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Photo by Lucas Benjamin on Unsplash. Whether you like it, make a living out of it, hate it, or ignore it, undeniably crypto is everywhere. It is here to stay and the foreseeable future involves money-making using . It is not an art anymore, nor too challenging to comprehend. Cryptocurrency For most crypto traders, crypto is a passion and for some, it is an addiction. It counts how you play with it. Certain moves bring you the anticipated luck while some can make you scratch your head. If you know what you are doing, you are good to step into a world where investing is not rocket science. While I can't list everything you need to know or do to be a pro in crypto here, let me list some valuable insights that'll assist you if you are new to the crypto world. The 5 Stages of Adoption for a Crypto Investor You can potentially master a new practice quickly and effortlessly adapt to it if you can observe these 5 stages: Stage 1: Awareness The awareness stage is the first time you hear about Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency that did a minimum of 2x to somewhere like 300x within months, weeks, or days. Sounds like a hoax? It is a common occurrence in the crypto market. Visit everyday gainers and losers section to see for yourself. Coinmarketcap There is another practical explanation for this stage from my personal experience. I saw an article in a local newspaper somewhere in 2017 about 'What is bitcoin?' Is it a scam, or is it worth a try? Well, those who tried have made a fortune for themselves. Those trillions of dollars in Bitcoin and significant support from prominent financial institutions and personalities like Mark Cuban, Elon Musk, and VISA or Paypal accepting crypto is just the beginning. Stage 2: Interest & Information Now that you know about Cryptocurrency, what is your excuse? The ship is sailing but, will you be on board? In this stage, you hunt through Blogs, YouTube videos, scroll millions of Tweets in a day, or maybe look for a course if you are eager to know. I would recommend you look for reliable and ethical sources and consult with friends in crypto or follow the trend for some time, but don't just hop in to buy one until you know where to buy from. Once you know that you are ready, the and which one to buy. next step is to learn where to buy and store your crypto or digital assets Where to Buy Crypto and Where to Store Cryptocurrencies There are various centralized crypto exchanges where you can buy your 'First Crypto,' but you are probably coming in at such a time where regulations are all over. I would suggest you go for LCX, one of the most consumer complaint and regulated crypto exchanges out there. You may also opt for a more local crypto exchange or a platform where you can easily convert fiat(i.e., your Local Currency ) to crypto and let it sit for a while. You can even exchange your crypto for stable coins / digital currency like digital Euros on . LCX Binance (not Binance U.S.). Coinbase (another trusted crypto exchange). Kucoin (not using anymore). Okex (an average choice). LCX LCX is pioneering a blockchain infrastructure bridging the gap between traditional monetary systems and the fast-moving trusted technology landscape. If you have made up your mind about a particular crypto exchange to choose to buy these digital assets, the next concern is where to store them? If you trade more often and want to save money while making a good profit, a centralized exchange is the first option. However, if you intend to keep it in a vault, go for decentralized software wallets like Metamask, Trust Wallet, etc. It would be best if you started by doing small trials before storing more significant values. Also, , which you get when creating a software wallet. It might not look significant, but if you lose this, you lose what's inside, so keep your wallet safe at all times. ALWAYS keep your seed phrase, also called private key safe and secret (don't even share it with your better-half if she/he has a habit of stealing) I would still recommend keeping it on an exchange or , which you can get from Amazon or eBay. hardware wallet like Ledger or Trezor In 2021, Which Cryptocurrency Should You Invest in? You might think of Bitcoin and Ethereum, as they have had their peaks. However, I support Ethereum and projects based entirely on Ethereum along with some Multi Blockchain projects in DeFi, also known as altcoins like Matic, Razor Network, Celo, Reef, Uni, Aave, Polkadot, Solana, BNB, and  some stable coins like USDC or USDT to grab some future opportunities and early-stage projects as a ready option for quick buys. (previously Matic) and Razor are still early. Nevertheless, they have incredible potential, in my opinion, as these