When we enter crypto, the first thing that is taught (or at least should be taught) is the famous phrase “Not your keys, not your coins” in relation to whether another person or entity - such as a centralized exchange is the one that has access to your assets, your assets are not really yours but that person's, even though you have paid for them. And this week, with the fall of FTX and FTT, it was more than demonstrated.

The problem appears with the mass investment in crypto, in which many users enter merely for speculative purposes and without fully understanding the technology or philosophy from which this technology arises, as well as the lack of regulation that accompanies this. market.

It is important to highlight the difference with the traditional market, in which if a broker goes bankrupt, our assets are backed by the CNV in the case of Argentina or by the SEC in the United States, so they will simply be transferred to another broker, without harm us seriously. In the crypto market, on the other hand, if an exchange goes bankrupt, there is no authority to regulate our holding of those assets and they simply disappear with the exchange, bringing our holdings in it to 0.

Today when we think of crypto, we think of an exchange as the most representative figure of the ecosystem, but if we take a bit of perspective and go back years, the exchange was not the most important nor the most remarkable thing about crypto. Quite the opposite. The most iconic thing was the wallet in which we can store our assets and own them. Thinking of an analogy in this regard, an exchange is a supermarket where we buy what we need, which we will then store in our refrigerators or pantries (The wallets) and not in the supermarket itself.

Faced with this, many users may argue that they are tempted to leave their assets in exchanges that offer income for our assets, against a wallet that does not offer any of these advantages, and they have a point in favor. Faced with this situation, users must determine if they prefer profitability accompanied by the risk of losing their assets or custody of their assets. In addition to having the possibility of approaching the possibilities that Defi offers, protected from the human risk of centralized exchanges, also being aware that they are exposed to risks related to ignorance of blockchain technology, and all the necessary maneuvers to be able to transit it.

In conclusion, movements like those of FTX the week of November 7, force us to rethink our relationship with crypto, investigate even more to continue to be sure that we trust the growth of this ecosystem and finish learning how to get the most out of it. the technology, whose premise is to be “A peer to peer electronic cash system”, according to the Bitcoin Whitepaper, the document that started it all. Remember: “Not your keys, not your coins”.