 apps you see on the first screen are my go-tos for entertainment. You drop me anywhere in the world with those 8 apps and my SD card of junk, and I’ll never pay for entertainment.

VLC is my main media player for literally everything on any and every device. It runs every codec and media file format known to man. No. It isn’t pretty and won’t scour the internet to make a suggestion list every 10 songs. Find your own tastes and listen to your own damn music. There is no “search algorithm” in any online services. People just pay people to force you to listen people. Go searching for randos and find ways to get their files. I don’t want a music “app”. I have music. They’re files in my possession held in duplicate on sd cards and external drives. All I want is to poke a file on my file managers to play them on VLC, and manage 4 playlists to put on shuffle. VLC does that and nothing else, ergo it’s the best media player in existence. I don’t like killer apps that do a million things. I like compartmentalized apps that do exactly 1-3 things and nothing else.

In that same vein we have Librera, Tachiyomi, Kiwix, and Voice. Books, comics, wiki .zim archives. Too easy. I use z-library to find almost any book I can think of. I found every fantasy and scifi writer I love, and every professional text book and D&D rulebook I could think of. It’s a great website even with the 5 books a day limit. Tachiyomi takes a few seconds to understand, but it’s clear once you get their extension plugins. It’s like a web crawling application just for manga websites. Between all those dozens upon dozens of sources you will find the manga you’re looking for eventually. Once you plug and play them, the search results show everything. It’s pretty nifty. I already explained Kiwix. This is just the mobile version. It recognizes any .zim archives in your storage automatically. Voice is actually a free audiobook reader from Fdroid. It guides you through picking your home folder for where you store audiobooks. You’ll see everything after setup.

Those are all my offline entertainments. My online entertainments in that page are just Newpipe, Fennec, and Kuroba. Newpipe is an alternative front-end for Youtube. It’s like having a free Youtube Red account. I especially fucking love that, because it made some elements of music downloading soooo much easier and less risky. I no longer have to torrent fucking everything. It would take some work if I wanted to get a whole album one song at a time, but I’m a millenial. We ain’t got time for that shit. We listen to music by the singles. I just dump singles into genre folders. I don’t even love any artist enough to justify specific folders for them. There’s no point. With my style of consumption however, Newpipe is perfect for hunting for music via youtube to just download. It’s really like a better premium account. Youtube red lets you download, but doesn’t provide DRM rights for private custody on your own flashdrive or anything. It’s bullshit.

Fennec is just a stripped down firefox from Fdroid. I like that it’s a smaller app to keep updated compared with brave, and I wanted my browser here to come from Fdroid. Kuroba is just an image board browser. Think of it as Tachiyomi, but just for Chan websites, mainly 4chan. Yes that is my only form of social media. Yes I am absolute cancer, and save a shit ton of frog memes. No I don’t make sock puppet accounts to roast e-celebs on twitter.

Swiping down from that home page there’s a few tools here. I have a free VPN service I never use but should. Coinstats has to be on everything because I can’t look away from the red/green line on crypto markets, Libretorrent is my torrenting client from Fdroid. Maps is there because I need maps, and Zarchiver and Markor are also tools I just like to have on every phone.

Therre’s a couple entertainment based things on the second pag. I rarely use them, but like to have available. I don’t practice guitar as much as I’d like to, but Smartchord is a toolset for guitar with scales, chords, a tuner, and stuff like that. Lemuroid is a much more visually polished arch client for classic game roms. I DEFINITELY ONLY EMULATE GAMES I’VE PREVIOUSLY PURCHASED AND THEREBY HAVE RIGHTS TO CREATE PERSONAL COPIES TOO… YUP… THAT’S DEFINITELY HOW I USE THAT TOOL… ABSOLUTELY.

On the edge panel here you’ll see basically the same setup here as my work phone. I don’t keep all the same communication apps here. I don’t use it for communication very often. You’ll see that OsmAnd app. that’s an offline map/navigation tool. When I’m navigating longer distances I don’t want to keep google maps open constantly eating data. A 20 GB collection of maps across America can get you to counties you’re location is inside of before you narrow it down to your friends house on google maps. I consider it a very useful tool and like that it’s maintained by an independent community. With that, We’ve reached the end of the entertainment phone too.

######

PARTING THOUGHTS

I’m don’t have much coming to mind to part with you on truly. This is the whole tool box. There’s a few things I’m poking around with but haven’t deep dived into. I’m experimenting with board game creation on a piece of software called Vassal. Haven’t done anything beyond opening it yet though. I’m more committed to Roll20 just now. I downloaded cockatrice again after all these years. That was an excellent piece of software for unofficial Magic the Gathering online play. Using it has to be unofficial or else it would be piracy lol. Those are the only 2 items that I’m not using very often but technically have on my tablet.

I’ve used lots and lots of software over the years. I’m not a gamer, but I’ve always found ways to keep myself busy. I like finding interesting new tools for my hobbies. People don’t always pay attention to the shortcomings of software they’ve used for school and work. Or worse, they just grit their teeth and get used to it. Try to write past the 10-20 page mark they assigned you in school and you’ll understand what I mean. Dedicated writers of longer form work like novels quickly understand the need for easy extended section availability. It makes me sad that they shell out for Scrivener, or worse, something shittier with SUBSCRIPTION FEES.

It makes me even more sad when people get locked into an expectation of quality being costly, or it’s code needing to be secret. Proprietary software IS CANCER. Definitely hold on to that take away. Also, if you want to give money for your software, donation is more direct. There is no longer any reason for Bill Gates, or any fucking CEO to get paid for software. They didn’t code it. They didn’t earn it. They deserve no bottom line. I’ve donated to the programmer of Cherrytree and Tachiyomi. They got every penny of it, as opposed to the 1/1000 of a one time purchase for windows 10.

There’s no privacy violations baked into Libre Office to monetize data collection. Go look at the code yourself. They have no reason to spy on me. They don’t have any relationships with advertisers, and have no reason to create any. They have no business model. They’re not a business. They’re just a community of nerds that wanted an office suite to just be an office suite.

Please, by all means, consider taking some of this software for a spin. Again, there’s no affiliate codes lol. There’s nothing to purchase, so no cut for me to take from it. I just love using simple honest tools that don’t try to use me. I love sharing good things and making people’s lives easier. Anyone nerdy enough to read this far is my people.

Best of luck. Stay safe out their gamblers.

Thankyou for reading my blog post.

By Guy Noir, Private Investigator (not an actual private investigator)

PUBLIC EMAIL: Guy.Noir.P.I.713@protonmail.com

DONATION WALLET ADDRESS: 0x0DE4C6EAcc31435A15f6505DBe6d0da8B1D253E6

PREFERRED NETWORKS: MATIC, ETH, FTM, BNB, AVAX, MOVR, CRO

Please send tokens on their respective network. ETH on ETH, FTM on FTM, AVAX on AVAX, etc. I teach you how to do that in this post.

MY CURRENT EDTIONS: Thich Nhat Hanh, and Shunryu Suzuki

DIFFICULTY: beginner-intermediate

DESCRIPTION: Explanations and opinions on various elements in the digital art market directed at laymen considering the space. DISCLOSURES APPLY. REFER TO MY FIRST POST HERE. DISCLOSURES ARE IN ALL CAPS.

PLUGS AND PROMOTION: As of now, these are the people I’m most interested in. None of them paid me. I just like their art and have sentimental attachment to it. Blaquecloud is one of my oldest friends. She doesn’t have any NFT collections. It’s still great art. You can buy her prints if you agree. Zaldin tarot was the first person who’s work drove me crazy on Opensea. I want to see his tarot cards on a shelf someday. Mehrdad Malek is a videogame designer and generally solid artist. I loved his inktober collection. It gave me hope that this space will attract people working in a classical medium still. Londonpixel club was the first person I ever bought from. I’m not usually a fan pixelated cryptopunk art styles. I like that he was a “littleguy” in the space however, and enjoyed the idea of regional themed punks made by ordinary people attached to their cultural identity. If you can’t buy, that’s fine. If you like it, then like it. I hope you enjoy.

https://www.blaquecloud.com/ https://www.instagram.com/zaldintarot/ https://opensea.io/collection/zaldintarot https://mobile.twitter.com/MehrdadMalek1 https://www.instagram.com/londonpixelclub/

NOTE

I maintained a delicate balance in this report. It was a difficult conundrum. What information is vital? What questions will it induce? How many answers will I have? What further questions will those answers induce? If I try to anticipate them and expand the article, how much will I test people’s patience? I’m trying to shoot a shotgun where some may prefer a laser.

I fell back on lingo and jargon that comes second nature to me at times. I try to explain it in an abbreviated fashion. I also researched a wealth of other educational articles. The bottom of this report holds the scaffold for a solid knowledge base with links. I’ll also link them in important vocabulary and referenced news events throughout the article. I struggled with the order to reveal information. Please use my descriptions of sections in the table of contents to assist with jumping around as needed for you.

If you’re racing to get into this space, and willing to enter a little more blind than others, there's a list of video tutorials diving right in under this note. I strongly suggest you at least read my security guidance in the section titled “SECURITY. DON’T FUCK THIS UP”. Custodial centralized services might be the best bank account for you. Were I a creator with little interest beyond profit, I’d use wallets as simple payment processors. I'd move funds to centralized accounts like Coinbase or Gemini on a daily or weekly basis. Coupled with these videos, I believe that's the absolute bare minimum of necessary information.

As I’m still new to this service, I’m still figuring out navigation and features. My original article was a simple PDF sent to friends. My hyperlinks for sections inside this article worked seamlessly in that format. I looked closely, but found no features for navigation inside an article, just hyperlinks for outside sources. Sorry, but you’ll have to do the old CTRL+F in this format. Enter in my section titles from the table of contents and you should be just fine. An old technique I’ve always used for markdown and text documents for myself is using # symbols as a visual cue for section breaks. You could also use CTRL+F and enter “######” to quickly section hop up and down.

If you have questions I didn't address, feel free to contact my public email. I'll try responding in a timely fashion. I make no promises.

######

TUTORIALS

I didn’t believe it was appropriate to attempt a long form video tutorial myself at time of writing. I don’t have particularly good quality audio recording tools, or experience creating video content. I looked for previously published content to share. I wanted to give you at least 2 options, one well established NFT marketplace, and one niche one. I settled on Opensea and Paintswap. I’ve since found many many many marketplaces between all of the networks I’ve explored. Opensea and Paintswap only require Metamask to navigate the Ethereum/Polygon network and Fantom network.

Let me quickly summarize the tasks if you’re only interested in Opensea and Paintswap. Set up a wallet to use as a payment processor, making sure it has the appropriate networks available, link to the appropriate decentralized applications, and open up a centralized service to use as a cash out point as you please.

As you will see below in the “multi-chain swaps” video, you now don’t even need the centralized service as an on-ramp to these networks. You could open up a wallet tomorrow, use the fiat on-ramp at the Rubic exchange from the convenience of your wallet and purchase directly there as needed. Were I in your position, I’d just buy somewhere between $100-500 MATIC in the polygon network directly from the Rubic exchange. That’s all I’d imagine needing for gas fees, really probably more than you need, but the exchange might have a minimum purchase amount around $100. That’s likely all the starting capital you’ll need to add a blockchain storefront to your tool box. You probably won’t even require a centralized service for a while, as it will take time to accumulate sales justifying their service as a fiat off-ramp. I also have a post here that details of managing these network and token swaps. The article difficulty is advanced, but only the first few sections apply to what you’ll need. Don’t dive into DEFI yield farming if you’re not ready.

If you choose Opensea as your storefront, you don’t even need any starting capital for your gas fees. They implement “lazy minting”. Creating NFTs is free for the creators. No token is minted until point of sale. I’m not certain however, if this feature is available on both Ethereum AND Polygon (they use both networks to help reduce gas). That’s why I’m leaving these tutorials to acquire the polygon network token MATIC just as a precaution. You can buy MATIC on the Polygon network directly from the fiat on-ramp in the Rubic Exchange. If you want the more niche Paintswap to be available to you, you may then perform a multichain swap to acquire the Fantom network token FTM from within the exchange, as will be detailed below.

If you’re going to go with either of those routes, you can ignore the Solana and Terra Luna oriented tutorials all together. I wanted to leave some nuggets of wisdom juuuuust in case people dig deeper and become interested in the art exchanges in those networks. Getting starting capital there will be more complicated. Solana is also available on Rubic, but requires a different wallet altogether. The network isn’t supported in the Metamask wallet yet. I know that sounds weird that Rubic supports it. You just give them a send address for a wallet in a different service. Solflare is a good browser web wallet for this purpose.

Rubic doesn’t support Terra Luna yet to my knowledge. For that you’ll have to send to a centralized service like crypto.com, perform a swap there, then transfer to a wallet that can interact with decentralized apps like talis which is an NFT marketplace open to creators on the Terra Luna network. Feel free to contact me if those interest you and I’ll offer more detailed instructions. Opensea and Paintswap are 2 solid new tools to start with. Solflare and Terra Station are just hints at what more is available. With that, here’s the videos with descriptions.

Shorter Metamask browser setup.

Adding Networks to Metamask. Search for and add Fantom, Polygon, and/or others as needed.

Metamask Rubic swaps. Remember this is only necessary on an as needed basis. basically just if you’re interested in Paintswap. You just swap to Fantom network for your starting capital gas fees.

How to send and receive assets on Metamask.

Fast NFT creation tutorial.

Fast Opensea Polygon NFT tutorial.

Longer detailed breakdown of Opensea.

Creating NFTs on Paintswap.

Node JS guide to creating collections from layers.

Alternative collections software called Visual Studio.

Short Solana web wallet setup.

Short Terra station browser wallet setup.

######

TABLE OF CONTENTS

GREETINGS. Introduction and setting the tone.

JUST WHAT IS THIS NFT? Basic NFT definition.

WHY THEY DO DAT? Reasons to make NFTs, and opportunities.

HOW THEY DO DAT? General overview of NFT engineering.

WAIT A MINUTE. IT’S JUST A URL? Continued engineering explanation of relationship between NFTs and newer storage protocols.

BUT, MUH RIGHT CLICK. LOL. Dismissing concerns over ease of piracy.

HOLD UP. I THOUGHT ALL THE CRYPTOS WERE PRIVATE AND ANONYMOUS. Addressing issues of privacy.

I’M STILL SCARED AND CONFUSED. HOLD ME. Assurance of my availability for continued questions.

YOU SON OF A BITCH I’M IN. Presenting options of centralized vs decentralized storefronts.

SECURITY. DON’T FUCK THIS UP. VITAL SECURITY GUIDANCE.

I WANNA MAKE MONEY. I LIKE MONEY. Collection creation and marketing strategies I’ve seen.

CAN’T MAKE ART. I JUST WANNA BUY AND SELL. Investor guidance.

GOODBYE. Conclusion.

TOOLS, SERVICES, AND STOREFRONTS REFERENCED. Self explanatory.

