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The Web3 Era
book

The Web3 Era

by David Shin
April 2023
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
288 pages
4h 49m
English
Wiley
Content preview from The Web3 Era

9Of Builders and Villains…

For ardent critics of decentralized finance (DeFi), cryptocurrency is frowned upon as fool's gold, and it is not hard to see why. Drawn by the attractiveness of high returns, investors literally throw their life savings in crypto without any prior research into the risks surrounding digital currencies and lose everything in some cases.

A nonsensical, Ponzi scheme of an investment with no real value backing it, which just looks good because of prospects and hype: fool's gold.

But little do we know that the old adage that was coined during gold rushes of the past was originally meant to refer to other forms of metals and minerals that were mistaken for the precious metal at the time. The three main culprits are pyrite, chalcopyrite, and weathered mica. They are shiny and have industrial use cases but hold nowhere near the value of gold.

Likewise, the fool's gold that critics refer to in crypto are projects covered with smokescreens hiding their true balance sheets. And there are plenty of these threatening to destroy what the DeFi movement has worked so hard to build over the past decade and a half.

Cryptocurrency was meant to bank the unbankable, not create another gold rush, although that seems to be inevitable with today's unceasing flow of information and misinformation driven by social media content. Cryptocurrency is literally referred to as “digital gold” by both well‐versed financial industry players as well as social media influencers who know ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781119983934Purchase Link