After a long wait (depending on who you are), the Cardano Ecosystem is finally getting built out.
And almost everyone is sleeping on it.
What if you had the chance to get in near the ground floor of things like Uniswap, Chainlink, Aave, Crypto Punks, Bored Apes, and Decentraland?
Agree or disagree with the future of a huge, prosperous Cardano blockchain — I’m not sure you can afford to miss this again.
I did a podcast episode on this very topic. You can check it out below, or simply keep reading on.
NOW NOW NOW!!!
There is little to no patience in the crypto investor space, and I get it, most of you are young and have had almost zero investing experience before that.
Developing patience takes time. But playing the long game is, and always will be your #1 top-earning strategy. Reality is reality.
What strategy do you think most of the whales employ? Exactly, that’s why most of them became whales in the first place.
But we can be like them, which means being the opposite of the crowd, which in just about every aspect of life is going to serve you very, very well.
And thanks to all of the instant gratification monkeys in the crypto space, we have been gifted a rare opportunity to get in early to an ecosystem that instead of rushing to the front of the line, took its time, on purpose.
Charles Hoskinson and the Cardano team understand that Crypto isn’t a flash in the pan. It’s going to be around for a long time. So why not do things right?
They did. And now we get to see it play out.
And now we get to capitalize on it.
A Quick Bull Case
If you’re reading this, you’re probably already bullish, but let’s make a few things clear.
First of all, most of the FUD you’re going to hear is from the instant gratification monkey crowd. Read what they write. It’s rooted in impatience. Very little substance 95% of the time.
There are some solid arguments against Cardano, but what blockchain isn’t going to have negativity in some regard?
The Cardano developer community is super active creating this ecosystem for the world. How active? #1 in 2021 actually.
So throw all that “ghost chain” “vaporware” nonsense in the trash where it belongs. We’re officially beyond this now.
About 90% of all Cardano out there is being staked as well. Most of us investors aren’t going anywhere.
And the whole “You don’t even have smart contracts out yet LOL haha” argument has also ended up in the trash, hopefully along with all the people who said it. This sucker is is being built….out, with a lot of these projects either already active or scheduled to be by mid 2022.
It just didn’t have those things right away, which upset the instant gratification crowd, and foolishly made them think it was an inferior product as a result. Good, I say.
If you love decentralization, Cardano is one of, if not the most decentralized in all of crypto. Terra may have something to say about that, but they are nowhere close to being as built out as an ecosystem as Cardano is currently, and may never be.
The ADA community itself is large, they have money, and they have been patiently waiting to use this ecosystem. It’s hard to say the money and the enthusiasm won’t be there. In lots of ways it already is.
Their native stablecoin, Djed, isn’t even out yet. Once it is, things will move forward in a hurry. This is how early we still are.
I admit it, I’m excited about a stablecoin.
I have been doing nothing but using the Cardano blockchain for the last two weeks. I’ve been moving ADA around, staking, buying NFTs, exchanging, etc. And what is the most I have paid for every transaction?
As of post time, .18 ADA. Or around $.23 USD. Why would I do anything anywhere else at this point?
The cryptosphere is evolving. Thank God too, no?
How To Cardano
So if you’re interested, you first need to bite the bullet and get yourself a Shelley Wallet, in other words, a wallet built for the Cardano ecosystem.
There really is no alternative right now, but if you can’t do 5 minutes of work for what would be an extraordinary upside, then I’m officially done talking to you, and you can safely go back to watching TikTok.
Some of these wallets can hook up to the Trezor or Ledger that you already have. I do not have one, so you may need to watch a ten minute YouTube video just to make sure you’re good and connected here.
As of post time, we have a handful of active Shelley wallets to choose from. Daedalus, Adalite, Yoroi, Nami, ccvault all come to mind. They all have different attributes, so do a bit of research here too.
Choice of wallet is not something to take lightly, even though you will probably end up with more than one (like me).
I began with Adalite. I wanted to get staking, and at the time there were only a few choices. I was and still am very happy with the product, but we are already seeing limitations to the wallet.
