Sigh... keeping abreast of all the myriad of blockchains is really a huge pain in the arse! For the past few months, I've been more focused back into the Ethereum and all the Layer 2s... and then just trying to get all my crypto accounting up to date... or at least, up to date so that I will be in order for the last financial year's reporting. I'm getting there... but there are a bunch of things that still need to be documented.... it is just too easy to throw transactions around like confetti, and then think that you will deal with the accounting fallout sometime in the future... but that just doesn't happen. And although there are many automated accounting tools like Cointracking, there are often so many little glitches that it still needs a good deal of manual supervision... and not all of that is the problem of the tracking software, it is the complete lack of standardisation that is the real culprit!
Anyway... side tracked. I popped into the Polkadot ecosystem a few weeks ago to sort out the crowdloan rewards. And honestly, I'm just horrified by the user experience on that blockchain... it is no fun, and just plain annoying most of the time. I'm not really keen to go back there... and if they don't sort that sort of thing out, I have no idea how they even expect to attract and retain users.
So, I dropped into the Cosmos ecosystem this evening... It has been a few months since I dropped in there. Various reasons, but the biggest one was the fact that my laptop was playing up and it meant that I had to reinstall everything on it from scratch... and I just hadn't gotten around to importing my ATOM wallet into the Keplr extension. Sheer laziness I know, but when you are travelling, juggling work and life, and getting a house set up and feeling like a home... well, keeping up with the internet and crypto just isn't the ultimate top priority. After all, it will all still be there when I get around to it!
I had to check in on the staking rewards and the delegations, do some voting... and then also claim a batch of airdrops that come from the ATOM, JUNO, and OSMOSIS staking. Sadly, a few of them had already timed out due to my procrastination... so, not quite everything was still there when I had gotten around to it!
But I have to say, dealing with a whole bunch of transactions across a wide variety of different sovereign chains in the Cosmos ecosystem was seamless, fast, and easy. Ethereum and Cosmos have Polkadot dead in the water when it comes to user experience, and although I'm really quite attached to Ethereum, I have to say that having a single point of contact for all things Cosmos like Keplr is such a killer feature! Sure, Ethereum mainnet and L2s are just as quick and easy to use... but it is such a pain in the arse to remember where and what all the dApps are! Whereas, each sovereign Cosmos chain is represented with a staking/governance interface on Keplr, with links out to their websites and dApps as well! All in a single easy to remember hub!
In fact, I'm so happy with tonight's experience that I'm going to bump up my stakes in the ecosystem... it really was so much better than the Polkadot experience, but honestly, that is a pretty low bar at the moment! And I have to grudgingly admit that it was also much more pleasant than my usual Ethereum hopping around...
So, a bunch of extra transactions to remember to log and account for... that will be this week's project. All the Cosmos blockchains... logged and up to date. I hope...
I can also be found cross-posting at:
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!
: My first choice of centralised exchange, featuring a wide variety of crypto and savings products.
: Decentralised perpetual futures trading on Arbitrum!
: My second choice in exchanges, many tokens listed here that you can't get on Binance!
: 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!
: Listings of lots of interesting tokens that are usually only available on DEXs. Avoid high gas prices!
: One of the largest exchanges in the world, some very interesting listings and early access sales through Primelist.
: If you are after some of the weirdest and strangest tokens, this is one of the easiest off-chain places to get them!
: 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!
: Access to early investor and crowdsale of vetted and reserached projects.
Cointracking: Automated or manual tracking of crypto for accounting and taxation reports.
: One of the older regulated exchanges that has come into new ownership. I used to use it quite a lot, but have since stopped.
: Ahhh... another oldie, but a goodie exchange. Most noted for the close affiliation with USDT and the Basic "no-KYC" tier!