OPTIONAL EXTRA HOMEWORK. Previously mentioned knowledge base to help explain obscure vocabulary. Some links will have been previously given in the article. This

######

GREETINGS

The article title says it all. I presume you heard about this weird new asset class on either social media, or the tube. You’re likely one of 2 people. You missed the buck on Bitcoin and think you can get in early on something similar. Or, you're a starving artist and heard how expensive simple drawings of cartoon monkeys are. I hate starting on a somber note. You are definitely not early, and there are many, many monkeys not selling at all.

Despite this, NFTs can still be a profitable venture, but now resemble the actual art markets. There's unmistakable classics, famous historical pieces, amazing talent wasted without attention, and permanently doomed unknowns screaming into the aether. Diving in as an investor or creator requires patience, lots of homework, interaction, marketing, and acceptance of risks. I will address frequently asked questions, concerns, and developments, as well as offer some opinions and warnings.

######

JUST WHAT IS THIS NFT?

A non-fungible token or NFT is digital content with unique identifiers vested on it by a blockchain network. These unique identifiers distinguish it from all other jpeg files no matter how many times someone copies it. People can audit a blockchain’s ledger history and identify the original instance. Digital content can now possess a history of ownership. Everyone in the world can see where it touched your hands. There's identifiable moments of issuance for first or second editions.

######

WHY THEY DO DAT?

Why else? To capitalize on people's lizard brains. This technology makes creating collectibles insanely easy. IT’S NOT A GUARANTEE OF SUCCESS, but it's an excellent technique to leverage attention and induce urgency to acquire content on a digital plane. You could create a collection of whale pictures and issue them as NFTs for charity. You could raise money to support you while you develop a game with samples of art. In my opinion, it's far superior to fundraising platforms like kickstarter or patreon. Decentralization offers unprecedented creative control.

Patreon can, and has revoked, service for political dissidents. Gofundme temporarily denied service to Kyle Rittenhosue during his trial for the Kenosha riots. Have whatever opinion you please about whatever political event or character, but I can’t stress this enough. That can be you some day. You may not believe it. You may not want to think about it, but it's true. It could be you facing the firing squad of censorship.

I myself might face related strictures. Regulation in the “infrastructure bill” of 2021 sought to expand the definition of a broker. This may effect me personally when it goes into effect in 2023. Anyone using certain decentralized finance applications or providing vital mining/staking infrastructure to blockchain networks may be swept into this definition.

We may be made subject to obsolete financial regulations and forced to reduce transaction volume for no explainable reason. Interacting with these tools requires little to no technical knowledge beyond poking icons on your phone. I’ve yet to hear a reasonable explanation why they cause any more harm to consumers than casinos or legacy stock exchanges. I mention this to illustrate the slow grind removing essential rights like freedom of movement for our assets and valuables. Sometimes it’s corporations censoring you, other times it’s congress “regulating” you.

Rant aside, there's even more budding applications. You might have heard of Cryptokitties or Axie Infinity. Gaming elements are tokenized within them. You can insert enough information into tokens for stats of creatures and weapons that games recognize and interact with. Cross game elements recognized in a single token may soon be possible. Tokenizing them will make them infinitely more easy to transfer and transact with. People could trade collectible skins or weapons seamlessly which work in multiple games at once without signing into Steam or Nintendo, or giving them a cut of their profit.

There's even more possibilities than entertainment. Many governments now recognize blockchain's resilience for data storage. Legal documents and credentials may soon be tokenized as NFTs. Birth and health records, deeds for real estate, car registration, and licenses to name a few. All that remains is standardizing protocol for additional encryption. Unlike the NFT art market, some of these documents can't be publicly viewable without the owners allowing. Everything that can be tokenized, will be tokenized.

Lastly, there's exotic investment opportunities tied to NFTs. Ownership of an NFT can unlock features of a platform. Decentralized finance applications sometimes bundle bonus privileges to an NFT collection. I paid 1500 Fantom (2300$ at time of purchase) for a lovely landscape painting on a decentralized art exchange. Lovely as it was, I bought it because the art exchange offers bonus features on the platform for collection holders.

There's exotic investment opportunities for the creators too. Some platforms allow artists to mint NFTs that pay royalties on resale. A single piece can provide an artist passive income as it changes hands more and more growing in popularity. Take note, royalties are usually capped for creators. I’ve seen some platforms cap at 10% See below for an example.

Also take heed, that's an extremely new and questionable feature for regulation. When you mint an NFT with royalties, you clearly created an asset with the intention of extracting future value. That sounds innocent enough, but may soon be considered an unregistered security. You may, like me, go to sleep one night and wake up to learn of possible rulings and regulations affecting you with zero preparation.

My OPINION is the genie's out of the bottle. I believe we’ll see a series of events similar to the piracy crisis music went through in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Regulators are refusing to acknowledge the fast approaching reality of ungovernable, open source, mass dispersed, mesh networked assets, in innumerable legal jurisdictions. I don’t say ungovernable in the lolbertarian sense. I cast no moral judgement about what a state actor should/shouldn’t be allowed to touch by their people. I’m trying to hammer home to you the logistical nightmare approaching these snivelling bureaucrats with zero technical knowledge or creative capacity.

When was the last time you heard of anyone getting their home raided for torrenting a season of “Game of Thrones”? When was the last time you heard of the FBI calling someone for handing their friend a flash drive with their favorite playlist? In the early days of the cyberpunks in the music crisis some people stupidly opened themselves up as symbolic targets. Napster had a figurehead. They had a clear line of assumed authority and responsibility. What do you think was going to happen? When you don’t try to play their game, however, you have tools a state or institution would never consider.

When even just 1000 people say no, when they download a movie without care for copyright and break the law, the state “technically” has authority to convict. What they don’t have however, is time. Just one arrest carries with it countless hours of labor, court appearances with lawyers and judges who must be paid, infrastructure and maintenance to equip police officers and holding areas. The funding JUST. DOESN’T. EXIST. This is the nakedness the emperor doesn’t want you to see. Now you have 10 dollar music streaming services. The music industry caved. They found the floor price to keep you lazy and off of torrents. Go thank your local pirate.

What’s the parallel with NFT royalties you ask? Well… I told you the effect of 1000 seeders and torrents… There’s freaking millions of NFTs now minted to provide artists passive income. Millions. Upon millions. Upon millions. What’s more, there’s even less attack vectors than torrenting peer to peer networks. Law enforcement could technically target seeders or small scale server farms providing pirate bay bandwidth. They couldn’t do jack shit about the one’s in Estonia, but they could do something. NFTs are embedded into an insanely larger network that you’d have to target all at once. It’s even less economically feasible by orders of magnitude.

Obviously I’m not a prophet, but my thoughts are the creators physically can’t be targeted. Their tokens are made. If there’s damage to be done, it’s done. You’re not going to get these millions upon millions of token holders to burn their property. Try to burn them in one country, those citizens see they’re considered cattle because no one else had to do it, they riot or run to where they’re treated better. Tale as old as time.

You might, like in the music crisis, see some attempts at useless posturing and symbolic victories. Regulators and law enforcement might take a stab at shutting down a couple centralized NFT service providers. It won’t effect token holders. You can migrate your tokens to other services. Thank sweet baby Jesus for decentralized exchanges and VPNs.

Were I in your position, I’d mint away (creating an NFT is called minting).

######

HOW THEY DO DAT?

That's explainable in multiple degrees of complexity. Some are beyond me. It boils down to how transactions are recorded in a distributed ledger, and what features the programming language of a blockchain allows. You might have heard of Bitcoin and wonder "why don't we have Bitcoin NFTs?" The goal of Ethereum was very different from Bitcoin. Nobody involved in Bitcoin's creation imagined tokenizing other assets. They simply wanted apolitical digital cash.

Ethereum created a decentralized world computer able to recognize and transfer multiple asset classes with and without continued human interaction. What does this mean? It means Ethereum was coded very differently to allow something called smart contracts. These are basically automated escrow accounts. The best metaphor used by Ethereum engineers is ‘hyper complicated vending machines”. Wallets can be pre-programmed to execute thousands of transactions automatically depending on conditions you code them to recognize. People are continuously developing hundreds of applications with this capability, NFTs among them. They also use very different ledger models. Bitcoin's model is called unspent transaction outputs (UTXO). Ethereum more closely resembles traditional banking with an account-based model.

I'll be honest. I don't know the finer points to describe the difference between their ledger models. I have however, watched many subject experts break it down in multiple ways. Put simply, Bitcoin truly does resemble actual cash transactions. Some very rudimentary smart contracts are technically possible. For the most part however, all that network will ever recognize is "wallet A has moved X amount of Bitcoin to wallet B". The format of that transaction is very lengthy and cumbersome. The ledger model in Ethereum is much more abbreviated. It’s programming language called “Solidity” allows wallets to be semi-autonomous, as previously described. Transactions can carry a wealth of metadata. That metadata can tell wallets what to do and where to send funds depending on programmed parameters. This metadata is where all the code for decentralized applications runs.

When you mint a non-fungible token a URL of your specific .jpg upload is recorded in that metadata. That's where your picture comes alive. Or at least, that's the side most people took now that there's money to be made. It seems fair enough to me so long as there's no solar flares or giant asteroids. If there were, we'd have much bigger problems than identifying who owns a picture of a cat or monkey.

######

WAIT A MINUTE. IT’S JUST A URL?

Aaaaaah. You're cleverer than most if you know this is a vulnerability. Yes it's a URL. BUT. There's more. Traditionally, URLs are hosted by giant server farms and internet service providers. You might have seen loading pages saying "hosted by Cloudflare" or AWS (Amazon web service). Those are centralized services. Not all of the data is encrypted, and centralized custody can be a vulnerability.

You might have heard of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Maybe you even remember a few days in 2021 when popular websites and services like Facebook and Whatsapp crashed. Many now believe (myself among them) that siloed data structures and bottlenecked routing connections are inadequate platforms for future connectivity. We want to provide internet services to billions more people. We want the people connected now to have better service. If we used our shiny new blockchain technology as a layer on older routing protocols, we'd be idiots.

Fortunately we don't. Blockchain allows us to leverage newer routing and data storage protocols like the interplanetary file system (IPFS). IPFS is a peer to peer network. Data is copied several times over, broken up, encrypted, and stored on multiple hosts throughout the world. There's no server farms for the CIA and NSA to monitor from backdoors. Instead, there's dozens of independent providers who don't even know each other.

Storage and hosting requires far less capital investment, and routing requires far less energy. The URLs can be locked. People can store data with keys in the form of hashes (serial numbers tied to metadata) to access them. Here's a classic simple image illustrating the difference in network routing models. Blockchain and peer to peer networks aim at maximizing distribution of data storage/streaming, among other things. Think of the dots in the image as a mix of personal computers and data storage providers. The lines are their routing connections. In the far left you see all these people streaming information from one overworked server. That’s what you have now. That center point is your Netflix, Google, Amazon, etc. As you move further to the right you see a service breaking up it’s storage. It’s stream of information is more resilient, has more options to reach people as needed, and becomes more efficient.

The furthest right model is a bit of pipe dream for large scale services at this point, but it’s a beautiful one for us nerds. That’s called a “mesh network”. Everyone’s devices are a mix of both consumer and provider of data. It would be like everyone buying mini servers they keep at their home in a public routing infrastructure program. Fiber optic cables would have be integrated in tandem with public electrical lines on a much more massive scale.

"But wait I'm looking at pictures on Opensea right now and don't own the tokens."

Yes you're looking at a picture. You can even screenshot and right click it. That particular URL was not made to be locked. It was made as a reference point. Everyone sees the URL was created in conjunction with a publicly tradeable unique token. A print of the Mona Lisa does not a million dollars make.

The point is the IPFS is immeasurably more secure, economic, and environmentally friendly. They've even tokenized IPFS bandwidth and data storage with projects such as Filecoin and Arweave. Nobody hosting nodes can change the URL or the metadata in any token representing ownership of it. Best of all, there's no server farms burning through millions in e-waste heat thermoptically visible from space.

Traditional art insurers are currently discussing how/if they can even offer their services to digital art collectors. Some NFTs do use older URLs hosted on Cloudflare and AWS. Those might be the only tokens they can offer services for. The overwhelming sentiment is if it uses IPFS URLs there's nothing to insure.

NFTs, like any cryptocurrency, can be stolen through social engineering or physical force. However, someone would have to know to target you. It's possible to identify people from ledger activity, but takes an enormous amount of work performing pattern of life analysis. Such work is far beyond most petty criminals. Blockchain networks and the IPFS infrastructure are immutable. Maybe things will change with quantum computing, but I imagine there will also be quantum resistant financial engines we can bridge assets to.

######

BUT, MUH RIGHT CLICK. LOL.

Nope. Just nope. I glued a picture of Charizard to card stock. It's not Logan Paul’s Charizard. No one gave me a million. I tried to enter a Magic tournament with my $650,000 deck filled with nothing but black lotuses I printed just to flex. People laughed at me. One day I will hurt them as much as they hurt me.

######

HOLD UP. I THOUGHT ALL THE CRYPTOS WERE PRIVATE AND ANONYMOUS

Nope. It's incredibly difficult to make a completely private cryptocurrency. It's even more difficult to make one capable of smart contracts and tokenized internal assets. The only one I'm aware of is Monero. It can't run smart contracts required for NFTs. While it interests me, I currently know very little about it. Bitcoin was never private, not even in its infancy. Illegal transactions were easy because of its novelty. Getting useful information from a 20 GB spreadsheet is like drinking from a fire hose. The information is there forever, though. I presume machine learning will catch up to those people buying heroin and speed balls eventually. The Silk Road bust is evidence enough of that, although there were multiple security failures involved on the part of criminals in addition to ledger activity.

This new technology is a kind of gamble/bargain. It's not private by default, but there are applications to anonymize transactions called mixers. These are decentralized applications that split your one transaction into many thousands more. Your assets move between a thousand wallets before settling in your intended destination. It's automated money laundering. There's no getting around creating a public record, so developers obfuscate it by turning the fire hose into an ocean. To my knowledge, there's no similar applications for moving NFTs anonymously. NFTs can't be fractionalized. You must use the default network transfers baked into wallet applications.

"But I'm a cyberpunk who wants to burn this mother to the ground. End the FED. No more surveillance."

Hey. I feel ya. Like I said. In my opinion, this new technology is a bargain/gamble between both ordinary people and financial oligarchs/state actors. It's a chance to renegotiate the social contract. The bargain in question is "hey government, give us complete absolute freedom of movement for value, give up all power of issuance, and we'll actually give you all the information you could ever want."

That's a dangerous gamble. I believe integration of public ledgers would benefit ordinary people the most. At the very least, it could be an equalizing movement. Remember it's a completely public ledger. Law enforcement could track your financial activities through pattern of life analysis. Likewise, independent citizens could come together to track institutional entities and state activities, then foment public outrage.

What's more, remember our end of the bargain. Complete freedom of movement. It would be a completely different financial landscape. There's zero barriers to entry for installing a wallet. You don't need intermediaries to interact with decentralized finance applications. You don't need auction houses to insure your work while you wait for a sale. The only ground we give up is surrendered while drawing institutions to a level playing field for enforcement, and granting ourselves far more benefits in applications.

