Why is everyone here so focused on NFTs? I didn't mention NFTs at all. They just happen to be the hot thing to shit on right now. I am not a fan of NFTs. But "digital receipts" are tremendously valuable. Receipts are proof of provenance.
Proof of provenance is valuable in many, many applications. But anyways, that isn't the point. The type of digital self custody i'm referring to is for things like stablecoins. Stablecoins allow you to self-custody dollars in a way that was not possible before cryptocurrency.
> ...Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency that derives its value from some underlying external asset, like the U.S. dollar or the price of gold...
That, doesn't seem very decentralized if it has to pinned to something controlled by one entity?
Ok, so self-custody is that you've not got an account with a bank (a "vault" to keep all your money in) that they ultimately control, you're walking around with a wallet, one with a very secure clasp.
That argument kind of makes sense? But a central authority can still squeeze on you just as much, by targeting who you would trade with though, right? The ledger is public, they know who you traded with, they can make life difficult for them until you're not a customer.
> Why is everyone here so focused on NFTs?
Because that's all we here of {$coinname}Coin and blockchain currently, it is the cultural zeitgeist and the face of the tech to the broad public.
Noone's giving a simple explanation that makes sense and gives the killer app features. It's all marketing hype or five dollar words. It took me a good while to realize that "Stablecoins allow you to self-custody dollars" means "bank can't lock me out of my account"
> That argument kind of makes sense? But a central authority can still squeeze on you just as much, by targeting who you would trade with though, right? The ledger is public, they know who you traded with, they can make life difficult for them until you're not a customer.
Ya, it doesn't make you totally immune from squeezing. It just changes the dynamics of how that squeezing works. Essentially, it becomes much less feasible to squeeze people in a scalable way for centralized entities.
> Noone's giving a simple explanation that makes sense and gives the killer app features. It's all marketing hype or five dollar words. It took me a good while to realize that "Stablecoins allow you to self-custody dollars" means "bank can't lock me out of my account"
Ya, I certainly admit the hype and everything else that goes with it around all this stuff is terrible. Crypto is nowhere near as useful as its boosters will tell you. But I do think there is a kernel of something very cool and interesting there.
Self executing and self-enforcing contracts and self custody is a real innovation, especially for people that live under less than stable governments, or have less than stable currencies. People that say this stuff is going to replace the legal system are idiots. It can never do that. But it can take a few superficial legal structures that are currently expensive and messy, and make them a little cleaner, more transparent, and fairer, I think.
It's self custody in the sense that you can transact your representative tokens without consulting any intermediary, and without having to get anyone's permission.
Proof of provenance is valuable in many, many applications. But anyways, that isn't the point. The type of digital self custody i'm referring to is for things like stablecoins. Stablecoins allow you to self-custody dollars in a way that was not possible before cryptocurrency.