tl;dr: on the stark contrast between living in the crypto-enabled future and the paper-based past.
I recently learned of a new dApp called Acala.
Unlike most of the apps I’ve used to date, this one doesn’t sit on the Ethereum blockchain. Instead, it uses the Polkadot blockchain.
Like Ethereum uses MetaMask, Polkadot has a browser plug-in for wallet functionality. For anyone with MetaMask experience, it’s a fast learning curve.
The larger story of blockchains not named Bitcoin or Ethereum picking up traction is certainly worthy of attention (particularly because Polkadot’s core value proposition has to do with blockchain interoperability), but that’s not the story for me today.
The Acala app is still in a beta mode, so in order to experience its functionality, I needed to go on the Testnet and request a “drip” from a “faucet” that gave mesome Testnet tokens (which have no value).
I did all of this and began to play around with the Acala app.
Seeing the Future of Commerce
What Acala promises is the ability to take ANY crypto asset from any blockchain and use it as collateral for a globally-recognized and accepted stable coin.
I know this sounds like a lot of crypto mumbo-jumbo and jargon, which it probably is, so let me try it this way.
This innovation will make it possible to take any asset you have (stocks, bonds, your car, your house, a diamond ring, a Picasso) and turn it cash you can spend today.
As long as you pay back the loan, you’ll get the asset back (provided the value of the asset doesn’t fall below the collateral rate).
So, in some respect, there’s nothing new here. We’ve always been able to take assets and turn them into cash.
But, the big innovation, if you can call it that, is the ease and low cost with which that type of transition will occur in the future. Try turning that $1,000 piece of art on your wall into a latte today. Go ahead, I’ll wait. :)
Global, near instantaneous, and ANY digital asset. And since every asset is going to be a digital asset, that really means any asset. Including the art on your world.
The Great Liquidity Unlocking
That will allow economies to expand in ways previously unimaginable.
Yes, it’s very early and it’s going to be a while before this type of functionality really works, but this isn’t myth.
I used the Testnet. Now, it’s just a matter of time.
It’s 300 baud dial-up modems all over again.
Hard Snap Back to the Present
When I go deep into the exploration of a crypto app or network, it’s a meditative experience. I get immersed, the rest of the world fades away, and I take joy in living on the crypto edge, while trying to imagine how it might play out in the future.
When I came out of my Polkadot/Acala trance, I had a reminder pop-up on my calendar– I needed to pay my Q3 estimated taxes to the IRS.
So, I took the piece of paper that my CPA sent me with the amount and the form I was required to submit.
Then, I wrote a check and placed that check with the form in an envelope.
I subsequently addressed the envelope by hand and put it in the mail with a stamp.
As I was doing this, I felt a mix of anger, sadness, and excitement. You can probably guess why.
In the span of minutes, I had gone from the future of commerce to the past of commerce.
I guess the only consolation is that this must mean that I have a first-rate intelligence?
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/f_scott_fitzgerald_100572