We're opening Pandora's box. It's insanely disruptive technology. As with any human venture, we'll likely cause untold horrors and miracles simultaneously.

######

I’M STILL SCARED AND CONFUSED. HOLD ME.

I understand. It's a scary confusing world, and it's gonna get worse. You want to see a freaky yet amusing estimation of the future? Try reading Accelerando by Charles Stross. Humanity as a whole may build a very precarious relationship with emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and financial developments. Obsolete, bored, kept like pets, desperate to find other life and prove hyper capitalism isn't a great filter.

I am a freak of nature. I shouldn't exist. I'm not braver than you. My risk assessments are just insanely warped. My threshold of knowledge to embrace adoption was lower. I was insanely curious about a weird nerdy space that puts everyone else to sleep. I crossed my threshold faster. To me, it's more insane thinking traditional banking was ever going to onboard 7 billion people. It's more insane to think intellectual property law made in the 70s and 80s can regulate infinitely replicable jpeg files.

Let me be clear about the risks too. I don't know if we're looking at the final form of digital content markets. We might see tokens hosting the actual content somehow, rather than bootstrapping URLs. I'm not a technical expert. I don't even know what the final form of cryptocurrencies will be. Maybe a 4th gen project like Radix will make everything else obsolete. Everyone will shit up it's bandwidth for weeks desperately trying to bridge their shitty dog coins to that network.

Technological development is never executed in the perfect order. We used to piss off our parents taking up bandwidth over phone lines to look at boobs on the internet. Bitcoin is already a joke technically speaking. I think we'll attempt to bridge it's ledger history over to a completely different consensus protocol someday just for posterity, but I can't know. Collect your thoughts so you know your finite threshold of knowledge and I'll try to help you if I can. Hopefully this article makes your questions clearer.

What I can tell you is people are definitely treating these silly tokens with URL bookmarks like digital collectible property. They've been doing it for almost a decade now. I see no cultural or market signals indicating they'll flip the script. I might make a sequel to this article detailing court rulings that have added legitimacy to this movement. Making one of these tokens, or even a 500 piece collection, isn't difficult or expensive. It's just time consuming. At one point people were treating sea shells as currency. Humans are weird.

######

YOU SON OF A BITCH I’M IN.

Oh... Oh so you wanna make an NFT? Okay. Too easy. Bet. You currently have 2 options. One might be easier, but miss what little early opportunity remains. The other is harder, but may grant you access to niche markets. Do you want to wait until normies can use their credit cards on centralized services, or do you hate life and want to invest endless hours learning to navigate decentralized finance and wallet applications? I know which one I picked.

You might not have to wait long on the first option. Time of writing is December 2021. Every centralized service I'm aware of plans to release NFT markets alongside their current services. I believe we'll see them 1st/2nd quarter of 2022. Until they release them, public reception remains a mystery. People's attention is fickle. There will be trends within trends after previously trending trends. Some people will have cyclical success, others will be sustainable. The best option might be to do both. Artists could probe how well they're received on multiple platforms.

There's clear distinctions in personality types attracted to either platform too. People successful in decentralized finance might want to keep their funds on their private wallets. I know I don't want to mingle with the ignorant unwashed masses. Your work might sit unnoticed for months on the Terra Luna network, only to be gobbled up in a heartbeat by a ghoul-like obsessive crypto baron living with his mother chilling in her basement in his underwear. NO THAT'S NOT ME. MY MOTHER LIVES WITH ME. I TOKENIZED THE DEED TO PROVE IT.

In my opinion, the biggest names in centralized exchanges are Coinbase, Crypto.com, Gemini, and Binance. All of them intend to release NFT marketplaces in the near future. Crypto.com is operated out of Hong Kong. Coinbase and Gemini are American. Binance has a sister company specifically for American users called Binance U.S. It's founder is Chinese and it's central location is often under question. It was Malta at one point, but they're working to become decentralized since launching their own cryptocurrency, Binance coin. It was launched as an alternative to Ethereum. I’ve just barely started using it and withhold any opinion for the time being. It's gas fees are cheaper, but this space is rife with “Ethereum killers”. It will take time to see the effects of adoption and continued development.

All of these exchanges might lose the race to NFTs, however. Blockfolio, a well established company for tracking portfolios, recently rebranded themselves as an exchange. They are now called FTX. Their NFT market is imminent if their application is an honest metric. The feature isn't on yet. They might have it there to simply attract attention. See below for a snapshot of its layout.

If you elect to wait on centralized exchanges you will see the setup process on their platforms is fairly easy. They make you create an account with your email, create a password, and pass KYC (know your customer) procedures to link your bank account or debit/credit cards. They all have an ubiquitous design like you see above. The navigation bar leads you to pages for market information, performing trades, wallet information for deposits/withdrawals of cryptocurrency, and application settings. Depending on the platform, they may allow advanced features like prediction/futures markets and margin trading.

Everyone calls investing in stocks and crypto gambling. In my opinion, those two functions are where people go to let the house win. I have never liked or used them on principle. That is gambling with money that isn't yours to buy truly nonexistent assets. At least when my Bitcoin went down to 3000 dollars in value, I still held the Bitcoin. I wasn't liquidated for believing it was worth a million and giving a whale all the information he needed to fuck me. Just an aside for young paper handed investors.

Also, exchanges will likely bug you endlessly to set up 2 factor authentication. They can't force you, but be prepared for weekly notifications if you don't turn them off. You could also just use 2 factor authentication. I don't like using my phone number and giving the government another marker for my personality profile and contact tracing, but I do understand the need to increase personal security. My wallet applications don't use 2FA, but I secure my most important personal information with hardware keys in addition to passwords. If it's possible, I try to control everything involved with creating that second factor element.

Now we get to the fun part. Decentralized/semi-centralized art exchanges. This is where all the magic happened. This is where the OGs are. Even if you don't have money or talent, the people in this space are moderately more accessible. If you don't want to feel like a consumer whore you can mingle on discord servers and get to know actual artists for fun. Don't just slop up pixelated garbage on FTX when they release it. Rifle through the new internet flea market for oddities. Go hunting for hidden talent. Like this guy. Zaldin tarot I will shill you endlessly for free. Keep it up buddy. I believe in you.

"But how," you ask.

"SHUTUP AND TEACH ME WIZARD!"

Alright. You chose the hard way. Again, everything you needed to actually do anything was at the top in the tutorials I collected. The article was just meant to inform your decisions. Now you have three more decisions to make. What platform? What network? What wallet? I'll give you a hint on the wallet. It's gonna be meta mask. That's the only one I know how to use decentralized finance applications (DEFI) with, and thereby feel comfortable teaching. Other wallets like trust wallet or exodus might work smoother and I’m simply unaware. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

There's already a good dozen or so NFT market places between 4 or 5 networks. Some integrated with multiple networks to give people options. From what I've read and understand, there’s three or four oldest of the oldest and most famous platforms. These are Known Origin, Super Rare, Nifty Gateway, and Async Art. They are exclusive and selective in the artists they host. They want to position themselves as “high digital art”. Their artists rarely release 2000 piece generative collections. They release well thought out, thematic series of 1 of 1 pieces starting at thousands of dollars.

Async art wants to explore creative possibilities in digital art. They sell master copies of artwork, as well as programmable layers the master copy is composed of. Owners of layers are allowed some creative control. Master copies change overtime with the input of layer owners.

I'm not familiar with Nifty Gateway beyond awareness of its existence. It might be less exclusive. I mention it with the oldest because it recently changed hands to significant investors. It was purchased by the Winklevoss twins. They own the previously mentioned Gemini exchange. It will likely be integrated with Gemini in the future. Until that time, it remains beyond the reach of credit cards.

I mention these storefronts so you have some historical context and possible long term goals. After the heavy hitters, you have the ebays. These are unfortunately saturated markets. You'll see cryptopunks and cryptokitties sold alongside millions of “rare pepes” and gifs of anime boobs. The biggest ones I'm aware of are Opensea, Rarible, and Mintable. If you have a wallet and some original creations you can start listing now.

“What do you mean host? I thought it was all decentralized.”

Aaaah, good catch. The underlying technology is decentralized. Anyone can create an NFT. As I also said however, NFTs are just bookmarked URLs with the date and purpose of their creation immortalized on a public ledger. On very rare occasions semi centralized marketplaces like Opensea and Rarible have chosen to blacklist those URls from their frontend (what users see available). The tokens still exist. The content can still be traded. The most famous case in recent events is Flurks by Stonetoss.

Many consider this cartoonist to be a far right extremist. In order to fund his work he released an NFT collection. It was cartoon characters drawn with offensive attributes. Some held confederate flags, among other things. Histrionic journalists moaned at the concept of someone they don't like making more money than them without sucking off think tank oligarchs. Opensea and Rarible delisted the project. Law suits are pending. He's perfectly capable of funding them with the 2 million dollars he made from initial purchases. The NFTs are still available on Mintable.

What's more, Stonetoss wrote he’s perfectly capable of launching an internal flurk market place from the original project website. He chose not to do so unless absolutely necessary. He wishes to seek legal reprisal before resorting to such retaliation. Journalists achieved nothing. That's usually par for the course in their field. They just quadrupled the value of all flurks holding confederate flags in aftermarket resale. I consider the episode an interesting stress test on the founding principles of the technology. If the reader’s wondering about the writer’s political leanings. No. I don't own a flurk. Yes. I own gifs of anime boobs. They're mine. Not yours.

Last in the categories we have niche weirdos, and upstarts with potential. These are marketplaces open for all creators, but nobody's aware of them yet for various reasons. The usual reason is their choice of network they launched on. Artion and Paint Swap are very well made web applications, but they're on the Fantom network. Normal people just barely became aware of NFTs. Obviously, nobody knows about the Fantom network.

“But I want people to know about me. Look at me.”

Really? Do you? Have you seen most people? Savage, disgusting people. Uuuugh. What I'm getting at, is these platforms are accidentally exclusive. This can be a feature rather than a flaw. People experienced in cryptocurrency and decentralized finance flocked to these new networks to yield farm shitcoins free from the burden of gas fees.

What that means for you is a bunch of obsessive nerds are looking for more avenues inside these new networks to entertain ourselves and continue gambling. We don't want to bridge back to Ethereum to drown in cryptopunk rip offs on Opensea. We want to see aesthetically pleasing collections with an interesting story like these weird black hole themed portraits partially created with the help of artificial intelligence (alright their floor price went down lately, I might be the only one that likes them… BUT I STILL LIKE THEM).

Even I'm not very familiar with all these niche markets. I just started bridging to Polygon and Fantom. I have funds in Terra Luna as well. An NFT market named Random Earth recently launched there. Sorare has launched on Solana catering to sports-based collectibles. Several famous artists, celebrities, and organizations allegedly intend to launch projects inside Solana. With all that in mind I've probably induced enough questions in your mind to get to the second decision.

“What network? What do you even mean what network?”

Okay. This is entirely my own idea of how to visualize this landscape. There are many, many cryptocurrencies. Developers everywhere are thinking of ways to tokenize services and raise funds. I classify these currencies in 3 categories. These are base service tokens, network tokens, and hybrid tokens.

Arweave, Filecoin, Vechain, and Synthetix are good examples of service tokens. They provide very specific functions like IPFS storage, supply chain maintenance, and derivatives trading. I consider Terra Luna a good example of a hybrid token. Its key service is independently hosted algorithmic stable coins, but it’s capable of hosting a variety of smart contracts for other applications and tokens.

I could attempt to cover how they provide their services. That's a very lengthy discussion about oracles, tokenomics, game theory, and more. Many fail at their attempts, as seen in the ICO craze. The cream is at last starting to rise in recent years. For now, just take me on my word that providing a service free of corporate hierarchy is their intention.

The key service people compete to provide is broad financial network communications. Tokens targeting this service host a plethora of service tokens and decentralized applications. If every service had its own base network it would be utter chaos getting all these applications talking to each other. Building projects inside the base networks streamlines the process and eases communication bottle necks. Ethereum is like a humongous city and web of roads. Vechain, Aave, Synthetix, etc. are buildings or subdivisions of the city.

Multiple network token projects are still hammering out details on the best protocol and strategies while they compete against each other. There are unique features which distinguish them from each other. Ethereum is the first and most ubiquitous. It's not the best, but it’s in the process of upgrading. The others I personally use the most are Polygon, Fantom, and Terra Luna. I will not tell you these are the best. I don't know if they're the best. I may also use Cardano, Solana, or even Radix in the future.

I don’t know how to best summarize their differences to the uninitiated, or what information a content creator needs the most. I can go off about byzantine fault tolerance, zero knowledge proofs, ZK Rollups, and layer 1 vs layer 2 solutions all day and quadruple the size of this article, or I can give a very elemental run down. I think most will want the latter, I am available if you want to discuss the former.

Here’s what I think most will care about. Transaction speed, operational costs, and platform integrations. Some might also be concerned about what happens if a network dies tomorrow. That’s very unlikely. I don't believe any network will “die” in the space of 24 hours. Everyone knows Craig Wright isn’t Satoshi Nakamoto, but there’s still people mining his stupid “Bitcoin Satoshi Vision”. There might be noticeable decline in development over months and years. Fortunately, it's possible to bridge assets between networks.

Yes. A crypto punk made in Ethereum can be moved to the Fantom chain and sold on Artion. That’s mildly more advanced. I only mention that to set your mind at ease about picking the “wrong” network. I could make follow up articles you can point buyers too if they want to move to a shiny new network that solves the blockchain trilemma better then the last one that was supposed to do that.

Let's start with speed and operational costs. Basically, pick anything other than Ethereum. If you pick Ethereum, what you're saying is “I hate my customers”. Opensea has reduced the costs to creators with a process called “lazy minting”. The gas fee however, has to come to someone eventually. That someone is your buyer. You might think you're only charging 20$ in ETH, but everything on opensea in Ethereum costs what you're charging + 70$ minimum in ETH for gas. As a customer, I ask you not do that.

“I keep hearing about this gas. What is this gas?”

Gas fees are tiny amounts of a network token required for any transactions inside the base network. Think of it as a toll on that highway infrastructure, or a tax. Gas fees are paid out to miners/stakers validating and backing up the history of the ledger. If transaction volume increases, gas fees sometimes increase proportionally. Hence why games like cryptokitties almost crashed the entire Ethereum network in its infancy.

It’s messy work trying to provide a service purely through decentralized incentives rather than formal authoritative hierarchies in traditional corporate structures. In my opinion, things are starting to improve. People benefitted from watching Ethereum’s mistakes, including Ethereum itself. It's tough vouching for ETH at times, but I remain hopeful for the final form if we reach the end of the roadmap.

On top of that flaw, Ethereum is currently among the slowest. Some of your customers may be irked waiting for confirmation. They'll wonder if they really bought your water color of a cat, especially if they're newer to the cryptocurrency space. The attitude behind development was to move fast and break things (development-wise not transaction-wise lol). Vitalik Buterin was in a race to show the world smart contracts could exist, graphics card prices be damned. The end of the roadmap aims for around 2023. Some improvements will roll out incrementally. Some may even solve gas prices.