As of right now, it’s not smart contract enabled. You are going to want this down the road.
It was also unable to stake to a certain staking pool I wanted to participate in. Made no sense. So I was forced in a way to get a second wallet, but I’m glad I did. I chose Nami.
Nami is a browser extension, so I added it to my Brave browser. It does everything I need it to do. Smart contracts, whitelisting, you can stake anywhere, love it. I now use both wallets for different things, and have no regrets.
This is literally the whole wallet.
Gero wallet is the new hot girl on the block. I can’t speak much on it, but check it out too if you’re interested.
So to sun it up…
1st edition wallets
Daedalus – A must have if you plan on minting new NFTs
Yoroi
Adalite
People are already complaining about what some of them can’t do so check out…
2nd edition wallets
Nami
ccvault
Gero
Some NFT platforms for example, have gone to using smart contracts only to cut down on scammers. You will need a wallet that can use them too.
I have Nami and like it, but am currently having issues buying things on CNFT. It just happened today, and others are having issues too. It’s early in the game gotta be patient. Likely a CNFT issue. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.
You will need ADA to do everything, so get some immediately. As I chronicled on this very blog, I was early to ADA, so I already had a lot of it. I just took some that I already had, and reallocated it to different projects within the ecosystem.
In fact, on some of the DEXes, you will see prices shown in terms of ADA, not fiat currencies. Once Djed comes around, we’ll see how that effects things, but for now, ADA is everything, and you must have it to function here.
But once you’re set up, you can go dozens of different ways in terms of investing, collecting, staking, and providing liquidity. Very exciting. Let’s go over some of those avenues.
Just Know
This is the boring Disclaimer part of the blog post.
We are very early. Some of these projects will not make it. Some may even be rug-pulls for all we know.
I understand the risks, and I also understand the potential asymmetry of getting just one or two of these things right.
Make sure you do too. This isn’t for emotional little children to overleverage their futures into one or two things.
We’re in pioneer territory here. Most of the pioneers died on the way there. Make sure you’re not one of them.
I am taking one position’s worth of money (possibly 1 1/2 when it’s all said and done) and putting it into some of these projects. That’s it.
But man am I geeked about it. Let’s get into it.
Quick Reference
As of post time, these are the leading equivalents to the ETH chain for the main Cardano dapps either active right now, or damn close.
Chainlink = Charli3
Aave = Liqwid, Meld
Opensea = jpg.store, CNFT
Uniswap = ADAX, SundaeSwap, MuesliSwap
Meme Coin = Hosky
For pure investors, let this be your guide for now, but understand there’s a lot of competition coming soon. I would have even linked out to helpful videos and such, but this is already going to be outdated in a few months, so plan accordingly.
If it’s early to market (doesn’t have to be first), it can end up being top dog in a hurry (UNI, LINK, DOGE), so I have chosen not to delay here.
As of right this moment, if the tokens are available, you can find them on MuesliSwap. I have used it for swapping (I will not be providing liquidity into it for reasons I mentioned on the podcast), but in terms of buying tokens, it did the job.
So far I have purchased ADAX, because it has overcome its initial hurdles already even though it’s not fully up and running just yet, and it’s the only one currently attempting to go cross chain, which is ambitious, but I think provides even more upside going forward.
I have also purchased CNFT token. This one is highly speculative. Rarely can you even find a token for investing in an NFT marketplace, but there it was, and the chance to get in early on something that could become even 1/10th of what Opensea has become is intriguing enough for me to pull the trigger on a deep speculation here.
I am looking hard at World Mobile Token. This is the token used for the Cardano project that looks to connect the unconnected in Africa. Super duper ambitious, but if you want on board, World Mobile token is available on MuesliSwap right now.
I may add more later, and as always, refer to my crypto holdings blog post for updates.
Collectors Rejoice!
The NFT market on Cardano is booming, yet the prices compared to their ETH brethren can still be had at a fraction of the price.
Bookmark the jpgstore, CNFT, and NFTJam. Connect your Shelley wallet(s), and get hunting.