projects are the future of Decentralized Finance, one (Matic) a Layer 2 solution connecting the multi-blockchain ecosystem for various use cases and . Polygon Razor as an Oracle solution At this stage, you must learn or know that whitepapers are a thing just like regulations and compliance is a thing for crypto exchanges. Stage 3: Evaluation Stage The most crucial step is to evaluate your purchase decisions because once you push the buy button and sit for a day, it will show its true colors. I have been trading for almost 3 years, and I still experience FOMO and end up buying some newer projects. Some turn out good and some bad. Some scams also come along the way as promising, and evaluating a scam is not easy. (P.S. I am not a financial advisor) 7 things to Check Before Investing in Altcoins/ Cryptocurrencies Check for a Whitepaper Check the Team (most important) Check their Twitter Check their Telegram Community Check for Tokenomics Check for Market Cap Check for Trend Charts Disclaimer : Do your research and due diligence before investing in crypto. It is risky and rewarding, but it depends when you get in, and most importantly, trust yourself more than you do others, unless you have a financial advisor a call away, which I am not, nor any YouTuber. Stage 4: Trial If you have made up your mind about a specific first or next Cryptocurrency, take a baby step and buy small. By that, I mean not more than 5% of what you make in a month. Do this for the next few months until you are sure or can invest the kind of money you are willing to invest (as in forex and stock exchanges) on your risk capacity. Yes, you can , and people with weary hearts would not make money in crypto. Also, if you are a couch person, you might not be ready to get in. lose Unlike the stock market, crypto is a 24-hour job! You might get obsessed with checking the price charts more than you open your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or TikTok. So, start slow, and have multiple experiments to amass a lot of experience. Also, don't buy or sell what you don't believe in, and don't invest in something if you think it will help you make 2x in a day; eventually, it can. Thus our community says HODL or hold your investments, and one day they could change your life forever. , and some projects take a year or more from the TGE (token generation event) before they become famous. A well-sounded dedicated team behind a project is a tremendous first clue always. You don't lose until you sell Stage 5: Adoption Adopting, you may have become well-versed with crypto at this stage, but some around you might have stepped down early. They might be scared to invest due to a lack of information or knowledge. Almost 65% of virgin investors don't understand how to invest, resulting in a loss of opportunity. Eventually, they end up spending their savings on their wedding or hospital bills. If you are fortunate to get in now, it is still early. Let me tell you why; Bitcoin was just $1 a few years back, and several other cryptocurrencies cost less than $1 today. Who knows what time has in store for everyone. Imagine Cryptocurrency as the internet or computer of the 90s; not everyone believed in it. Netflix was founded in 1997 when the internet was a luxury to have, and data packs did not exist. Digitization is the future. We have seen one such evolution with the mass adoption of OTT platforms resulting in the quitting of regular entertainment channels post-pandemic. have played a significant role in the growing adoption of digital currency / digital assets/crypto/altcoins. They all are the same thing but exist for you to get a taste of it. Regulations However, a potential ban in some countries like India has built uncertainties around investing in crypto and brought the Investor community from diverse geographies to fight back and show the strength of unity. Crypto is now at ease in India. Several countries, including India, are still trying to bring regulations and are consulting with countries that already regulated Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Another example that has touched the hearts of many crypto believers and gives another good reason to regulate crypto is that recently, with the pandemic crisis at its peak in India, the Indian crypto community started a to help people in need of oxygen and other covid essentials. A few big names worldwide in the crypto community have come forward to donate. The best thing about crypto is crypto relief fund its transparency. The application of Blockchain and Cryptocurrency are in their infancy. Are you next in the queue to witness the future of money and technology? Disclaimer: All opinions shared in this article are that of the author and they do not count as investment advice.

