Been ignoring the crypto threads on here for a while but I gave this one a read-through.
I'm a software engineer and developed projects on the Ethereum blockchain in 2017. I am
NOT a proponent of crypto. I'm going to voice a few of my concerns and give some advice to anyone who comes across this that may be thinking of investing in digital assets.
This thread promotes MetaMask which has security vulnerabilities, please
DO NOT store private keys, wallets, passwords, and the like inside a browser extension. Use a wallet like Fortmatic or Coinbase instead.
My general investment opinions (not financial advice..... but won't hurt you..)
Don't know how the industry works? Don't invest.Don't know what a product does? Don't invest.Don't understand how the company makes money? Don't invest.Have no way to hold the company legally accountable? Don't invest. Don't know the owner personally? Don't invest.Have to make additional payments to the company to get a return on investment? Don't invest.Have to get other people to invest to see a return? Don't invest.Can you lose access to your investment at any time without any resistance from yourself? Don't invest.Don't know where your assets physically are? Don't invest.
Flip all those conditions around and the majority are true. Invest.
If you invest in something and most of those conditions are telling you not to invest, you are probably in a casino.
Personally, I like to be able to spend my money without needing an internet connection.
DO, however (if you really understand the inner workings) use crypto in a way that creates value and improves lives not just like a penny stock gamble. However, this is hard to do with all the
thousands of get-rich-quick scams devouring the industry. Even big established cryptocurrencies perceived by the average investor to be stable show red flags and have high risk. For example, Tether is not tethered to USD, the creators of Tether also own a big exchange
(about all the creators have criminal backgrounds) that was going bankrupt so they bailed it out with the reserves of Tether and switch tether's backing from 1 to 1 USD to USD + unknown assets. Now they can print their own money and have been which may inevitably burst their bubble if the court case against them doesn't cause a crash first. Likewise, with HEX and almost any other defi platform, there is not much anyone can do to prevent a rug pull or other financial crimes since the industry is unregulated. decentralized and anonymous. There are reasons why pump and dump, insider trading, and other practices were made illegal in the stock market.
As for HEX, I don't know the owners. Hex does not have an about page, no company name after the copyright notice, just
https://hex.com/disclaimer/ I don't see any transparency or reason to trust this company with any of my assets.
P.S. Crypto assets are still taxable income.