You will find ADA versions of series which have already taken off in monstrous ways, along with original projects you can get on board with too.
CryptoPunks (ADAPunks)
Bored Apes (Chilled Kongs)
Ether Rocks (Cardano Rocks)
Some of the leading art series right now include Lazy Llamas and Boss Cat Rocket Club.
I’m not a collector myself, so I’m not much help here, but as an investor, you can find some deep value on project that already have a head of steam going, or newer projects yet to even be fully discovered. Discord is your friend here.
The Name’s VP, Land Baron
In many of these cases, you are going to see “Sold Out” on the main website. You can pretty much get anything on the secondary market. It’s how I got all of my stuff. Go to the jpeg store or CNFT.io and hook up your ADA wallet. CNFT.tools is a great resource for checking stats, if they apply.
NFTs go far beyond just art projects. When people say NFTs are the future, I believe it. They’re the key to everything.
There are at least 8 Metaverse projects being built on Cardano right now, and as a whole, they look like they have a LOT more potential than just about any other project I’ve seen elsewhere.
Some more than others in my opinion, but let’s get to that.
Pavia
Pavia is Cardano’s answer to Decentraland. It also looks to be mission central for all of the other metaverse project on their blockchain.
Cardano is looking to implement a portal system which can take your avatar to all of the other metaverses in their system, and possibly into other metaverses on other chains too.
Current floor price for land sits at 400ADA. This is about 1/3 of what you will pay for the cheapest plot in Decentraland. But understand, in the overall lifecycle of this project, this would be like buying Decentraland back in 2018. That’s how early we are.
More land is also being made available to the public in the future. I would not use this as an excuse to not take action now, but keep plugged into the Pavia social network channels so you don’t miss out on this either.
Current map of Pavia. You can see the yet-to-be-released lands on the outskirts.
My further thoughts and endeavors on this project can be heard in the podcast episode listed at the top of this blog post.
Cardania
This one is sexy AF.
Cardania is an ambitious project looking similar to a World of Warcraft or Hearthstone type game, with a card feature added in.
Most Play-To-Earn games right now look very forced-to-market and not very fun. The ones that do look fun are already heavily tilted to the people who got in early.
Cardania not only looks super fun, but we’re still super early, and early enough to get some of the rewards given to early investors.
My favorite part, is that you can buy land parcels on Cardania like you can in many of the metaverse projects out there, but they will all provide passive income once the game is up and running.
You not only generate passive income in the form of their native token simply by holding the land, but every time a player does something on your land, you get a piece of the pie as well!
This alone has made me a hardcore NFT guy.
I have zero eye for art, but I’m all about something like this. I have already accumulated land, founder’s cards, game card packs, I’m in it.
Best thing to do if you’re interested is to go to their site, read their white paper (or their RAD paper as they call it), join the discord (link on site), and don’t be afraid to ask questions. The Cardania discord site is booming right now. So much to see and do, and the people there are super helpful.
Cnft.tools.io is a great place to see what kind of land is available. It’s a great tool for all projects, the Cardania-specific one can be found HERE. Sort by price, low/high.
Also, in the podcast episode I listed above, I talk about how you can still get in on rewards if you’re reading this in mid-January. Free land. Don’t miss out.
Equine
I’ve always liked horse racing, and I’ve always been interested in being a part of a game where you could breed and race your horses for real money, but like a lot of people, I never got there early enough, and the pool was so swamped by the time I began, it just wasn’t much fun anymore.
Yes, I did play the heck out of Derby Owner’s Club at Dave and Busters back in the day.
There are some leading projects in the horse racing space right now like Derace and Pegaxy, but I am months late to those projects, and the floor price on even the slow donkey horses has gotten out of hand.
So not only do I get to participate in a horse racing project as an OG pioneer like I get to do on Equine, I get to do it on the Cardano blockchain? Fucking YES!!
There’s talk of being able to have your horses hang out on your Pavia land as well. We’ll see about that, but I’m excited about this one.