Investing in Crypto is not an Art 

Smart contracts have a lot of potential, even though they remain fairly limited in approach. Obtaining external data is impossible for a contract on its own. The future will inevitably involve decentralized oracles, which can serve many different purposes. The Limitations of Smart Contracts Expanding the use of blockchain technology to forge bonds and agreements between different parties is a logical step in the evolution. I firmly believe smart contracts are the next frontier in this industry, even though they are still in their infancy stage of development. Currently, smart contracts are primarily used for a handful of use cases, most of which will never attract attention outside of the cryptocurrency community. To change that narrative, smart contracts themselves will have to undergo an evolution. One of their key flaws is the inability to access external information in any capacity. One option to explore comes in the form of blockchain oracles. These systems are widely considered to be core building blocks of the blockchain ecosystem. Being able to obtain external information and interface with remains a key hurdle to overcome. One can state that blockchain oracles are effectively bridging the gap between a blockchain ecosystem and the outside world. It is a big step forward to forge contractual agreements and acquire the necessary relevant information to execute certain conditions. Enhancing the scope in which smart contracts can operate and thrive will make this technology more appealing and potent. Centralization Remains a Concern Setting up blockchain oracles can be done in different ways. One common approach is to use a centralized solution, although that poses its own set of risks and drawbacks. Verifying the integrity of data should never be biased, yet with a centralized approach, that is almost impossible to avoid. Tapping into as many reliable data sources as possible, comparing the information, and then processing the details is the only path forward. After all, an oracle is merely a system that queries and authenticates external data sources and relays the information. It is not an actual data source, but it must be coded to tap into specific data sources. The more sources, the more reliable the information will turn out to be. Whether it is price information, completing transactions, or updating product stock, it needs to be done properly, securely, and without bias. In my humble opinion, centralized blockchain oracles will have a very short lifespan. We already see dozens of projects explore decentralized solutions, even though most of them opt for one and the same provider. This is another aspect of centralization that will always be a concern in this industry, even though it doesn't necessarily need to be. While I do believe Chainlink has the right approach in terms of decentralized blockchain oracles, not everyone should rely on this technology just yet. There are other providers worth exploring  in this regard. Cryptocurrency and blockchain want to be taken seriously by the mainstream. To achieve that goal, we will all need to work together to create a future where decentralization is the norm, rather than an option. DeFi Needs Decentralized Oracles The decentralized finance segment  has gotten a lot of interest as of late. Users want quick access to new launches before they hit platforms like Binance or Coinbase. Several exchanges, such as MXC Exchange, and a few others, continue to push the envelope in terms of providing users with exposure to DeFi tokens and mining. At the same time, we all need to remember this is only one side of the medallion. Investing in DeFi assets for speculation only is never the right approach. In my opinion, the focus needs to be on decentralization as much as possible. That includes DeFi projects using decentralized blockchain oracles for their unique purposes. Considering how decentralized finance aims to be a more transparent approach to finance, all of the relevant data accessed by the project needs to be as decentralized and verifiable as it can be. Finding the Right Solution is Crucial Regardless of how one wants to look at the situation, it all comes down to finding effective oracle solutions. Projects exploring this option need to find ways to maintain their sovereignty without compromising on the overall focus. That may be a lot more difficult than onlookers assume. In its current form, there is no decentralized blockchain oracle capable of suiting every need just yet. Personally, I think that is a positive sign. Competition needs to emerge in this space to not only explore different options, but also give rise to new and powerful solutions. Although Chainlink is currently the go-to oracle solution for most projects, I keep my eye on the space to explore what else is out there. One project, by the name of Razor Network, aims to offer "truly decentralized oracles' A very bold claim to live up to, as there are no second chances to make a good first impression in this industry. Under the hood, Razor Network leverages network stakers to provide data to smart contracts. This is an unusual way of obtaining information from multiple different sources. It can also offer an incentive to participants to keep providing data and remain honest while doing so. The concept of give-and-take is, in my book, incredibly powerful when it comes to decentralizing anything. People are seemingly not interested in doing too many things without being rewarded somehow. Conclusion The future certainly looks bright for decentralized blockchain oracles, especially when more competing services come to market. There needs to be a much broader access to services that focus on decentralized solutions, whether it is at the technology level, or at the data level. When these two segments meet in the middle, I firmly expect great things to happen. For the time being, there aren't too many decentralized blockchain oracle providers yet. That situation will hopefully come to change in the future. The demand for solutions like these will keep on growing, especially if they prove to be extremely scalable. Whether that will be achieved in the coming months, or if it will take years, is impossible to predict.

