Like most people, I've been putting off quite a number of things on the Ethereum main-net until gas fees settled down a little bit. Yesterday, the prices started to reach down into the 60-70 gwei zone and I managed to get some of Ethereum backlog of tasks down... and now, as I'm sitting in the dressing room just before a concert and TV recording... I see that main-net gas fees are now sitting at around 40 gwei.
Well... it is never really a great time to rush through transactions... but I have had quite a few of them sitting on my to-do list as soon as transaction fees started to dip below 50 gwei, so I already know quite intimately what I have to do and how to do it. No need to research much... although I really hope that there are no issues with the log4j curiosity that is currently keeping computer people from sleeping for the rest of the weekend!
Actually, I am a touch scared that the log4j problem will cause issues for crypto projects... as we have seen that the problem isn't generally with the cryptographic part of the ecosystem but more along the lines of how smart-contracts are written and deployed... and more recently, how the front end of the UI/protocol is presented to end users.... who tend to just sign anything and everything that is presented to them.
Still... I will take that risk with my hot wallet... after all, that is what it is there to do! The high risk, exposed wallet that just has to interact with smart contracts in the wild. It would be much less fun if I stayed completely under cover all the time! Although, that said, I'm not as brave or adventurous as some of the NFT hunters and DeFi Degens that are out there chasing huge APRs!
Something that I have found quite useful when taken tokens out from Ethereum on-chain is to send them straight to FTX (if they are supported). FTX does offer free main-net withdrawals for FTT stakers, and stashing them temporarily there means that I can act fast on low gas prices to do the on-chain parts... and then shunt the tokens to exchange to further think about what I want to do with the tokens.
Mostly, I have bounced the tokens out again to Crypto.com which does support some Layer-2 withdrawals... and again, when CEXs start supporting this across more of the Layer 2s it is really going to cause a huge explosion in the usage Ethereum sidechains/Layer2... which are generally hampered by the requirement to go through main-net to bridge across to the actual low-fee Layer 2 environment.
After getting out to Polygon, it is a cinch to jump to any of the other Layer 2s (OE, Arbitrum and xDAI) via the stunningly good Hop Protocol... it is now my go-to point for any cross-L2 bridging that I need to do, in fact... I like it so much, that I decided to stash some crypto (MATIC and ETH) into the cross-bridge pools there. A quick test with the hot wallet... and then I was good to go. Wrapping the native tokens was easily handled on the Hop Protocol page, and then adding liquidity was a single approve and deposit away! Never needed to leave the liquidity deposit page... so, a great design....if you are fond of bright pink!
Anyway... time is ticking away. Transactions are pushed through on the main-net... some Layer 2 stuff done as well! I'm going to down a quick coffee before heading out on stage...
We are in one of the richest towns in Netherlands, with a crazy amount of CEOs and banking heads living in the area. It is a place of old inherited wealth just outside of Amsterdam, and they don't turn on the heating for the musicians... and our "lunch" consists of cold buns with a single slice of cheese OR ham! I wrote about this yesterday... partly as a joke, but with a touch of truth! And here we are... I guess the rich have to get rich somehow.. and shitting on the servants is the easiest way to save money!
... sigh... when the revolution comes...
I can also be found cross-posting at:
Hive
Steem
Publish0x
Handy Crypto Tools
Ledger Nano S/X: Keep your crypto safe and offline with the leading hardware wallet provider. Not your keys, not your crypto!
Binance: My first choice of centralised exchange, featuring a wide variety of crypto and savings products.
Kucoin: My second choice in exchanges, many tokens listed here that you can't get on Binance!
FTX: Regulated US-based exchange with some pretty interesting and useful discounts on trading and withdrawal fees for FTT holders. Decent fiat on-ramp as well!
MXC: Listings of lots of interesting tokens that are usually only available on DEXs. Avoid high gas prices!
Huobi: One of the largest exchanges in the world, some very interesting listings and early access sales through Primelist.
Gate.io: If you are after some of the weirdest and strangest tokens, this is one of the easiest off-chain places to get them!
Coinbase: If you need a regulated and safe environment to trade, this is the first exchange for most newcomers!
Crypto.com: Mixed feelings, but they have the BEST looking VISA debit card in existence! Seriously, it is beautiful!
CoinList: Access to early investor and crowdsale of vetted and researched projects.
Cointracking: Automated or manual tracking of crypto for accounting and taxation reports.
Stoic: A USD maximisation bot trading on Binance using long-term long strategies, powered by the AI/human system of Cindicator.
StakeDAO: Decentralised pooled staking of PoS assets.
Poloniex: One of the older regulated exchanges that has come into new ownership. I used to use it quite a lot, but have since stopped.
Bitfinex: Ahhh... another oldie, but a goodie exchange. Most noted for the close affiliation with USDT and the Basic "no-KYC" tier!