From the looks of it, this project looks like it has the least chance of succeeding out of anything I’ve talked about thus far, but I don’t have much to base that prediction off of. It certainly won’t prevent me from taking a shot here.
Cornucopias
This is simply one I’m keeping an eye on. A different style of metaverse P2E game, done more in the style of Sandbox, for those of you who are more interested in something like that.
Some real plusses though. Teaming up with the Unreal Engine (version 5 when it comes out), and looking like lots of chances to generate income.
I read their white paper and jumped on their Discord forum just to stay up on things. Nothing more for now. This project is not scheduled to be fully playable until late 2022 early 2023. Then again, Pavia may not even be there at that point, so play the long game.
Their token however, COPI, can be purchased right now if you like where things are headed. Currently, you can only buy it on PancakeSwap for whatever reason. At least fees are still nice and low on the Binance Smart Chain.
Land isn’t even for sale yet, so if you want in early, and possibly gain extra rewards for being early, stay on top of this one.
Other ADA Metaverse Projects
These are the ones I’m aware of:
Artifct Moon: Own land on the moon!
Carda Station: Own more land on the moon!
Cardano Village: More of that cutsie-poo, Harvest Moon type set up. South Korean built, it’s a big deal over there. Land sales still to come.
AdaDams: Beavers!
AdaRealms: Don’t know as much about this one.
Free Shit!
Because we’re early, and because it’s the Cardano ecosystem, opportunities to get free tokens and NFTs are literally everywhere.
I told the Pavia story on the podcast episode. That was awesome, and totally unexpected. There are two main ways I’ve seen so far to get free things. Thing which have a potential, slight as it may be, to moon.
Airdrops
If you find a new/newer project you like, DO NOT HESITATE. Go there immediately, and become part of the community. They’ll know what to do.
Early members of most of these communities get two key advantages:
- They get to mint the NFTs that the game/land will be using before they’re released. It’s easier than it sounds. But when you do this, you get them at what’s pretty much going to be their cheapest prices.
- You get airdrops! Some are a surprise, others are announced. But you need to do the things necessary to get them like stake in a certain pool, hold certain NFTs, whitelist the discord forum on your wallet, etc. And you won’t know which is which unless you do the work and become a part of these communities. Every project has them.
There are people out there who just come for the airdrops, and then sell the stuff they had to hold on the secondary market, often at a profit. I don’t want to be one of these people myself, but you could if you wanted to.
Dripdropz
Dripdropz.io is super cool. Thanks to Cardano’s UTXO phenomenon (which I don’t completely understand, but…), if you have been staking in an ADA pool for a few epochs (in ADA staking parlance, an “epoch” is a 5-day period), you simply go to Dripdropz, enter your wallet address, and you can exchange a few ADA for a handful of lesser-known tokens that may moon some day.
It does cost a few ADA actually, but you get back more ADA’s worth of coins, and if they moon….
Sometimes it’s a token like Hosky, sometimes it’s something you’ve never heard of. But who cares, it’s cheap crypto! And you often have lots to choose from. Maximum 10 choices, but I only take 2 or 3 so I don’t have a wallet clogged with shitcoins.
I’ve heard several stories of poor kids who just knew how to get airdrops and free tokens a few years ago, who are millionaires now. I’m taking advantage where I can, because why wouldn’t you?
Resources
There are already media outlets dedicated to the space. Some of my early favorites are..
Army of Spies Youtube channel – Great for covering all aspects of the Cardano ecosystem
jcrypto YouTube Channel – Focuses in on the NFT and metaverse side of things. Very prolific, usually at least one video per day
Freedom 35ers Podcast – A Cardano NFT-heavy podcast, for you podcast-heads. Also available on YouTube, but the only one of the three you can find in pure podcast form.
There are others. These are just the ones I can recommend right now
Conclusion
The instant gratification crowd (and Charles Hoskinson) have given us an absolute gift. A second chance to get in early.
It’s up to you whether you take action or not.
I’m just here to help facilitate.
Vaya con Dios.
— VP