If you pick Polygon, Solana, or possibly even Terra Luna or Cardano in the very near future, speed and cost will be negligible issues for you and your customers. You can set up your collection on Opensea on the polygon network for pennies. I can’t speak for Solana or Luna NFTs, but transaction fees there are also minimal in my experience.

Transactions in Fantom are also insanely cheap and fast, but there’s a caveat. Getting into the actual Fantom network. The centralized tools I use currently don’t allow you to withdraw Fantom tokens to the Fantom Opera main-net. You will have to bridge them from the Ethereum network. Instructions are in the tutorials listed above this article.

To my knowledge, the oldest platforms I detailed above like Known Origin only use Ethereum. Their customers can afford it. Opensea integrated both Ethereum and Polygon. They're currently working on integrating Fantom as well. Rarible uses Ethereum and Solana. FTX advertises that they’ll also use Ethereum and Solana. They may not charge gas fees if it’s like other services on centralized exchanges. You already know how crazy I am about paint swap and that it's on Fantom.

I started planning how to write in intricate detail step by step every part of the process to setup wallets. The more I thought about it, the more I imagined this article growing to ridiculous length. It's already growing quite large. Adding 50 pictures and writing the steps would get it to 200 pages. Refer to the top of this document a series of tutorial videos I researched or made. I tried to keep them below 10 minutes each.

######

SECURITY. DON’T FUCK THIS UP.

Now we get to some vital guidance. WALLETS. OH BOY. Now is the part I can most easily fuck myself over and feel especially obligated to offer warnings and expand on a few things. Let me make this clear. This is a big boy toy. Okay??? Hey. HEY YOU. THIS IS A BIG BOY TOY. DID YOU HEAR ME?

Never. Never ever, ever give your recovery phrases and private keys to anyone. EVER. FOR ANY REASON.

Your in a hostage situation?!? MAKE THEM SHOOT YOU (parody not actually advice though it's what I'd choose).

Someone called you claiming to represent metamask? Nope. Just nope. They’re lying. Don't do it. Okay?!?

Did you see a YouTube ad from Elon Musk claiming he's doing a Bitcoin give away? Just send him one and he’ll send you two? Why? Why would he do that? Is he your mother? Is it your birthday? Why would Elon Musk love you enough to do that? He doesn’t. He wouldn’t. That's why. Nobody other than your mother loves you enough to send you money. Some of you, not even your mothers. Alright?

Okay. Moving on to the phishing attacksI can’t judge you for falling for.

A common attack is fooling people into thinking they’re on a page for a reputable service. Yes dear reader. I fell for this once. Atomic wallet is a perfectly legitimate proprietary wallet with a mobile app. THEY DON’T HAVE A FIREFOX EXTENSION. I searched to see if they did intending to setup my laptop as a backup device. I saw some random website I didn’t inspect closely posing as them. I dumped my recovery phrase and lost everything in that wallet. It was mostly a humungous amount of Cardano valued at 80,000$ at time of theft. Yikes. At least I didn’t beg congress for a bail out. I never will. Education always beats regulation. Experience always beats enforcement. Learn from my mistake padowans.

I’ve heard of a newer even more subtle grift lately. I keep my ear to the ground constantly for new warnings due to my first hand experience. The new scam is airdropping large amounts of completely useless tokens. These tokens have names used to entice you to malicious unaudited decentralized applications.

Their websites offer exchange services for the tokens they airdropped. They’ve amplified the permissions you sign off on when you link to their applications. Shortly after you link to their services, they drain you. That sounded like an elaborate con indeed to me. I think someone attempted to pull this one on me once. I was using a wallet service built into Samsung phones and saw 300,000 of a weird token appear. I’d never heard of it before. I just ignored it. That was the right call apparently.

I encourage you to look into best practices in general for security. Start using password generators and maintaining your own databases. I personally prefer Keepass2. Its available for both phones and computers. It’s open source and completely free. You can generate and manage passwords up to 256 characters. Such a length would take a millenium or more to brute force. Many phones ship with password managers from Google or Samsung now… I don’t want to use those. I feel okay storing personally encrypted keepass databases on cloud storage, provided I have an offline 2nd factor authentication measure tied to them like a keyfile or a hardware key.

I recently learned some basic steganography (hiding files in jpeg pictures). Through 2 simple command prompt commands you can hide your databases or really any file inside .JPG files. You can get some extra utility out of your giant collection of memes or family photos. A 3GB collection of 1000 pictures suddenly turns into a very large keychain bad actors would have to comb through. They could probably still crack it, but it could buy you vital time.

Consider adding hardware keys to your personal databases. I’ve started investigating products like Yubikey. These devices make your phones, computers, and password managers function more like a car or door to your house. Someone could dump a terrawatt of energy into a processor to brute force your databases. It can’t open without authentication from plugging in the hardware key or tapping NFC connectors on it. GUARD THOSE AS CAREFULLY AS YOUR RECOVERY PHRASES IF YOU USE THEM. Make a backup you can secure in a safe if possible.

Interact with these applications carefully when you’re out in the meat space world. I know it sounds like a headache managing multiple accounts. I manage 16 pools of assets at times. I’m a freak who enjoys masochistic demands on my neural processing power. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone who didn’t want to do it. You should however, consider having at least 2 or 3 services or wallets you use. One of them you treat as a savings account and access in the privacy of your home. The others you have as petty cash pools or payment acceptance locations.

If your services allow you to obfuscate the total value of your pools when you use the app, use that feature. You never know who might be looking over people’s shoulders staring at phones when you’re in public. You don’t brandish your fancy gold encased i-phone in dive bars in Mogadishu. You especially don’t give people the opportunity to see you live in 6 figure hell or 7 figure purgatory. Maybe you want to see how much torture you need before you cave and tell people everything they need to take it. I don’t know. There’s all sorts of fetishes out there.

Observe and cultivate your personal habits mindfully. Vet the applications, websites, and web services you use carefully. People in the crypto space are still debating whether a phone is an acceptable trading device. I feel I’ve hammered out some best practices with mine. Only using wallet applications provided by app stores provides some security in its own right. Apple and Google legally have to at least try and vet those platforms. Hence why it was easier to fall for a fake browser extension than it was a fake wallet app.

Separate user accounts on phones or use hidden folder applications. I’ve caved and committed completely to Samsung phones because they come with secure sandboxed folders baked in. Their Knox security chipsets are considered an industry standard. State actors permit them as work phones for people with security clearances. Research those features thoroughly and use them. They’re not gonna do you any good if you don’t. I’m not gonna shill you any particular phone. Samsung didn’t pay me. You’d have seen more mentions by now to optimize this article for search engines if I was. Just telling you my approach. Separating your user accounts and adopting physical hardware security keys is certainly orders of magnitudes better than any choice of phone alone.

Try to stick with apps and games made by major companies or well established communities. Try to use frequently audited open source apps. Metamask, as buggy as it can be at times, is open source. You might be waiting on it to behave, but I’ve yet to see any exploits directly from the developers in its history of updates. I especially prefer apps made from developers directly involved with cryptocurrency networks. Cosmos station is a wallet application made specifically by and for the Cosmos network (not related to NFTs just an example for community projects). Likewise for Terra Station with Terra Luna. Yoroi is a Cardano wallet application developed by IOHK which is a sister company directly under Cardano itself.

Do at least 1 of the things listed in the section. Do 3. Do all of them. Just do some number, please. People well versed in cryptocurrency aren’t understating with the catchphrase “be your own bank”. Think like a bank (in regards to operational security, not begging state actors to inflate the currencies of host countries). These technologies offer a wealth of freedoms. True freedom , the kind the state has tried to insulate you from with permadaycare, carries responsibilities. There’s no escaping risk here in cryptocurrency. In my mind, there was never any escape from risk anywhere. There’s just especially fewer lies about risk in cryptocurrency. You’ll have to be mindful here. It’s inescapable.

I know I project superiority and contempt at times over here with my dozen different wallets and apps. It’s faux contempt, I promise. It’s just a joke. There’s no shame if you stay in centralized exchanges sheltered in their legal liability to insure your assets. I still highly encourage you to use an insanely long 256 character generated password to access them, and change it every few months. Good security is always in style.

######

I WANNA MAKE MONEY. I LIKE MONEY.

Same. So. The next question for artists is “how do I sell the damn things?” Good question. Here, more than any other section, I’m clearly under qualified. You'll remember my disclosures. I’m also not a business consultant. I've never sold an NFT. This is my opinion as a consumer and moderately knowledgeable speculator.

Therein lies most artists's first mistake. They only know how to think like artists. Never forget. If you enter this space, you’re now also a speculator. You’re speculating on the collectability of your art. You don't need vast artistic talent to make something collectible. Pogs are collectible. Pepsi signs are collectible. Literal feces from alleged holy saints are collectible.

Talent can be really, really helpful, but I feel some artists shoot themselves in the foot. They forget scarcity and rarity is the name of the game. It doesn't matter if everyone knows you can always mint 1000 more. Just don’t do it, and everyone will keep drooling over the last piece you held onto in your collection.

You feel bad about knowingly fucking with the lizard brain?

Leave a link in the description of your piece for physical prints. People always have the option to leave the game. That's their choice. Don't treat NFTs like prints. Everyone else wants them to be special. Don't ruin their game. It's a fun game.

How do you make them collectible?

I've seen 2 strategies. You can do a series of 1 of 1s with a tight impressive theme, or shit out 2000 with generative programs. Sometimes the 2000 piece generated collections have an interesting aesthetic theme as well. Most are pixelated garbage people fooled you into thinking are original crypto punks, or will be as successful by riding their coat tails.

Personally, were I talented, I would consider both strategies. Some generative collections could get people hooked on your style. Nobody wants to feel excluded. Maybe that's a mistake. Or maybe, you could leverage the pseudonymous capabilities of this new technology. You could dump some generative collections on Opensea, accept Known Origin’s invite, and sprinkle super high definition hentai on the Fantom network, all from 3 separate wallet addresses and different platform profiles. What a magical time to be alive.

A generative collection is when you create enough variations of a single picture to generate hundreds of other versions mixing layers. It would be nice if art software came with this function automatically. I don't believe it does at this time.

I've seen how people do this with layer files. People use a program called “node js”. I've never used it. I left links in the tutorials above. It doesn't require any coding ability, but it does require some basic terminal navigation. There's other simple applications run in the programming language “python”. I haven't used that either. I will consider investigating these programs further to offer generative collection creation as a service. Such a service might be unnecessary in the near future. I imagine that feature will be baked in to art software soon enough.

When you make a generative collection you can modify rarity of features to scale their desirability. I imagine confederate flags and FBI caps were a “rare” feature in flurks by Stonetoss. You can make a collection of cats where Siamese are rare, any cat with laser eyes or holding a gun is rare. If your collection catches on, people will go crazy for the one and only Siamese cat with laser eyes holding a gun.

If you go for 1 of 1s keep your theme very coordinated. If it’s good enough, it can be sold for quite a bit. Sometimes it won't even require much marketing. Have you heard of “Nightmare Demons”? Have you heard of “Fantom Gates”? No. I doubt you have. Two pieces I showed off to you in this article are from those collections. You might have noticed the first Nightmare Demon is 25,000$ in Fantom on resale. I don't own anything in that collection, but I'm drooling over it. People are definitely buying other nightmare demons for at least 1500$ in Fantom. I've seen the sale histories.

Fantom Gates is especially interesting for a large collection around 2000 pieces. It's an evolution and demonstration of advanced generative art.

People leveraged artificial intelligence to create very unique pieces very quickly. Even with their quantity being so high, many sold easily for $100-$500 each. You could say it's a perfect fusion of generative art with a 1 of 1 approach. There are no features indicating “rarity”. Every one of them is unique. There's just a large quantity sharing a well executed theme.

Lastly, and I cannot stress this enough, you’ll likely need to be more visible. If not you, at least your project. You can make social network accounts just for advertising your project. You don't have to post your face. I know I wouldn’t. You don't have to be an Instagram thot or Tik Tok investment bro. You should however, probably consider talking to people.

Collectors might not contact you or interact as much, but they could be lurking on discord. They sometimes look for random names to search on Opensea just for shits and giggles.

IRL meetups are probably still the best marketing opportunities. Especially coming out of COVID. People are desperate for chances to mingle again. Art, anime, scifi, and fantasy conventions are notorious for attracting collectors. You can definitely add crypto conventions to that list now. Yes. Those exist. There's likely some bleed over between those communities.

######

CAN’T MAKE ART. I JUST WANNA BUY AND SELL.

Ooooh? You want to join the degenerates like myself? You really want to fuck me dancing on the edge of financial advice… uuuuuuugh. Okay. Again, and I really mean it, THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE. Please, please, please talk to someone licensed. They will tell you I am insane, but free me from liability. There. YOU'RE WARNED. OKAAAAY?!?

…

Okay. What follows is a glimpse into my attitude and some options you won't hear those advisors entertain. Nothing more. My risk profile is through the roof by their estimation, but here's how I've seen things during my journey.

First of all. I’m not a day trader. I’ve never been a day trader. I've never even done technical analysis beyond the odd glimpse at daily market cap. I’m not a swing trader. If it weren’t for losing my job and having to commit to passive income strategies, I'd still be a long term investor.

Now I call myself a medium term investor. My first and most important positions were held over a period of years. Now I make 5-20 moves throughout the year with small bits of other people’s technical analysis describing over arching market trends in 1-4 year cycles. I didn’t get rich quick. I got financially independent kinda fast.

What I do is look for value, listen to value propositions, and exercise judgement on their validity. That's it. If I believe the proposition, and I'm satisfied with the engineering, I don't fuck around diversifying.

That’s the risk I take everyone else will call insane. I've barely started diversifying, and my portfolio isn't even very diverse. It’s 6-8 positions. You see what I'm saying?

Bitcoin’s value proposition was/is, “we need an asset that does the opposite of fiat currency.” I agreed with that thesis, liked the novel engineering approach, and aped in. Every dollar that wasn't food was Bitcoin. The price didn't matter to me. I'll say that again. THE PRICE DIDN'T MATTER. Every day I was thankful someone accepted my toilet paper money for something a central bank never touched.

Were I more committed to the NFT markets as a long term investor, I would just buy cryptopunks, cryptokitties and Bored Ape Yacht Club. The price wouldn't matter. They’re the obvious historical pieces. I believe future trillionaire collectors will obsess over them.

The value proposition of those collections is “humans obsess over inane bullshit. They want pieces of art celebrities touched, and everyone talked about.” I agree with that thesis. I just don't care as much about that sector of the market. I don't want to treat art like just another money grab.

WOAAAAH WOAH WOAH. Remember the disclosures. I am very different from you. I have no children or mortgage. Furthermore, there's levels of commitment and alternative moves with less risk. I'm involved in the NFT market in other ways. I'm cultivating my own tastes for unique art. I’m talking to many artists. I’m listening to their life stories. I’m asking them about their compositions.