More Competition is Good: Decentralized Blockchain Oracle Solutions

There have been few technological advancements with more disruptive potential than the blockchain. In less than a decade, it has enabled a financial revolution, helped drive , and even made a whole new global art market possible. transformation in the global supply chain But the truth is, we've only just scratched the surface of what blockchain technology can do. We here at the watched in awe as blockchain technology transformed countless industries. And then we had a thought: if blockchain technology can be transformative in fully-developed product ecosystems, what might it do for ones that are only beginning to emerge? Radom Network So we set out to use the blockchain to create a platform to solve some of the challenges holding back development in the internet of things (IoT) sector. And that's what we've done. Here's what our platform can do and why we believe that the blockchain will help to unleash the massive potential of IoT going forward. The Challenge of IoT Management As businesses have adopted IoT technology, they've done so at the expense of older monolithic technology stacks. By integrating IoT devices into their networks, they've started to shift toward microservices and distributed systems to create a service-oriented architecture. But doing that creates management challenges because of the sheer number of devices operating within a network. The solution to that management challenge is to deploy a service registry provider — a type of central configuration database that allows services, application instances, and IoT devices to find one another. That eliminates much of the manual legwork it takes to manage large IoT networks and makes it possible to use them to maximum advantage. But there's a big disadvantage hiding within current-generation service registry providers. It's that they take a decentralized system — the IoT — and they introduce a single point of failure that can grind it to a halt. So we thought: why not marry the idea of IoT service registries to a decentralized blockchain solution? A PoS Service and Device Discovery Infrastructure Our solution is to provide businesses with a service registry infrastructure that allows them to write their networks' configuration data onto the blockchain. This not only eliminates the potential for an outage knocking out the IoT networks that rely upon it but opens up a world of new possibilities for the companies that use it. And because it's built using a PoS blockchain model, new nodes can participate in it by indexing configuration data and relaying it to the devices and servers that need it on-demand. By participating in our network, businesses won't have to worry about scaling their registry infrastructure as they grow, and they'll gain flexibility that would've been impossible with legacy approaches. And to expand on that advantage, we also provide users with hierarchy-driven network visualization tools, NoSQL-style data for their service configurations, devices, and instances, and the ability to deploy point-to-point encryption to protect communications between IoT devices and their applications. And that's just the beginning. IoT as a New Asset Class What's revolutionary about what we're building is that it gives businesses something they've never had before: the easy ability to monetize their IoT assets. By using our network as a management hub, businesses can lease out access to parts — or all — of their IoT networks to third parties. Our platform streamlines IoT security management to simplify leased access to data APIs, message queues, and connections to IoT devices. Owners need only define a whitelist for access to the devices they wish to include in a lease agreement, and the system takes care of the rest. And there's another benefit to the arrangement. The whitelist system allows lessees to pay for their access in cryptocurrency straight through our platform. And for maximum flexibility, we provide for payment using a variety of major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, an array of stablecoins, and even our own native currency – the Radom token (DOM). Secure, Transparent, and Accountable Enabling IoT data access via a blockchain system comes with another major benefit for everyone involved. It's that it eliminates the privacy minefield that's normally associated with sharing data with a third party. Our blockchain stores company names, data access specifics, terms, and transactions transparently. That means the data's available to anyone wishing to see it. That functionality enables a global data marketplace, where participating companies can buy and sell the data they need and generate a steady stream of revenue through their IoT assets. And because we operate a borderless system, it can connect data sellers and buyers from regions that would ordinarily never be able to work together. Ours is a tool that gives businesses options that no competitor can match. Unleashing the Power of IoT Through Blockchain The bottom line here is simple. The Radom Network represents the convergence of an IoT software as a service model with the latest in blockchain tokenization technology. That has allowed us to create a secure, comprehensive, and efficient management and data infrastructure to unleash the potential of the IoT. And best of all, it's going to be available to the public very soon. Right now, we're on track to release the first-look version of our web platform on March 31st, 2022. It will demonstrate the utility and capacity of our platform to interested businesses, and prove why we think it's going to be a game-changer for the industry. And by the beginning of 2023, we expect to release our node software, enabling participation in the network and allowing us to scale up to meet the anticipated demand. We believe that our platform is going to be yet another example of the power of blockchain technology to work as the perfect companion to another with unlimited potential. We know we're offering just what IoT's been waiting for. And now we're going to go out and prove it. Photo by radom.network

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