I'm having a little ordeal that I want to share, but here's the list for the TLDR:

• Unknown (and high) transaction fees which leads to ⬇️
• Leaving behind small balances that are unusable because of ⬇️
• Transaction minimums. And it still seems like ⬇️
• Transactions take way too long to complete. And it makes you ⬇️
• Feel like you're taking a leap of faith every transaction.

To me, these seem like obvious problems that crypto and computers should easily be able to solve...no?

For example, I can't understand why an ethereum transaction has to be so convoluted?  The ETH ecosystem is amazing, and I'm having a LOT of fun with it because it makes finances way more engaging, but I think it needs to be simpler...and less expensive.

I was instructed to check gas prices before an ETH transaction at ethgasstation.info. So I go there, and it tells me "51". I'm like 'OK...51 what??? Is that good, or bad?'

So, I do some research and learn about GWEI and gas a bit, but I still feel like there's still a lot I don't understand.  I realize it fluctuates due to traffic / price and that sometimes you can give it more gas to speed things up, or less gas if it's not a rush.  The miners prioritize transactions by people who pay the most? I still don't know what the average number on ethgasstation should really be? So, I try to do my transactions at off peak hours, when there's a lower gas number than when I last checked. The whole thing seems overly complicated and uncertain.  

Why can't the service you're using just look at the current network traffic, give you a calculated price of what the gas will be, and then give you an option to say yes or no, and then do the fucking thing without leaving little bits left over?

It also scares me hearing stories of crypto users getting their stuff stuck somewhere because they didn't give it enough gas, or didn't understand it.

I realize developing blockchain isn't as simple as I make it out to be, but why not? All the reasons for it just seem like excuses, and I come from an industry (and life) where excuses don't matter.

I get that there's a bunch of other tokens and services that address these problems, but it all seems like SOO much...Sigh. 

I guess that's the price we pay for the early adoption? I say 'early' because I'm picturing a future where my list of problems doesn't exist. I hope I'm just witnessing some growing pains of innovation...which is also kind of exciting, and why I'm here.

But here's my crumby experiences that made me write this, and tell me if I'm doing it wrong.

First thing to note is that I don't have a lot of money right now. What I do have, I put in crypto.  So, that means I don't have money to burn, and need to consider every transaction fee and every cent.

I'm Canadian, so I only had a few options (I knew about) to get my CDN currency onto the crypto market. I chose catalyx because a friend of mine told me to get some HBAR, and it seemed like the only legit site to get it on. They charge a fee to do crypto transactions, but it didn't seem too unreasonable, and I didn't mind because they made it easy to do e-transfers onto the exchange with some KYC. 

I bought what I could afford on catalyx, then withdrew what I plan to HODL onto to an Exodus wallet, and also transferred some ETH to get access to more coins on binance. 

I expected fees going into this, so I'm not upset yet. But I remember the vibe everywhere just seemed like fees, fees, fees getting into crypto.

I decided to go for the 12% rate binance was offering if you stake BNB with them. So I converted most of that ETH to BNB and locked it in for 90 days. 

I used the remaining ETH to do the noob move of buying some alt coins (I didn't do much research on) because they were cheap. But, it was only about a hundred bucks, so I went for it. 

Luckily, I got in right before the great crypto crash of 2021. 

But I still don't mind yet, because I ultimately believe in the crypto philosophy, and plan to be in it for the long haul anyway.

During those 90 days, I learned as much as I could about crypto, and felt I was ready to use the ecosystem it provides.  I started by wanting to place a crypto bet on the Stanley Cup playoffs. I knew there must be a way, and I found stake.com. There are other sites, but that's the one I ended up with. My bet lost, so I can't vouch for the payouts.  But that experience opened my eyes to MetaMask and the power of having an online wallet.  That's when I got on Uniswap to get some more tokens, and put some of what I'm holding into Compound to earn a little interest.  

That's when the news hits that if you're in Canada (Ontario specifically), Binance is now off limits, and we have until the end of the year to get out. I felt fortunate that my locked staking redeems before this.

So my plan became that when the locked staking comes due, I will convert my BNB back to ETH, and then send it to my meta-mask wallet, then cash in whatever my alt coins were valued at that time, to get off binance.

That was yesterday. I was able to redeem my BNB successfully, and would do it again. I didn't WANT to get off binance, and would probably go back if they get the green light from Ontario.

But I started to get irritated when I try dealing with my alt coins. I didn't mind so much that they went down about 50% from $100. At least I was aware of that because I'd watch prices like a hawk.  One of them was only worth about $12 CDN and it didn't meet the minimum trading requirement.  Bummer, I though I was just going to have to take a hit, but after trying a few things and picking a different trading pair, it went up just enough to let me sell it to USDT. 