That's the advice I've heard from professionals in physical art markets. I’m just following it for digital art markets. I'm promoting legitimacy for an asset platform to help artists. It's somewhat about cash, but also more. I'd do the same thing for physical art. I would never buy a Warhol or Pollock. I don't like their art. No offense. It's just not my taste. I’d kill to own a William Blake. That's my taste. I’d personally kill your mother or father in front of you for 2 William Blakes. One I would die with, the other I'd sell in an emergency, and cry while I part with it. At least its time with me would be added to its story. There you have it.People want to be part of a great story. Now we can keep a perfect history in public ledgers.

“You said I could make money. I don't wanna be cultured.”

Yes. Yes I did. Okay. Let's surrender completely to money grubbing without thought. NFTs and memetic cultural trends will indeed continue to be a gold mine IN MY ESTIMATION. Like the actual gold rush, that value will be spread unpredictably over a vast landscape. Who made the most money during the gold rush? People who made shovels.

So, I'm also looking for blanketed exposure. I'm looking for infrastructure services. That's why I'm also staking with Paint Swap. That's why I look for other art exchanges with governance tokens like Rarible. Allegedly, Opensea is going public or releasing an initial coin offering in the near future. If I was still in the stock market, I’d buy stock in Coinbase prior to their NFT market release. I believe that’ll be a positive news cycle for them. Also, remember. All these projects run inside other networks. Simply buying Ethereum or Fantom gets me exposure to the NFT markets inside them, albeit a couple degrees away.

That's everything I'm doing as a talentless hack. That's how I think and FEEL as a speculator. DON'T DO IT JUST BECAUSE I SAID IT.

######

GOODBYE

Yup. That's the whole kitten caboodle. Hope it's all of some use to you. I assure you I could go on. I’m considering an additional more technical article aimed at collectors to help them view, transfer, resale NFTs, and more. I look at this article as an introduction to the “idea” of NFTs for artists and consumers. It’s not a book, but paired with the links I’ve sprinkled in here, it really does compile to book size. By all means, lose yourself in the deep dive, and we can see what questions remain after that to direct my future writings.

Artists. I've said it before, but I'll say it again. I can't promise success, but I promise you, you can make NFTs. You know how I know? Your staring at one right now. That's right. I made this article into an NFT. It cost me all of 120 dollars in ETH gas fees. Sometimes you just gotta follow through to make a point.

So artists. Please. I beseech you. Let me give you my money while remaining a degenerate speculator. I'm racked with residual guilt and impostor syndrome. I need to complete my transition from undeservingly lucky nouveau riche, to daring upstart patron of the arts.

Best of luck. Stay safe out their gamblers.

Thankyou for reading my blog post.

######

TOOLS, SERVICES, AND STOREFRONTS REFERENCED.

EXCHANGES

Browser/mobile Metamask ethereum virtual machine network wallet.

Browser/mobile Terra Luna Terra station wallet.

Browser/mobile Gemini exchange.

Browser/mobile Coinbase exchange.

Mobile Crypto.com exchange.

Browser/mobile Binance US exchange.

Browser/mobile FTXpro US exchange.

DAPPS/STOREFRONTS

Fantom Paintswap NFT store.

Ethereum/Polygon Opensea NFT store.

Terra Luna Randomearth NFT store.

Terra Luna Knowhere art NFT store.

Terra Luna Talist NFT store.

Ethereum Known Origin NFT store.

Ethereum Async Art NFT store.

Ethereum Nifty Gateway NFT store.

Ethereum Super Rare NFT store.

Ethereum/Solana Rarible NFT store.

Ethereum Mintable NFT store.

Fantom Artion NFT store.

######

OPTIONAL EXTRA HOMEWORK.

Warning. Could be overwhelming. Really, completely totally optional.

Basic blockchain definition and outline (additional video explanation).

Kyle Rittenhouse service denial during his court case.

How the infrastructure bill may effect crypto traders.

Mining/staking explanations and other consensus mechanisms (additional sources 1, and 2).

Blockchain games like Cryptokitties and Axie Infiity explained.

How NFT royalties work.

NFT relationship to securities.

Notable events in the music piracy crisis. (Additional reading, very interesting).

Detailed history of torrents and peer to peer filesharing.

Most notable attempt at violent shut down of torrenting.

Explanation of smart contracts and automated digital acounts.

Comparison of UTXO VS account ledger model.

Solidity explanation and features.

Summary of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Recent major service outages and failures.

Explanation of IPFS storage protocol (additional sources 1, 2 (directly from an IPFS provider no less), and 3,).

Law enforecement backdoors to everything. Definitely tip of the iceberg. Reject Pluton chipset. Embrace vintage Thinkpad collection.

Explanation of Filecoin service.

Explanation of Arweave arweave.

Server farm waste heat applications. Might not be that bad a flaw. People are discussing repurposing waste heat for energy. Would be fucking genius to just not use that much energy though… Like Arweave maybe?!?

Logan Paul showing off his prized Charizard.

Explanation of Monero privacey vs other cryptocurrencies.

Explanation of the Silkroad bust.

Explanation of cryptocurrency mixer and tumbler services.

Free ebook of Accelerando by Charles Stross. Completely free. No torrents needed. Go ahead. Take it. Join me in the pirate master race. Charles Stross has enough money.

Explanation of Radix token.

Explanation of crypto network bridges and transfers.

Summary of NFT legal status with copyright.

NFTSupreme Court ruling.

Interesting review of seashell money.See? It’s real.

Explanation of Terra Luna coin.

Explanation of Binance coin.

Explanation DEFI application.

Summary of Flurks by Stonetoss in recent memetic history

Explanation of Polygon network.

Explanation of Fantom network.

Explanation of algorithmic stablecoins.

Explanation of oracle services.

Explanation of tokenomics and its role in cryptocurrency.

Explanation of game theory and it’s role in cryptocurrency.

Explanation of the ICO and craze and its historical impact.

Explanation of the Cardano network.

Explanation of Solana network.

Explanation of byzantine fault tolerance and its role in network security.

Explanation of zero knowledge proofs and secure private transactions.

Explanation of ZK rollups and scaling solutions in crypto.

Explanation of layer 1 vs layer 2 solutions.

Explanation of Craig Wright, the man attempting to prove he’s Satoshi Nakamoto

Explanationf of the blockchain trilemma and scaling issues.

Opensea lazy minting explained.

Basic phishing techniques.

Downloads for KeePass database manager. Get it people. Own your own databases damn it.

Most basic steganography commands.

Where to buy yubikeys hardware keys. Use them or don’t. I ain’t got no affililate link. I just like them.

Instructions for making multiple accounts on Android.

Useful app to help further sandbox your applications on android

details on the KNOX chipset and practices. They’re likely over selling themselves. The only completely “secure” phone is likely this.

Description of open source code and benefits.

Auditing service example (additional reading).

Explanation of ERC token types and their application.

By Guy Noir, Private Investigator (not an actual private investigator)

PUBLIC EMAIL: Guy.Noir.P.I.713@protonmail.com

DONATION WALLET ADDRESS: 0x0DE4C6EAcc31435A15f6505DBe6d0da8B1D253E6

PREFERRED NETWORKS: MATIC, ETH, FTM, BNB, AVAX, MOVR, CRO

Please use the respective network tokens on their network. I’ll explain how to do so in this article. ETH on ETH, FTM on FTM, AVAX on AVAX etc.

MY CURRENT EDTIONS: Thich Nhat Hanh, and Shunryu Suzuki

DIFFICULTY: intermediate-advanced

DESCRIPTION: Tutorial on how to add networks and navigate between them, implement yield farms and other decentralized applications, and opinions about the DEFI space. DISCLOSURES APPLY. REFER TO MY FIRST POST HERE. DISCLOSURES ARE IN ALL CAPS.

PLUGS AND PROMOTION: As of now, these are the people I’m most interested in. None of them paid me. I just like their art and have sentimental attachment to it. Blaquecloud is one of my oldest friends. She doesn’t have any NFT collections. It’s still great art. You can buy her prints if you agree. Zaldin tarot was the first person who’s work drove me crazy on Opensea. I want to see his tarot cards on a shelf someday. Mehrdad Malek is a videogame designer and generally solid artist. I loved his inktober collection. It gave me hope that this space will attract people working in a classical medium still. Londonpixel club was the first person I ever bought from. I’m not usually a fan pixelated cryptopunk art styles. I like that he was a “littleguy” in the space however, and enjoyed the idea of regional themed punks made by ordinary people attached to their cultural identity. If you can’t buy, that’s fine. If you like it, then like it. I hope you enjoy.

https://www.blaquecloud.com/ https://www.instagram.com/zaldintarot/ https://opensea.io/collection/zaldintarot https://mobile.twitter.com/MehrdadMalek1 https://www.instagram.com/londonpixelclub/

NOTE

This post is inspired and primarily directed at a trading group a close friend introduced me to.  I'll be "assuming the sale" here. I'm assuming I don't have to convince you to take your first steps into decentralized finance. The aforementioned trading group was composed of people experienced in centralized trading services, who were aware of techniques like yield farming, and just wanted a breakdown of steps to access farms. As such, I'll share only a few technical details about how yield farms operate. My primary objective is to review multi-chain network and decentralized application navigation, and share some opinions about various farms.

I'll use the positions in my portfolio as case studies and working examples. My disclosures should be especially emphasized here. I need to be clear about my intentions. Don't copy and paste the actions I review here. The point of this article isn't to make everyone have my portfolio. It's to teach network navigation, nothing more. The actions I took were just especially easy to review. They drew on my personal memory and experience. I’m still just an unpaid fanboy. No one from any of these services compensated me for mentioning them. If you find a type of DAPP that fills the same role as the ones mentioned here, by all means tell me. I love new toys.

######

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION some basic descriptions of the DEFI space.

LOADING THE NETWORKS how to get multiple networks on your Metamask wallet.

LOADING TOKENS how to get Metamask to recognize tokens, and accounting for them.

MOVING TOKENS BETWEEN NETWORKS guide to Rubic, a multi-chain exchange aggregrator.

FANTOM FARMING guide to reaper.farm and it’s zap feature.

POLYGON FARMING guide to polycat.finance and how to get LP tokens

BREAK FOR REFLECTION pausing to recap and make some observations

NETWORKS UNSUPPORTED BY METAMASK guide to alternative networks and their tools

IS IT ALL A SCAM conclusion and closing remarks.

######

INTRODUCTION.

Lets get into it. Here's the basic steps. Create a wallet (Metmask is what I'm most familiar with), add networks, acquire and import tokens, use them to provide liquidity to pools, and go to yield farms to mine with your liquidity pool tokens (LP tokens). If you want to exit your new farming position, you just do all that in reverse working your way back. Withdraw the LP tokens from the farm, withdraw the original tokens from the liquidity pool, etc.

Some farms or services have features which streamline the process. I'm a huge fan of "zaps". With zaps you don't even need to shop around for liquidity pools on a bunch of decentralized exchanges. You go straight to the yield farm and deposit or withdraw however much of a token you want. They automate the transactions involved with turning one token into an LP token, and deposit it into their farming strategies. There's also "single sided" farms. I don't know how they work. I just know it's Aave's claim to fame. Other farms give you a quick button to let you access Aave's farms from their service. They want to offer a broad selection of strategies to attract you.

I can't explain every farming strategy to you. Some are very simple. They just autocompound rewards to accelerate your annual percentage rate. Yearn finance used to specialize in stablecoin arbitrage. They automated purchases of temporarily undervalued stablecoins like DAI or Tether when they drop a cent or 2 in tumultuous market cycles. It's an act of faith in the varied incentive strategies stablecoins use to maintain their pegs. They have many more strategies in their vaults and farms now. Other strategies could involve a dozen different repeated ongoing transactions for a multitude of reasons. Strategies are developed and voted on in an ongoing basis. You should research and pick your farming positions carefully and interact with the farm community regularly through their social media. I'm presently on the discord servers of Reaper farm and Polycat.

Liquidity pools are the crown jewel of decentralized exchanges. They're what make decentralized finance possible. They're the  answer to the question "how do we get people to give us money for others to play with". The traditional model used in stock exchanges was an "order book". One institution takes on the burden of being a "market maker". No matter what, they're always available to buy and sell to. It requires vast amounts of cash "liquidity".

Decentralized exchanges and automated market makers created an incentive for ordinary people to provide that kind of liquidity on a massive scale. In a liquidity pool 2 or more tokens are bound together as a trading pair in a symbiotic relationship. Take ETH and USDC. When a person buys ETH from a liquidity pool in USDC they aren't giving it to an institution. They're adding to the USDC side of the liquidity pool and given a proportional amount of ETH for the transaction. There you have it. It's heavily incentivized for the total value locked in a liquidity pool to balance itself out between a trading pair. Someone changes the balance on one side of the pool, and the AMM changes its valuation of ETH proportionally. Eventually the price of ETH will increase to where someone would be crazy not to take advantage of the arbitrage opportunity. They'll cash out their ETH for the USDC side of the pool, and so on so forth.

Every transaction with a decentralized exchange carries multiple fees with it. There's the gas fee for the base network, a fee for the decentralized exchange, and a fee for liquidity pool providers (ordinary people with LP tokens like you or me). This is the price for ease of movement. Sorry, but someone's gotta make money somehow. You could be that person. Plus there's good news for both sides. Even with fees, the overhead can be a hell of a lot cheaper if you choose the right network.

Traditional stock exchanges sometimes charge 1-5% fees for every transaction. Decentralized exchanges can be profitable for a fraction of that, especially if you accelerate your LP tokens by farming them. Depending on the choice of network, I could be lying to you. Obviously, It’d be unwise to attempt small scale arbitrage with a couple hundred bucks on Ethereum right now. Just kiss it goodbye. Thanks gas fees. The game however, must go on. Gamblers gonna gamble. Goodbye Ethereum. Hello Polygon/Fantom/Binance. Get back to us when ETH 2.0 sharding brings fees down to .0000001 ETH.

######

LOADING THE NETWORKS

With that you have the first step. How do we get on Polygon/Fantom/Binance? Not how do we get their tokens. How do I get a position in a wallet on their networks? First, you have to import them into Metamask. I originally only knew how to do this manually. I’ll keep those instructions in this section. Feel free to read it all the way through, or skip if one of these other 2 methods work for you first.

First of all, I’ve found most decentralized applications simply provide network switches for you as needed when you navigate their services. Sites like Reaper which I’ll cover in a minute will give a message when you first hit connect in your wallet. They notice if you’re not on the Fantom network, and give a pop up saying something to the effect of “hey, you’re on the wrong network. Approve this message for us to help you add Fantom”. That’s basically all I do when setting up new wallets now.

In some cases however, a service functions on multiple networks at once. They usually don’t give you any message like that. You could look up the information you need manually as I’ll cover below, or you could use this other service I recently found called Chainlist. It’s a solid little tool for plug and play networks on your wallet. You might look up some crazy new DEX even I’m not aware of, and find it runs on Boba or xDai networks. You could just go to Chainlist, search Boba click “connect wallet on the box that says Boba, and it will add it. Too easy. Here’s what it looks like. Ignore their ad for their Multichain swaps. It might be more useful than what I’ll cover in a bit, but I haven’t used it and thereby won’t vouch for it. I’m just saying ignore for the purpose of adding networks.

