Many Centralised Exchanges (CEX) are the present and the past, Decentralised Exchanges (DEX) and a limited number of CEX are the present and the future

That is my strong conviction after being fulltime active in crypto for more than 6 years

Today most people trade on CEX, mainly because
- it is easy,
- for Ethereum tokens the transaction cost is often lower on a CEX than on an Ethereum DEX
- it offers a gateway to banks
- it offers access to crypto debit cards

But an important number of CEX have disadvantages/risks :

- Not your keys, not your coins : your coins are stored in the wallets of the exchange, not in your wallet. A CEX can be hacked & at least 30% of the medium/small exchanges "disappeared" in the last bear market with the funds of the traders (exit scams, hacks, blocking withdrawals, ...).
Also medium/small exchanges connected to some major exchanges are guilty of these practices (for example BitGlobal/Bithumb Global founded by Bithumb Korea is blocking all withdrawals for more than a year already)

- Some CEX do not behave ethically and manipulate the market : they extremely exaggerate their daily trading volume, they manipulate trading to favor certain coins, they front-run trading transactions of normal traders on their exchange to make arbitrage profits, ...

- Some CEX asks insane high listing fees which are not justified by their organic (non-inflated) daily trading volume.

- Some CEX have no licenses for every region/country they are active in, but they accept traders from that region/country. When the local regulator starts taking action against the CEX, often those CEX close access to the exchange for the traders of that region with short or no notice, without giving all involved traders the possibility to withdraw their funds

- Some CEX have a listing department that behaves unethically : they delist projects that do not want to inflate trading volumes or to pay additional recurring fees to stay listed

What is the better solution these low-quality CEX ? DEX are, together with the TOP quality CEX

DEX exchanges are evolving extremely fast and so do decentralised wallets.

DEX allow you to trade nearly every token, and combined with a proven decentralised wallet those DEX offer you a safe access to advanced functions that in the past were only available on CEX : fiat gateways (on/off ramp), debit/credit cards, ApplePay/GooglePay/SamsungPay

For nearly all coins (major exception being Bitcoin) a DEX is already today a better trading alternative than those lower quality CEX

Of course not ALL CEX share those risks
When trading on a CEX : be carefull, perform a detailed due dilligence to make sure you are working on a safe and ethical CEX, with sufficient proven and documented financial reserves to survive an unexpected setback
Trade on Binance or one of the limited number of other CEX that follow the same ethical rules & safety standards ... Stay safe

Europeans NEED crypto, if we - as European citizens - want to survive economically during the next decades
Why ?
Europe is faced with an economic decline, with much economic activity being shifted from Europe to AsiaAlso in technical innovation Europe can no longer compete with Asia or the USA Europe's debt levels are exploding at every level of the European society (cities, province/county, communities, countries, Europe) Governments are unable to keep their budgets in balance, the deficits grow every year due to costs linked to interest payments on debt, unemployment / pensions / medical care, migration, measures to fight climate change, ... Europe is for its energy dependant on Asia/Russia, and also these prices are increasing very fastThe war on the borders of Europe forces countries to increase their military budgets, and reduces international trade/cooperationAs a result the EURO will continue to lose its purchasing power very fast (Euro already lost 46% of its purchasing power since 1997)

All savings/investments that Europeans have in Euro will melt like snow in the sun The Europeans have to detach their savings/purchasing power from a dying EURO How ? by moving part of their savings to a better form of money without inflation : CRYPTONOW is your once in a lifetime opportunity to adopt CRYPTO : 1) current crypto prices are low, so it is cheap to buy 2) 2024 will see an EPIC crypto bull run for Bitcoin and Altcoins. Why ? Not only because of the Bitcoin Halving happening in 2024, but also because of the Trillions of USD/EURO that will be invested in crypto by professional investment companies such as Blackrock, Grayscale, Fidelity, ARK, Invesco, Bitwise, Wisdomtree, ...) 3) Mass adoption of crypto is already happening, especially in Asia but also in Africa "Evolve or Die" financiallyThe Government can not do this for you, YOU will have to evolve from "fiat" (classical money) to CRYPTO (decentralised, permissionless money without inflation) Protect your purchasing power for yourself and your children/grandchildren
Do not be among those who are left behind financially
Act now, time is running out ...