And the same thing with the other coin, I had to choose USDT as a trading pair. I figured I'll just convert the USDT to something else and transfer that out.  I originally wanted to get BTC or ETH with this small amount, but instead I end up with about $50 in USDT. 

I want to convert it to something I can transfer to exodus easily and the highest rewarded staking is 13% with ONT.  So I decided to convert my USDT to ONT, and then transfer to exodus to take advantage of the generous staking rate. 

After the transfers from Binance, I get further irritated that I now have 6 binance wallets each with less than a dollar left over. Each time you go to transfer 'ALL' or 'MAX', it leaves a little leftover.  At least with FIAT, you can grab ALL your change from the counter. This seems like another thing shouldn't be an issue for computers...and currencies.

I guess it kind of makes all cryptocurrencies deflationary in the sense that there's always small amounts sitting in derelict accounts never to see the light of day again. 

So, I now have a binance balance of $0.27 between 6 wallets. Not a huge deal I guess, just annoying.

Having pennies left all across the internet seems wrong and makes me feel like I have unfinished business. 

MEANWHILE, Back in the Exodus wallet... After receiving the ONT, I go to stake it, and a pop-up appears saying you need to have 0.5 ONG (Their utility token for gas) to stake. Sheesh... I didn't realize that!

So, I finally do more research, and learn that this is true.  I know it's my fault for not reading the fine print, and not checking it out deeper first. HOWEVER... in my defence, I'm staking Cardano with exodus, and it was just one button to do it. So, I assumed staking would work similar for ONT. NOPE!

OK, whatever...I'm still on board at this point, so I figure I'll just exchange a little ONT for ONG. NOPE! Can't do that because I don't have enough ONT to make an exchange. You need a minimum of 87 ONT for an exodus exchange.  I only need 0.5 ONG to stake... 🙄

I start to get a little more frustrated here...  I have about $85 worth of ETH left over from a previous exodus transfer that made me over estimate the price of gas, it was a wide margin of error of $85 I guess??! And I figure 'Fuck This', I no longer want ANYTHING to do with ONT! So I thought I'll bite the bullet, and buy more ONT with my ETH so that I have enough to at least exchange it out for something else. NOPE! Can't do that, it needs to be minimum of 0.025 eth to do an ETH exchange on exodus, and I only have 0.021. OMG, what have I done?? 

What are my options here??  I guess I could convert some of my BTC to ONT so I have enough to exchange it out?  Or maybe I could send it to metaMask?  NOPE, just checked, ONT is not supported on metamask.  Or maybe I could transfer it back to binance to do something with it there? NOPE, just checked, cant do that...not enough ONG for gas to transfer out of exodus. 

So, this is where I'm at right now, writing this blog trying to decide what to do? It's just a small amount of money relatively, but it makes me want ONT to FAIL as a company. I don't want to spend a hundred bucks buying ONG gas when I only need 0.5 of it. I'm also rethinking exodus now, but am afraid I'll just run into the same kinds of issues with a different platform.  Would it be worth it to switch? Are there better exchange/wallets with staking?

I feel like I'm just throwing money into a hole learning the ropes.

It's easier to see how the fees and minimums effect you when dealing with small amounts. I also feel like the spirit of crypto isn't being realized here? 

Crypto community members always tout how it could bring the financial system to the people, even unbanked people. But typically, unbanked people don't have lots of money, so I don't see how they could afford dozens of dollars per transaction?? Never mind the costs just getting into the market with a decent position.  It shouldn't be a rich persons game, I thought crypto was supposed to save us from that?

And the time it takes to complete transactions...come on!  Aren't these some of the main things crypto (and computers) are supposed to solve?

I don't even know who to be upset with here? Should I be upset even? There's so many parties involved. I could have prevented some of my frustration if I did more research, so I only have myself to blame.

However, I definitely see these issues as a speed bump for crypto to gain mass adoption. Most of my family and friends wouldn't have got this far, or maybe even had worse errors. 

Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't make small investments, where you could lose money just from gas fees!  I would only make calculated moves that make it worth while, considering all the fees and gas. Also, I would be more patient and realize 13% doesn't come without some kind of catch, and do more research on the project before getting in.

There needs to be a better user experience so that you're not scared to move things around online.

Even though I've gained some experience now and am pretty tech savvy, I still feel like I'm going to screw everything up, on every transaction. So I understand the reluctance from people that aren't so good with computers, or money...or trust.

As I write this, I'm currently waiting on a different transaction to clear that's been 'pending' ALL morning already. Irritating.

The ultimate crypto is the one that everyone is able to quickly move small amounts around, worry free with minimal fees. Seems like a good job for computers...

I still believe in crypto 100%, so I'm just venting here.  Thanks for reading.  Leave a comment if you know what I can do better.