To import the networks manually, go to settings in your actual wallet. You should see an option for "networks". It should take you to a page that looks like this.

As you can see, I've already added quite a few networks in the "RPC" networks field. This is the section people are referring to when they talk about adding networks. You'll also see an option to "add networks" using the blue button at the bottom. Pretty cut and dry. If you push the blue button it takes you to a page that looks like this.

You have to fill these fields out correctly in order to add the networks. You can actually name them whatever you want at the top. You'll still be able to use them as long as the rest of the information is correct. It makes no difference if you go with "Polygon mainnet" or just "Polygon" in the name, or even just "MATIC".

You'll see in the previous picture I've added Polygon, Avalanche, Binance, Fantom, Cronos, and Moonriver. Polygon is considered the premiere layer 2 solution for Ethereum. With good reason. It's hella cheap and hella fast. Fantom is kind of like a weird step child layer 1. It's protocol can also be very fast and cheap, but I've seen some bugs in some DAPPs at times. It's structure which makes it fast is called a directed acyclic graph (DAG). Transaction nodes don't keep a humongous uniform record across every node in the network. It's not as tried and tested as uniform block histories. They take other measures to maintain security. I won't cover them here for brevity's sake. Feel free to research the DAG protocol structure in greater detail. You could say other tokens like XRP prototyped elements of the structure for them. Binance chain is a near copy paste of Ethereum, but with proof of staked authority as the consensus mechanism instead of proof of work/stake. I don't know the finer details. The broad strokes are it's considerably faster, but may be less secure depending on your viewpoint. Yes. Binance, a central institution, is a considerable stakeholder. I believe people have to interact with them directly to get permission to run a validator node. You don't need permission to delegate a stake, however. Some people might believe this makes it more secure. Some hyper libertarians might want nothing to do with it. They claim to be working to become less centralized. Either way, I've encountered no bugs with their DAPPs yet. To be fair, I just started using it.

Those 3 networks, along with Terra Luna (using a separate application called Terra Station), and Ethereum if you want to count my NFT speculation, are my current primary tools. The other 3 I call my "foot in the door" networks. I have just barely 1-3 of their tokens in their networks in my wallets. I just wanted some gas in my tank for when I decide on some farms later this year. I know only a few blurbs about the other 3. Avalanche is also a layer 1 solution. I believe Moonriver is actually a parachain in the Polkadot system. It's just a parachain also running an Ethereum virtual machine. It sounds like an interesting experiment. Developers are supposed to be able to just copy paste their work seamlessly to migrate their DAPPs and reduce gas fees. Cronos, like Binance, is a newer network developed by a centralized exchange, crypto.com in this case. I know literally nothing about it's protocol. I just happen to use and like the centralized exchange. If such a move affects their exchange token CRO similarly to Binance I believe we could see... considerable upward movement. I wouldn't have considered it at all if I wasn't already staking 5000 CRO in the centralized exchange in order to access their ruby rewards debit card. I saw them release the network and thought, "well. Why not use it eventually?"

In order to add any or all of those networks please see the information below for the required fields. Just copy, paste, and click add. The symbol is the short exchange ticker in all caps next to the network name.

Binance Smart Chain, BNB RPC: https://bsc-dataseed.binance.org/ ID: 56 EXPLORER: https://bscscan.com

Polygon Mainnet, MATIC RPC: https://polygon-rpc.com/ ID: 137 EXPLORER: https://bscscan.com//

Avalanche Mainnet, AVAX RPC: https://api.avax.network/ext/bc/C/rpc ID: 43114 EXPLORER: https://cchain.explorer.avax.network/

Fantom Opera, FTM RPC: https://rpc.ftm.tools/ ID: 250EXPLORER: https://ftmscan.com

Moonriver, MOVR RPC: https://rpc.moonriver.moonbeam.network ID: 1285 EXPLORER: https://blockscout.moonriver.moonbeam.network/

Cronos Mainnet RPC: https://evm-cronos.crypto.org/ ID: 25 EXPLORER: https://cronos.crypto.org/explorer/

There's many networks apart from these you might research and find you wish to integrate in your own strategy. Hell, there might even be more than a dozen at this point. Some are less removed layer 2 solutions worked on by developers closely tied to the main Ethereum project like Arbitrum and Optimism. Some are more unique layer 1 or 2 solutions developed by outsiders like xDai, Harmony One, Boba, and more. I know nothing about those beyond their existence, but feel free to research them. You can usually find the information to add those networks by googling "add (insert network) to Metamask". It's how I found the information above. The only barrier is awareness of a network's existence. You're almost guaranteed to find a Medium article about any network in the first 2 pages of results from Google. They usually provide the information to add it to Metamask.

Alright. You've added the networks. To switch between them, just go to the wallet section that pops up on startup and click the top bar I circled in red below. You'll see a network selection menu pops up. You'll always see the test nets in there as well. I don't know why. I just ignore them. Just scroll down in that menu and you'll see the new networks in the "RPC" section. Congratulations you just added a tool to the Swiss army knife.

######

LOADING TOKENS

Before we get to moving the tokens, it helps to be able to see them at times. Many people leaving centralized exchanges for the first time opt for simpler tools and wallets like Exodus, Ledger, and many others. They have some advantages in graphic user interfaces and baked in tools. They go to settings and see options to hide and show a vast array of tokens. They don’t even know they’re barely seeing a pond compared to the ocean available to them. In Metamask there’s no clean on off buttons in some cases. You open it up for the first time and this is all you see. There’s the option to import tokens, and it works much easier on the Ethereum network. That won’t always be the case you’ll soon see.

Click import and you’ll be brought to this screen. They let you search tokens, which is great, but there’s no clean slider like in Exodus to show you everything. That’s a feature, not a flaw. You’re in the actual ocean now. It’s not going to scour the entire network for every contract. There’s thousands upon thousands of coins, most of which are useless. When I set up any network on any wallet I usually just search to import stablecoins, even if I don’t own any. It’s the kind of thing I like to see by default for profit taking season. Let’s search for USDC

There you see it. Click it so that it’s outlined in blue and selected, then scroll down and hit “IMPORT”

Give it a second to load. The wallet will refresh. You will see it soon

That was the easy part. Metmask ain’t gonna do us any more favors. Switch networks, hit import tokens, and this is all you’re gonna get.

Worry not. It’s not that hard I swear. If you know the token address, you just copy paste that, then click the next box on token symbol and it usually self populates. You’re probably wondering where to find token addresses though aren’t you? Also not hard. For this example, I’ll add USDC to my Fantom network section of the wallet. Head over to coingecko and search USDC. Then scroll down until you see the option to show more info. I also use coinmarketcap.com sometimes. They have a similar setup.

Click it and you’ll see the first bit of information it shows you is the contract address. Click the drop down arrow and shows you all the contract addresses on all the networks it’s present on. Pretty nifty huh?

I’m just gonna copy that Fantom network address and head back to paste it in the custom token address section. Like I said, it self populated everything else after I clicked out and moved to the Token Symbol box. Too easy.

Scroll down, hit import and you’ll now see USDC populated in the Fantom network section too.

You can do this for literally any token you can find out there. You can even do it for your LP tokens. All of it. If your a heavy trader, you might end up with a very diversified portfolio on a very diversified network spread. Importing tokens a million times again if you switch devices is a headache. I’ve done it 3 times. Fuck that noise. So let me just reassure you that it really doesn’t matter if you’ve imported them on Metamask. It’s just a wallet, a tool to sign off transactions and view your positions as you please. The network permanently knows all of your holdings, forever and always. If you navigate to a decentralized exchange or DAPP and connect your wallet, they now have viewing privileges to show you your holdings and let you authorize transfers. If you want to trade DAI for FTM on Spookyswap, they’ll show you your DAI positions on their site. They let you trade a token even if you didn’t import them to Metamask. It’s for this reason, I don’t even bother importing anything anymore. I promise it just becomes second nature for you after a while. I understand if you don’t want to play it as fast and loose as me. That’s why I even bothered with this section.

Additionally, I don’t play it quite as fast and loose as you might think. There now exists DAPPS which help with accountability. I cannot communicate to you the relief I felt upon discovering Apeboard. I didn’t even need to link a million different wallets tons of times. You just build a profile copying and pasting your public wallet addresses (the pale blue circle you copy and paste from directly under the account name in pictures I just showed you).

If you want to create a profile, you select manage, and then edit. It’ll take you to this little hub to collect everything all in one place.

You’ll see in this case it’s even easier for someone like me. I have many wallets, each connected to many networks. The one public address you saw in my wallet screenshots is technically a kind of public address for 6 different wallets if you think about it. I paste it to add it to my Ethereum network profile, Fantom, Polygon, etc. I have several other wallets with the same setup. 3 public addresses would need to be added 6 different times for a total of 18 instances of pools which need accounting (I have many more public addresses than that). It sounds like a lot of information, and technically it is, but I just keep my public addresses collected in a little .txt note in case I lose access to this profile I’ve created. Once you create a profile, it’s set and forget.

Once you’ve created a profile you can easily share it from this little button in the main dashboard window. It takes you to a little window with all the addresses listed and a share button which takes you here. Copy that link and you can import it to any browser a dozen times. Too easy.

With that I’ve added easy accountability to the Swiss army knife. I’ve heard of several other “DEFI dashboard” DAPPs like this. There’s also Zerion and Debank I believe. I tried using Debank, but last I looked they only supported the Ethereum network. That was a while ago. Things might have changed. That phrase “DEFI dashboard” is what you’re looking for in a service.

######

MOVING TOKENS BETWEEN NETWORKS

Now we need tokens on all these networks if we’re gonna use them. Ethereum needs Ether for gas, all of these need their own network tokens. This used to be the most frustrating part about being a DEFI degenerate. It was never insanely difficult. It was just a lot of services and DAPPs to bookmark and switch between a million times. You'd have to buy on a centralized exchange. They usually only operated on the Ethereum network. Then you'd have to move it to the Ethereum instance on your Metamask, and find a DAPP that offers bridging services. That. Is. A. Lot. Of. Gas. It's also a lot of steps. Sounds tiring doesn't it? It was. Sometimes a bridging service could only handle so many tokens at once in a transaction due to network activity. That tacked on even more transactions and gas.

Worry not. I come bearing the good news of our Lord and Savior app.rubic.exchange and multichain aggregation. This great new exchange uses their personal token as a kind of trading pair to rule all trading pairs. It doesn't need a new network. Their protocol just coordinates exchanges and movement based on its valuation in every network at once. They use it as a tool to make their aggregator a one stop shop for all bridging and cross chain exchanges. It works great most of the time, and I love it. The only hiccups I've seen it have was when I tried transactions from the Fantom network for some reason.

Here's what it looks like. It’s swap function is the first window it’ll take you to. It's appearance resembles almost any other decentralized exchange, but with its one killer feature added to it. You'll see I've circled in red I'm simulating a trade of Ether on Ethereum for wrapped Ether on Binance highlighted in yellow. When you click on either of token symbols in the middle of the screen you see this screen come up. The left side indicates the network. The right side indicates the token. It's that simple.

When you want to perform a trade/bridge make sure you initiate the trade from the network you want to migrate away from. You'll see here in my simulation I was still on the Fantom network, because I was doing stuff on it earlier and was lazy. The trade would have to be initiated from the Ethereum network. It would've been rejected if I attempted the transaction. People are always so needlessly terrified of these scary new DAPPs. Usually the worst thing to be afraid of is a rejected transaction because your internet was iffy for a second. Money won't magically be stolen so easily. Just give another few tries and it'll work eventually. The kids these days and rejection. I swear.

So the lesson is before you even go to the site, have the trade you want to perform in mind and navigate to the appropriate sending network in the wallet section of Metamask. I've now given you the 2nd tool of DEFI, easy access to cross chain gas. You technically don't even need a centralized exchange service anymore with all these bread crumbs. Click the menu bar in Rubic and you'll see they have a fiat on-ramp. You can buy multiple blue chip tokens on multiple networks through widgets connecting straight to services like Moonpay. However, the fee is hefty and the exchange rate is underwhelming. Just illustrating it's an option.

At time of writing, my favorite method to enter any network is through Polygon and Rubic. Crypto.com let's you buy MATIC then export directly to wallets on the Polygon network. I just set up my wallet to recognize that network, and trade away on Rubic. It's pretty freaking sweet. I don't know if Coinbase has Polygon network transfers. If it doesn't, and I had no other option, I'd buy an exorbitant amount of Ethereum for several months worth of trading at a time, transfer to Metamask, do an enormous trade from Ethereum main net to MATIC on Polygon, and get gouged on that transaction and that transaction only. Get that out of the way, and get mobile. Take note, I don't mean I want to dump ETH for MATIC. I still have positions in ETH. It's just that they're wrapped ETH on other networks. That one giant move to MATIC was just my initial entry method before I established my cross chain spread.

######

FANTOM FARMING

So. We have a wallet. We have access to multiple networks. We have the ability to move value between them with ease. Now, we can at last get to the entire point of this article. Yield farming on decentralized finance applications. Technically there's still one more step of acquiring the aforementioned LP tokens. However, I feel guilty stringing you on so long and still not showing you a single picture of a yield farm. We technically have all the tools we need to perform a zap on reaper farm though. We can start with that and cover LP tokens once we need them.

At this point I'll assume you've added at least the Polygon and Fantom network, and performed a cross chain swap to get some FTM token on its home network. Now let's make our way over to reaper.farm and see what tickles our fancy. Reaper is one of many yield farms. It's my favorite on Fantom because it's less a farm, and more an aggregator. Technically almost every exchange is now hosting yield farms alongside their swap services. I don't want to visit every exchange day in and day out. I want to see it all in one place. Plus, the exchanges don't invest time to develop the best strategies possible. They have dozens of trading pairs to focus on balancing and maintaining. Even their farms can offer intriguing APYs, they're just not going to regularly harvest and compound for you. When you go to Reaper and connect your wallet you'll see right away they have search fields to filter your choice of tokens and networks. Ordinarily this button will say connect.

Farm host means choosing an exchange, and token obviously means choosing a token pair. If you want to get straight to the juicy yields you can just let it show you everything and click sort by annual percentage yield (APY). Now you're thinking like a degenerate.

"Tomb shares? What the hell is that?"

"Who cares? I can earn 1000% APY. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?"

Lol. Lmao. Go ahead man. Do it. For real, though. I feel bad for the moderators on Reaper's discord. They literally hear that question 70 times a day. It's a project trying to provide a token called tomb. They want tomb to mirror the price of FTM so projects can accumulate liquidity without having to hoard FTM and mess with gas fees. It actually already failed once a couple years ago. Some billionaire bought up all it's governance tokens called T-SHARE and hired a bunch of developers to resurrect it. He wants to make it the "Yearn Finance" of the Fantom network. I have no idea if it will pan out. Reaper has no idea if it will pan out. No farm has any idea if any token will pan out. Don't ask them to tell you what to do on their Discords. Do your own research.

If you continue scrolling down you'll see there's plenty of token pairs with APYs above 100% from plenty of different exchanges. There's even stablecoin farms with APYs above 20%. Yeaaah. You're feeling greedy now.