In 2023 we will see a major breakthrough in global crypto adoption.

In the past you had to sell your #crypto for #fiat, before being able to spend it.

End of 2023 everyone will be able to spend his/her crypto directly for nearly every purchase at any place.

This will be achieved via prepaid crypto debit cards, that can be funded with the crypto of your choice.

At the moment you do a purchase, your crypto will be swapped for fiat, and the seller will receive USD/EURO/...

These prepaid crypto debit cards will be accepted in every shop, on webshops, on vending machines, by #GooglePay , by #ApplePay by #SamsungPay ...

Today these prepaid crypto debit cards are already offered by #Binance #Cryptocom #Coinbase ...

But all these cards have a important limitation : they only support a limited number of cryptocurrencies.

Today we see a lot of new players in the market, that also offer crypto debit cards. To gain marketshare those new players can not limit themselves to support only the "major" cryptocurrencies, they will have to offer this service also for smaller cryptocurrencies.

Who are the new players ? A non exhaustive list includes #okse #BabyDogeCoin #Kinesys #Bitmana #Busha #Nearpay #Paywithmoon #nexo #crypterium #wirex #tenx #swipe #uphold #sofi #cryptopay #bit2me #spendl #rewcard #guarda #zumo #striga #embily #bitpay #mercuryo #bitsa #coinzoom #blackcatcard #chainswipe #fcfpay #kassio #marqeta #fastcoincard #blockcard #nuri ... 

Most of the current and new providers have the crypto debit card linked to centralised wallet (risk : "not your keys not your funds"), but some providers (for example OKSE) offer a crypto debit card linked to a decentralised wallet ("your keys your funds").

It is clear these new players will have to support a large list of cryptocurrencies to be able to convince users to choose their card.

By choosing the crypto debit card provider that supports your favorite list of crypto coins, you will be able to pay everywhere with your crypto

The future is bright, the future is crypto

What is inflation ?

Inflation is a measure of the general increase in prices and decrease in purchasing power over time. It is usually expressed as a percentage rate of change in the general price level of a basket of goods and services over a certain period of time, typically a year. When prices rise, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation reflects a reduction in the purchasing power of money

Simply said : inflation means that you can buy LESS goods/services with the money you own

What causes inflation ?

There are several reasons for inflation :

1) When the demand for products is higher than the supply of those products

2) When to cost to produce a product rises

3) When more money is created, resulting in more money available to buy the same limited supply of goods/services

How did inflation in US change over time ?

There has been a strong increase in the inflation in the US over the last 3 years, with the current yearly inflation level at about 6,5 % per year.

Financial analysts agree that the most important reason for the current high inflation is the increase in money supply, thus not an increased demand or increased production costs.

How did the US money supply grow over time ?

Last couple of years the US money supply (M1 = bank notes + coins) increased from about 10 Trillion USD to 40 Trillion USD in less than 3 years.

This was caused by the US Federal government that "printed" extra dollars, and brought those extra dollars in circulation to cover their expenses.

When the government multiplies by 4 the available money, and the supply of goods and services grows remains identical, it is clear you will have to pay a lot more when buying those goods and services. So the purchasing power of your savings reduces because the government increases the money supply

But do not only blame the government, also YOU increase the money supply and cause inflation ...

Yes, YOU are also responsable for increasing the money supply and as such increase inflations & reduce the purchasig power of your savings...

How ? You keep most/part of your financial reserve in a bank account ? Then you have to know that the bank will use your deposits to increase the total money supply via the technique "fractional reserve banking"

Fractional reserve banking is a system in which banks hold only a portion of their deposit liabilities as reserves and can lend out the remaining amount. This means that banks can create new money by lending out more than they hold in reserves, which leads to an increase in the money supply. The fractional reserve requirement is set by the central bank and governs the minimum amount of reserves that a bank must hold.

The fractional reserve requirement in the United States is set by the Federal Reserve (the central bank). Currently, the reserve requirement for most banks is only 10% of the received deposits.

