3 types of Trust Systems — and why most people only end up embracing one type
I love Chainge and Fusion and all they represent, but here I’m going to explore why not everyone might be so quick to embrace it.
It might be a bit oversimplified, but I am going to go ahead and claim that there is currently three main philosophies surrounding value and custody in the cryptocurrency world.
- The money
- Self banking
- Connecting
I’m going to call them “Trust Systems” and not everyone will likely even be aware if they belong to one of these three types or not. It’s also possible to embrace elements of all of them, but some people are definitely “fundamentalists”.
The money: This is the recognition that cryptocurrency is essentially worthless and lacks real world use, though that as a speculative tool it has great potential to make money that can eventually be used in “the real world”. If this is your trust system, you definitely plan to one day “cash out” and you’re not really worried about trusting banks or even centralized institutions. At least not as worried as most in the crypto world. Due to this the most importnt thing for you is closeness to the fiat gateways. There is no point creating your own wallets, better to just leave it at the points of exchange. Bringing it somewhere else just means regulatory risk. The ability to cash out takes priority over everything else.
Self banking: This is the recognition that there is only one person in the whole world you can truly trust. Yourself. Cryptocurrency has opened your eyes to the fact that it’s pretty silly that in this digital era we still rely on banks and centralized institutions for money trust. It’s not neccessary! Likely-but not neccessarily-you will be a big fan of Bitcoin which lacks a central authority at all, and you don’t want anyone besides you to be able to touch your Bitcoin ever! If this is at the cost of readily being able to exchange, so be it. This money appreciates in value over time anyway, so best to just sit on it.
Connecting: You find the cryptocurrency world is a pretty fascinating place. Thousands of new currencies trying to find some niche, whoever would have thought? Different coins, different networks and growing by the day. Some have a tough time scaling, others are hardly used. How does it all work, and how can it be better? How can they all connect? Is there a way for them to interact while maintaining self-custody? What if everyone could do everything with them while still remaining in control? It could change the world as we know it! Connecting systems with one another! This is how we can build value!
If you are a “the money” person you will be more likely to trust centralized exchanges.
If you are a “self banking” person you will keep coins in your own wallet (coins, not DeFi contracts or other things you don’t feel fully in control over).
If you are a “connecting” person, you’ll want to try everything that’s new. You’re not too afraid to trust new networks, new contracts and new things. Especially if you think it could be the new big thing.
People can also move between these. In fact it’s quite likely most people when they first came to crypto were the “connecting” type. But bad experiences like scams, fund loss, feeling tricked might end up bringing them somewhere else. People usually have good reason for being the way they are.
People who love and use Chainge feel like this is truly the “connecting” -shit everyone once might have dreamed about. But if you’ve been burnt, over and over you’re usually not quick to trust.
A common phrase in cryptocurrency is “Don’t trust — verify”. That’s a good motto, especially when dealing with large sums of money. But for smaller sums, there’s a quicker way “Don’t trust — try”. There’s no need to “all-in” after all. But being open to trying all kinds of things all the time, is likely what most quickly can lead to the best opportunities. You can do this and still manage risk appropiately.