"20%?"

"PFFFFFFT. So what?"

You now have the option to beat the S&P 500 year after year until the dollar is inflated out of existence. It's not enough. It's never enough. Finally my suffering has company. If you pay attention you'll see there's farms for blue chips with well over 30% APY. It's no 1000%, but you could diversify your portfolio and earn with it at the same time. I'm currently in the FTM/WETH farm. I wanted a position in FTM and ETH. It was an easy choice.

I try to be careful with my choice of exchange for farm host. Too my knowledge, Spookyswap is the only one with zaps on Reaper. That's perfectly fine with me. I found it's considered especially respectable. It’s maintained a bridge to/from Ethereum for an extended period of time. People often refer to it as the "Uniswap of Fantom", and it has a vast pool of locked liquidity. I don't lose sleep farming with them. let's move on to that beloved zap feature.

This is what I'm talking about riiiiight here. You'll see below there's a drop down menu. It gives you the option to select the LP token, OR any one of the tokens part of the trading pair. I go all in with FTM. Reaper swaps half of it to CRV in this example, locks them in the pool for LP tokens, then deposits them in their auto-compounding strategy. All that happens in one transaction. I approve my token for the smart contract, deposit, sit, and watch number go up.

If you ever want to check up on your deposit with them, you just go to the homepage. Check the box labeled "staked", and bam, you see the details of your deposit, how many LP tokens you have, and an estimation of where you'll be in a year with your current strategies (assuming the price of the tokens you provide stays where it is lol).

That's it for reaper. You might consider the SpiritSwap and Beethovenx vaults. I've likewise heard great things about Spiritswap as Spooky's main competitor, and Beethovenx has the highest yielding stablecoins pool with a triple distribution of MAI, DAI, and USDC. It has about a 30% APY. Both will require getting LP tokens from he spiritswap.finance and beets.fi exchanges. I’ll cover this process shortly. Eventually I intend to farm some SHADE for a longer period. Shade.cash is a mixer service. Like it or not, money laundering has a market. Plus, one government agency’s definition of money laundering is another man’s earnest desire for simple privacy and security. You could use it to protect yourself when you travel abroad. You could have a trusted party create a vault at shade.cash, and withhold the code from you until you return. Now tech savvy kidnappers or thieves could clone and decrypt your phone without seeing you’re a crypto baron. Just keep your mouth shut and do everything they say. MAKE SURE THAT TRUSTED 3RD PARTY IS TRUSTWORTHY.

I'm also farming the FTM/BRUSH pool on Paintswap. If you go to paintswap.finance and click the menu icon you'll see where you can swap some FTM for BRUSH, put them in a pool, and farm them all in the same menu. They do all their farming internally. I haven't seen anyone else strategize around them yet. They're a niche weirdo trying to be a coin exchange and NFT exchange at the same time. I like the collections I've seen there, and simply wanted to support it.

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POLYGON FARMING

Alright. All that got you through to the easiest farming hub. Let's do it all again but shoulder a little more of the work on ourselves. Let's do polycat. Switch back over to that wallet window. Switch to the polygon network like we covered at the start and navigate to polycat.finance in the browser section of Metamask. Polycat is a yield farm aggregator much like reaper. They have swap services because why not? It's a function you can bake into your DAPP with a copy paste from Github at this point. Trading fees earn money too. There selection of vaults is exceptionally varied, much like reaper. The lack of zaps is the only short coming. See below for a picture of their menu and services. Vaults and farms are the bread and butter.

Due to the lack of zaps, I’d suggest you to take your time looking at their selection. No matter which vault you pick, you'll have the added step of going to the exchange involved to acquire LP tokens. Go to the farm section and select “platforms”. These are the outside exchanges you can farm tokens from. The one’s I've heard about the most are Sushiswap, Aave, Quickswap, Apeswap, and Curve. You've likely heard of Sushiswap the most. It’s a name brand even novices are aware of at this point. It likely has the most total value locked and audits at this point. Nothing wrong with sticking with the name brand. You’ll see 30% APY vaults for blue chips available. I look at my Reaper positions as the riskier speculation, and Polycat as my safer place to park profits midway through a bull cycle. Ape in to T-share, then keep gambling a liiiittle bit longer in an ETH/USDC pool that's still earning or something like that.

For the purpose of this article, let's assume you pick the Sushiswap WETH/USDC pool. Now you need their LP tokens. All that work was just for window shopping. Now we do the real work. Head over to Sushiswap. If you've used it before on Ethereum I’d logout and reconnect just to make extra sure it’s recognizing your wallet switched to the polygon network. All that being done, you need to go to the “liquidity” function.

Once there, select WETH and USDC in the top and bottom token selection slots. Adding to the pool means depositing to both sides of the pool in equal measure at time of transaction. If you fill in the quantity you wish to add on one side of the pool the exchange fills in the appropriate amount in the other box. Say you want to add 1 WETH and it’s valued at 3000 USDC at the time. Type in 1 on the WETH box and the USDC will populate with 3000 automatically. Make sure you have the appropriate amounts of both tokens you wish to deposit. I never have the absolute perfect amount of tokens. I pick whichever is valued lower, type that in first, and let the DAPP populate the other end. If you’re playing with the actual network tokens like MATIC while on the polygon network, remember you need those for gas. Make sure boxes aren't automatically populating with your total holdings of MATIC or FTM while you're on their respective networks.

Once you have the details decided, approve token access for Sushiswap as seen at the bottom. You need to approve both sides of the token pool. Afterward, you'll see the option to add liquidity pop up. Confirm that, and bam, you now have LP tokens. NOW… we can farm them on Polycat. Yes you'll have to do that for every token pair you wish to farm and on every platform you wish to farm them on. COME ON PEOPLE. GET WITH THE ZAPS.

Go back to Polycat, go back to vaults, select the Sushiswap platform, select the WETH/USDC vault. You'll see this window pop up. It will adjust to recognize you now have LP tokens. Approve the app to perform transactions with them and that button will change to “deposit”. Hit that and BOOM, you're now earning interest on your LP tokens.

You'll note I directed you to the vault section of this platform to do all this. I’m still navigating when something is a vault vs. a farm and what the difference is even supposed to be. From navigating this website, it seems vaults are their aggregation service. That's where they've curated a selection of LP farming strategies using other exchanges and platforms. The farm section is where they give you the option to earn LP tokens internally from their own exchange service. You'll see a similar setup to their vault section, but with token pairs from their own swapping pools. I might use them in the future. I'm not at present. No judgement calls yet, just informing you about the setup. It will certainly involve less steps farming internally. You just better be confident the service will continue to exist. I think it will. I'm just lazy and don't want to complicate my portfolio further.

I kind of jumped the gun with too little detail on Paintswap earlier. I basically just gave you the steps, only on Polycat. I glazed over saying “here's where you can swap, pool, and farm in their menu”. These are the steps I was talking about. Go to Fantom network, go to paintswap.finance and click on their menu. Under “exchange” in their DEX you'll be taken to a swapping menu resembling what I showed you on Sushiswap. Perform a trade for the token pairs you want to farm, go to liquidity in the menu and deposit for LP tokens, then navigate to farms and find your appropriate LP farm to approve and deposit. It appears their farming situation resembles the farming section of Polycat. I believe those are all internal pools and farms. They're not in the aggregator business. They’re split between their little exchange and NFT business model.

#####

BREAK FOR REFLECTION

I've said it over and over. I'll say it again. None of that was telling you what to actually do with your money, just instruction. Let’s go over some observations we can infer from everything I've shown you. There's many kinds of services a platform can bundle into their DAPPS. There's simple exchanges with automated market makers and liquidity pools, NFT storefronts, aggregation of exchange or liquidity farming, and more. Hell you're looking at a subgenre of the NFT storefront business right now. Now with mirror.xyz we have cloud storage for written word in conjunction with visual media. I’m sure one day we’ll have tokenized DEFI insurance bundled into an NFT represented through some stupid cartoon penguins. It's just a matter of time. Just wait. Many DAPPs try to do 2 or even 3 services at once. One might be their claim to fame like Paintswap's NFT market. The other services are bundled to invite you to stay in their garden of liquidity. The developers gotta get their hands on that paper. They gotta eat. More transaction volume means more transaction fees. Every little bit makes a difference.

You might have inferred by now all this decentralization can be a blessing and a curse. The boundaries between all these services is very obviously blurred. This means it's insanely easier to make a little “micro Google” to search through other exchanges and their liquidity pools. It also means noobs might accidentally add to Polycat’s internal farms when they meant to just use their strategies in the Sushiswap vaults. Hopefully, this article helps prevent that. You’re a big boy. Do your due diligence to understand what you’re doing before you do it. Message a Polycat dev on their Discord or Telegram server. Google the farm. Google the pool. Google the exchange the pool is on. Google everything. How much total value locked does it have? How long has it been operating? When were any of the services involved last audited? Who did the audit? I skipped some of those steps myself. Auditors are a rabbit hole you'll probably see me write an article about in the near future when I'm done diving into it. Don't be me. We shouldn’t go down together just because I'm willing to learn through pain.

I considered continuing with sections about more farms. My bookmarks however, are exceptionally long. Were I to write a section for all of them, this already long article would be a book. I have a couple more concepts I need to cover, but I’m going to take your training wheels off for Metamask now. Like I said I’m also farming on Apeswap. That’s an exchange on Binance smart chain. Duplicate The process from Polycat. Make sure your wallet is switched to the Binance network, observe their farms carefully, and do research about the trading pairs involved. I used their internal farms. I didn’t want to throw LP tokens from Pancakeswap into the mix and need yet another tab on my browser permanently open for trading season.

There’s many DAPPs which allow you to access many networks at once. Aave’s returns are underwhelming, but hey, they’re stable and don’t expose you to as much impermanent loss. You could just use farms on Sushiswap itself. Autofarm is also on freaking everything. The list goes on. Just remember, right wallet, right network, right service. Disconnect your wallet from the service when you want to use it on a different network. Reconnect once you’ve switched the network in your actual wallet.

I mentioned impermanent loss. You may have heard about that before, and wondered what people were talking about. Impermanent loss is when your starting capital would’ve outperformed your liquidity pair in a farm. Sometimes heavy trading volume from arbitrageurs will temporarily throw off the volume balance. Your LP tokens represent a percentage of the total pool. The amount you’re entitled to withdraw never changes, but if the ratio split in the total pool goes off from 50/50 too erratically for too long it can mess with your desired cash-out point. You contributed 10% of an ETH/USDC pool when it had a solid 50/50 split. You don’t want to cash out 10% of the pool if that split goes to 45/55 in favor of USDC. Here’s a more detailed explanation.

This means that in some ways liquidity farming is less profitable than holding for trades in the short term. It will put you at a disadvantage during times of high volatility and high volume trading. Techincally, your position is perfectly secure. You definitely contributed 10% of the pool. You can definitely withdraw 10% of the pool. It’s just it’s a portion of your portfolio you’d be stupid to use when it originally could’ve been most profitable in the short term. Something to keep in mind about when and where to use this tool.

######

NETWORKS UNSUPPORTED BY METAMASK

The DEFI process doesn’t change dramatically for networks unsupported by Metamask like Terra Luna or Solana. You might however, get tripped up a little bit, as those wallets don’t have built in browsers on mobile devices. So, it seemed prudent to cover them here as well. If you kept to your browser on your computer this whole time, power to you. You probably don’t even need this section, and inferred what follows. I’ll be courteous to our phonebros though.

The case studies here will require the Terra Station wallet available in apple/android app stores, and the chrome web store if you wish to use the browser extension on a desktop. Download that app and set that bad boy up. I’m assuming you know how to set a wallet up. Message me if you need an article about that. Once it’s set up you need to choose a separate browser application to navigate to DAPPs. I prefer Brave. It’s privacy features might just be a meme, but I like not needing an account to use their sync chain feature. You can use any browser you like on mobile. For desktops, I believe the Terra Station extension is only available on chrome at this time.

Now we need to take our pick of DAPPs. The one’s I believe might be most relevant to you are Loop Markets, Anchor, Mirror, and Spectrum protocols, respectively. Loop Markets is a newer exchange/yield farm on Terra, Mirror is a derivatives market where you can mint synthetic stocks, Spectrum is a more classic yield farm aggregator, and Anchor is decentralized lending market. Anchor has safely produced 20% APY for lenders of the USD stablecoin UST for several years, including during times of high market volatility. They have a vast treasury and emergency fund. For the time being, I’m using Loop Markets. Lets roll with the case study. This is the menu accessed from the main page.

You’ll see all the elements we’re used to now with swaps, pools, and farms. I’m not going to cover any of that. We did that. You’re good. The only reason we’re here is to show what happens when you want to connect. Let’s go to swap and hit connect. This is what happens.

Basically every DAPP uses the “wallet connect” widget for seamless wallet integration from any browser with any wallet. It’s a pretty useful little tool. Roll with it. Hit the wallet connect button. If you’re doing this with DAPPs for other networks and wallets, you won’t necessarily see the wallet name. Terra Luna DAPPs are pretty solid and all edited Terra Station Mobile into their version of the widget. That little blue W icon on the right is what you’re looking for. When you hit it for other networks you’re phone will bring up all your wallet applications for you to select from. Sometimes I even like to use it for my networks on Metamask. The browser on Metamask is pretty void of features. You could just browse from the convenience of your favored browser, and use wallet connect to bring up Metamask and confirm the transaction. Apeswap’s complete menu doesn’t come up on the Metamask browser for some reason. I browse on Brave, and confirm on wallet. In this case, when you hit connect it’ll take you to this page on your Terra Station wallet.

Go ahead and hit allow. It’ll go to your normal wallet screen and show a popup. The DAPP and wallet have confirmed. They can talk to each other now. What a time to be alive.

Go back to your browser, and the button which said connect will now say swap. All the functions of Loop Markets have been unlocked for you in this wallet instance. When ever you perform an action like a swap, providing liquidity, or depositing it, the site will give a pop up that says “to confirm transaction, please sign on your wallet” or something to that effect. That means you need to quickly reopen the wallet. You’ll likely see a popup asking you to confirm the transaction with a similar allow/reject button setup. Sometimes the DAPP just makes the wallet application you previously linked pop up on its own accord. That’s pretty much it for Terra Luna. There’s not technically any added steps. I just didn’t want you to freak out with all these application swaps back and forth. It’s all doing the same thing as Metamask. You’ll just be using your phones multitasking window more.

Lastly, I just wanted to end on Solana. Again, for the desktop master race, you’re just adding yet another extension and driving on. For phonebros, I’ve noticed some inconveniences in mobile apps. For some reason, when I try to use Solana DAPPs they want to redirect to a browser wallet instead of my Solflare wallet app. Solflare is a community made, opensource wallet made by developers directly involved in Solana. It’s a solid application in my book. I used it to just park and stake for a while.