This means that a bank must hold 10% of its deposit liabilities in reserve, and can lend out the remaining 90%.

Example :

A US employee receives a monthly salary of 5000 USD that is paid into his bank account.

That 5000 USD is part of the total monetary supply created by the US government

The bank only has to keep 10 % of this amount (so 500 USD) in their reserves, and can give the other 90 % of your money as a loan to person-X.

What is the impact on the money supply ? You still "own" 5000 USD that you can spend to buy goods and services. But person-X now also owns 4500 USD he can spend to buy goods and services. So by simply depositing your salary in the bank, you increased the money supply form the initial 5000 to 9500 (5000+4500) USD via the fractional reserve banking technique applied by the bank.

Result : because there is an increased money supplied compared to an identical quantity of goods and services, the price to buy those goods and services will increase. So by putting your money into a bank account YOU also contribute to an increase of inflation = less purchasing power for you ...

Solution ? Do not put the money in your bank account, but invest it in crypto (stable coins or other crypto) that you store in a self custody software wallet (such as Trustwallet, Klever, Metamask, ... ) or in an hardware wallet (Ledger, ...). Nobody can abuse your crypto in YOUR wallet to increase the money supply and create inflation.

Note about storing crypto at exchanges instead of in a self custody wallet : some crypto exchanges are unfair and do not store their customer deposits 1-on-1. You can say that those bad actors also apply some form of "fractional reserve banking" (we have seen this eg with FTX exchange). Those unfair crypto actors are a minority, but they exist... So a self custody wallet is MUCH safer than storing your crypto on an exchange ...

Are you also looking for the next x1000 coin that can be life-changing ? The next Doge or Shib ?

Often we look a lowcap coins to check if they have the potential to realize a strong increase in price over a relative short period in time.

On social media you will see (often paid) influencers presenting lots of new tokens as gems that can make you rich.

Before investing in a token, it is worthwhile to do your own research and to check a number of indicators to make sure the token is in good health.

What to check ?

Check the number of followers on Social Media : How many followers does the coin have on Twitter, Telegram, Facebook, Discord, Reddit, ..

But the number of followers itself does not say everything : on several social media fake followers can be “bought”. So do not only look at the total number of followers, but check also if those followers do interact with the coin team : Are there sufficient followers that “like”, “retweet”, “comment”, …  the messages ?

How many holders does the coin have ? Via Coinmarketcap you can look for the coin, and then click on “Explorers”. You can open the blockchain explorer of the coin, and check how many blockchain wallets are holder of the coin. Successful coins often have more than 500 000 active holders. Of course a new coin will have less holders. But then you have to check how many blockchain transactions (“transfers") the coin has. When a coin only has a limited number of transactions per day this can be a warning sign that not many persons buy the coin. Successful coins have many hundreds (or thousands) of transactions/transfers every day.

Which % of the maximum number of coins is already in circulation ? If a coin has a “maximum supply” of 100 million coins, but the ”current circulating supply” is only 1 million, this means that 99 million coins still have to be dropped on the market. This could negatively affect the price, so you have to take this into account in your evaluation. Coinmarketcap also shows the “Fully Diluted market cap” :  A coin with a marketcap of 1 million USD seems to have a lot of growth potential. But the current marketcap is calculated on the current circulating supply. If this current circulating supply is only 0.1 % of the maximum supply, this means that when all coins enter the market at the current price this coin has already a marketcap of 1 Billion USD. And then price increase is less obvious …

Check if there are “whales” that can control the coin. Via the “blockchain explorer” you can see the list of holders of the coin. If there is a holder that controls more than 10 % of all coins, this holder can have an important impact on the price of the coin.

Check also the daily trading volume of the coin on exchanges. When the coin has a high marketcap but a low volume of daily trading, it is worthwhile to investigate the coin much more in depth before investing.

And of course : does the coin have a "use case" ? A coin that has a real world usability (in DeFi, payments, gaming, AI, metaverse, ...) has more chances of success than a coin without clear use.

Good luck in finding the next crypto gem and remember : investing in crypto involves risks, so never invest more than you can afford to lose.