When I say DAPPs force you to navigate to the browser wallet, I don’t mean the chrome extension. Both the extension and mobile application were just barely released over the last year. Solflare was originally just a webapp you used on their site. Yes. That’s a thing. Avalanche can be staked on their web wallet, as well as Elrond. Webapps are actually faster and easier to launch than mobile applications and dedicated software in some cases. Solflare did that with Solana. When you try to use a DEX or NFT marketplace on Solana you will still get that same “wallet connect widget”. It will work. It’ll just open up a tab on your browser in your phone instead of your wallet app. I don’t know why. I just rolled with it and imported my private keys to the web wallet. Nothing I haven’t done before. Who knows. Maybe that’ll be fixed by the time you’re reading this. Maybe it only happened to me because I didn’t pick the “Sollet” wallet network when I first set my wallets up. I just selected the net that said “recommended” next to it. I still don’t know the difference between those network selections in the setup process for Solana.

I won’t go into further detail about Solana with pictures or reviewing DEXes. I don’t use Solana for DEFI yet. All I’ve used it for is buying some NFTs. Celebrity adoption has been high for NFT markets on Solana. That’s the only reason I paid attention to it and checked out some storefronts there like solsea.io and a few others. Raydium is allegedly their biggest DEX at time of writing. That’s literally all I know about Solana DEFI. If you check it out further, you might see that same browser hiccup I did with the NFT storefronts. That’s the only reason I mentioned it.

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IS IT ALL A SCAM

Yes. Money is a scam. It’s fucking paper my dude. We get a solar flare and all my successes comes tumbling down. The only currencies that ever mattered are arable land, excess food stuffs, building materials, violence, intelligence to blackmail people with, and access to sex or intoxicants. If steel futures are tokenized on a blockchain some day they’ll still be worthless if there’s no supply chain to move, store, protect, and distribute your steel. It was always all a game. All of it. From time immemorial when the first monkey picked up the first shiny rock, to you and your cartoon picture of a monkey a celebrity liked. You just didn’t know you were supposed to be playing. Here’s a new toy to play with. Enjoy.

Now lets be more specific about the real questions and problems people see in this space. The main problem I see is people are being sold on the inflation I thought we’re supposed to be escaping. New projects like exchanges or yield farms advertise their “governance token” as a reward to incentivize adding liquidity. This is the reason you see some farm pools like Tomb-share offer 1000% APY. Sometimes they’ve minted every token they intend to exist (I’m unaware if tomb has done that, not referencing them because they’re shady, just noting possible reasons for high yield). They could bake their tokenomics to have a 800 trillion max supply, mint literally all of it, and offer 50000% APY for years if need be. They can afford to part with millions of tokens a year. There’d likely only be a hand full of people they have to pay out to. No big deal to them. It’s likely just a new flavor of the ICO craze, but with staking/farming instead of simple buying and hodling. People are parting with their liquidity at a slow drip instead of big pay outs.

It’s a delicate new system where you have to ask yourself things like “okay the service is good, when do they release all these rewards to stakers? What growth is possible for them by then? Will demand for the service line up with that supply flood? How popular will they be following a dump in price like that, or will people scream rug pull? Is it a good idea to sit on my bags even after that? What will the landscape look like for how long to adjust and then skyrocket if the demand stays the same and adjusts to the new supply?”

That being said, I’m still farming. I’m interested to see if this new model of investment is sustainable if a project has a good value proposition. I like Paintswap. I want it to exist. The art there is good, they have a shitload of liquidity locked, and transaction volume is good. If something could pull off that model I believe it’s them, along with other services like Rubic. If they want to throw their token at me, I won’t say no. I’m farming with some of my portfolio, and I’m hodling with some of it too. It’s a strange new world, and I don’t want to miss out on opportunity. If nothing else, I’ll have an interesting life story to share with my beloved readers here lol.

With some projects, I’m not even sure they’ll be able to survive, but I’d still buy their tokens or use their service. I want them to exist that bad. Synthetic assets like those offered by Synthetix and Mirror (the Terra Luna protocol not this service) WILL be an enormous regulatory nightmare. Their services work fine. They have healthy indicators in transaction volume and value locked like Paintswap. It doesn’t matter. Investment banks don’t want to lose their monopoly on derivatives trading. That’s a toy ordinary little people like you and me were never meant to play with in their minds. Nevermind that when they fuck up the game, your currency gets inflated from their bailouts. You’re not supposed to notice that. At least on Synthetix and Mirror, people have to collateralize their synths to play the game. You don’t get to play with hypothetical future printed money. You only get to bet on futures with your present money. If people want to play games, I like that model much better. The point is you should ask yourself about the legalities of projects that interest you too.

I understand if my attitude is very different from yours. I understand if you don’t want to use these tools. I fully acknowledge this amps up the risk by orders of magnitude in many people’s minds. Frontiers are always scary. SO USE WITH CAUTION.

Best of luck. Stay safe out their gamblers.

Thankyou for reading my blog post.

By Guy Noir, Private Investigator (not an actual private investigator)

PUBLIC EMAIL: Guy.Noir.P.I.713@protonmail.com

DONATION WALLET ADDRESS: 0x0DE4C6EAcc31435A15f6505DBe6d0da8B1D253E6

PREFERRED NETWORKS: MATIC, ETH, FTM, BNB, AVAX, MOVR, CRO

Please send tokens on their respective network. ETH on ETH, FTM on FTM, AVAX on AVAX, etc. I teach you how to do that in this post.

MY CURRENT EDTIONS: Thich Nhat Hanh, and Shunryu Suzuki

DIFFICULTY: N/A

DESCRIPTION: I say hello to the world, give you a taste of my personality and writing style, and manage your expectations.

NOTE

I kind of stumbled and tripped building my own formatting style for a second there, but finally edited this post to reflect it. There won’t be a table of contents in this post, as it was so short. I’ll just quickly note a few things. When you see “######” it’s my way of making a section break. Be aware of that for all future posts. My format is about giving you visual cues and making navigation easy without internally bookmarked hyperlinks. I’ll link other sites and articles, but you can’t jump around inside my articles as easily as ebooks with this platform. Move around freely as you please. If you see a table of contents, read the descriptions of chapters/sections. Use the good ole CTR+F and copy paste chapter titles to move around. Just thought I should make note of that.

######

Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm a man of wealth and taste. Well okay not that much wealth yet really... Okay, okay, I also eat my food too fast to taste it. OKAY I also dress in nothing but grays, blacks, and browns, none of which in fashionable brands. It was a good line. Let it be. Anywhozle. Call me Guy Noir, private investigator (not an actual private investigator). I'm a man of many hats, an aimless drifter, an adventurous nomad, and a gambler. I enjoy sharing my stories, thoughts, and my growing knowledge base. That's the purpose of this blog. I don't know if I can make you wealthy. I believe I can entertain and inform you. Have a seat, and take a load off.

I'll wax poetic on many things. Cryptocurrency, as well as NFTs, politics (to a limited degree), Linux, other technologies, maybe fiction and spirituality if I find an intersection. This won't be a hyper focused blog. You'll see soon enough my interests are related, but not concentrated. My personality and whims are the prime mover here. I don't consider myself a technical expert. I'm an especially engaged hobbyist. If you want a college course, I'd direct you to the crypto YouTube whiteboard channels like Finematics and Cryptomatics. I'll gladly teach you many things, but in my own time and fashion. If I reach the limits of my interest in a subject, I'll find resources for you, and ask you to move along. I'll have plenty to offer before that point, but I have limits.

I'm neither a savage plebeian, nor professional stiff. You'll see the odd cuss word sprinkled in, snide remarks, sarcasm, irony, and more. I'm firmly hateful of academia, credentialism, and all the attitudes that come with it. Veneers of hyper professionalism is one of those attitudes. I won't lose sleep over how pretty my references look in the age of hyperlinks. I'll give you information, amuse you with my observations, and dump further reading material with descriptions at the bottom. That's how I like to do things.

My observations and attitudes are informed by my political leanings, like anyone else. I believe I've accumulated a unique blend of views. I don't know how to label it. In some ways I occupy the fringe. In other ways, I don't even like calling them political views as much as simple "logistical observations". I don't want to broach them until they become applicable to article subjects. I'll spill my spaghettis on an as needed basis. Let's not dive right in to the manifesto and try to start the taxation defiance movement in the first post.

I mentioned spirituality. I've partially formalized my devotion to Buddhism. Technically however, I haven't sought an actual congregation, or performed any rites with ordained leadership. My refuge with the Buddha is one sided. I'm in no rush after leaving one organized religion. I've made changes, embraced a meditative practice, continue my studies, and try to cultivate loving kindness. I'm still a very flawed person. My relationship with money and speculation is a harsh temptation for my ego. My political leanings conflict with some tenets of Buddhism. That's one of many reasons why I'm taking my time with it. You'll see where it's influenced me here soon enough. I saw mirror.xyz supports NFTs. I’ll dump sketches I'm working on. They're little more than doodles. I'm sketching pictures of monks, sadhus, and holy men. It's an Eastern tradition to meditate with an image of a person or deity. They're energy is a focal point for your practice. I fancy my sketches as an artistic meditation. I'm tricking my brain with an entertaining meditative practice.

I'm using a pen name. With good reason. You don't get to know me like that. On the off chance this takes off, I'll have no stalkers. The pen name is a service to you and me. Try to find me, and I'll just shoot you. Like I said, I can be a bad Buddhist at times. I love everybody and all that I swear. I just love my privacy more. Privacy is a scarce commodity for those with the eyes to see. As distant as I may seem, I want to be partially accessible. Just keep it on my terms. I'll leave a public email in the top sections of all my articles. I make no promises for response time. Communications will be seen eventually, and possibly answered. I might need inspiration for content. Viewer input can be a valuable source for that.

More than viewership, I would love to grow my cohort and put talent on blast. The creative ventures in crypto don't get enough attention. I want to change that. There's talent going unnoticed. Please go look at it. If you can't buy it, that's fine. A view and a like can get it closer to sold. I might attempt occasional articles covering art I enjoy as a collector. At the very least, I'll plug some names of people I'm buying from or watching. You could be one of those people. Don't flood that public email and make me hire someone just to wade through it. Pay attention to the people I mention. Visit their projects. Ask yourself honestly if you think your work follows similar styles. I don't like pixelated drivel very often. I don't like cartoon monkeys. I don't care if they're famous. I'm never buying a crypto punk or bored ape. I might buy a pepe tarot card. I love pepe and tarot cards. I like art with an interesting well coordinated theme and/or story. I don't like gacha games and generative breeding projects.

I said I follow and trade in crypto. Please don't shill me your rug pull meme tokens. I'm not a day trader or early investor. I'm just barely leaving infancy away from centralized exchanges. Do tell me about legitimate interesting new toys to add to my toolbox. If a functioning DAPP or crypto based service has added value to your life, I want to know about it. I won't be an early "investor", but I'll happily consider jumping on as an early adopter. I might even shout it out here.

I think I've managed expectations. I think I'll start winding down with disclosures. I've already written a couple articles just for friends. They required the usual disclosures you hear over and over in this space. I don't want to copy paste that shit literally every entry. I'm covering them here and will point to this first entry as needed with a simple (disclosures apply. Refer to 1st post). Here it goes.

I AM NOT A FINANCIAL ADVISOR.

I AM NOT A CREDENTIALED BUSINESS CONSULTANT OR LICENSED TO HANDLE YOUR MONEY.

I'M NOT A LICENSED MENTAL HEALTH PROVIDER.

I'M NOT A FITNESS COACH.

I'M NOT A FOOD HANDLER.

I'M NOT A NURSE.

I'M NOT A LAWYER.

I'M NOT A TRUCK DRIVER, WELDER, ELECTRICIAN, MECHANIC, OR NETWORK PENETRATION TESTER.

I PLAYED NEITHER RED TEAM NOR BLUE TEAM.

I DIDN'T PASS THE BAR.

I HAVEN'T ATTEMPTED THE SERIES 65 OR 66

I HAVEN'T TESTED FOR COMPTIA, CISM, CCNP, OR CEH.

I HAVEN'T EVEN TAKEN THE GRE, AND HAVE NO INTEREST IN GRADUATE SCHOOL, MASTERS, OR DOCTORATES.

ALL I HAVE IS MY USELESS BACHELOR'S IN LITERATURE, MY MOTHER'S WORD THAT I TESTED AT AROUND A 130 IQ AS A CHILD, AND MY BAGS.

THIS IS THE VOICE OF EXPERIENCE, BUT I'M UNWILLING TO TAKE ANY LEGAL LIABILITY FOR ANYTHING YOU DO.

"How much experience?"

Aaaah, good question. So you want my transaction history CSV eh? Alright that's fair enough. I won't copy paste my wallet addresses, but I'll give you a bit of my story. I wasn't ballsy enough to ape in back in 2013 or 2017. I was a scared little chicken. Around 2018 I took a long look at myself in the mirror and asked myself "look do you really believe you need to do something to protect yourself from hyper inflation or not?" I had been thinking about it for years, doing nothing, going nowhere, and decided I had nothing to lose.

I accumulated Bitcoin and Ethereum all through 2018/2019. I played it on idiot mode. I did alright. My salary to accumulate with was peanuts, but I'm in 6 figure hell now. Around mid 2021 I ran into some job insecurity. I decided I was done with the employee bullshit. I was aware of DEFI. I decided it was time to broaden my knowledge base. I haven't aped into a 100X small cap or flipped 1000 NFTs. I've just expanded my awareness, diversified my portfolio from 2 positions to 6 or 8 positions, and parked in some yield farms. I was surprised to find this distinguished me among some friends and associates who were just starting to trade. There’s a possible niche service helping noobs level up to intermediate knowledge. I'm happy to fill it.

That's the whole story. No trading guru here. Just patience and freakish embrace of risk. I don't even do technical analysis. I'm in a unique position. I feel secure in my position for at least a couple years. I've never given myself a breather. I can't stand still apparently. I need something to do. People have questions. I have answers. Maybe not the best ones, but they'll likely steer you where to go next. I don't know if I can make a living doing this. I'm curious to take the time and try while I experiment with my war chest. If you want to pay me, I'll take it. I'll post my sketches as NFTs so you can speculate on my future popularity. If you can't afford the initial or resale price, but want to support me feel free to just donate. My public address, and preferred networks/tokens will be at the top of every article. If you want to give me any other tokens, please email me to tell me you did it. It’s likely not imported on my Metamask instances. I won’t know I have it if you don’t say anything. You saw I’m on a number of networks, so gas fees aren’t an issue if you want to buy me a coffee lol. You wanna send me .1 MATIC? Too easy, I'll take it. Like I said, I'm not in a bad way. I won't beg at the end of every post. Money is money though. Who knows how long my luck will last.

I think this is good. I feel like you know me enough. Looking forward to micro celebrity-hood. If you start seeing search engine optimization counting up mentions of some shit coin from Galaxy digital, that means the MK Ultra handler has got to me. Find me and put me out of my misery. I'll take money, but I refuse to whore out my name. If I mention a service, coin, or artist, it's because I like them. First and foremost... Okay maybe I'll let them pay me, BUT I HAVE TO LIKE THEM FIRST.

So. With that.

Best of luck. Stay safe out there gamblers.

Thank you for reading my blog post.

Yes. That's how I'm ending every blog post.