This wasn’t what I had planned to write about this week, but I found a spark.
I’ve seen quite a few posts from people in full panic about the “Let’s just do OMI instead of a Gem cash-out” thing. And do you know what? I don’t get it.
Okay, so I’ve been around almost four years, so in that sense I’m used to degen panic, to euphoria, to panic again. It doesn’t matter what any web 3 company does, there is going to be one group that hates it, one group selling tickets to the moon, and the people in the middle.
The people in the middle also tend to fit into different groups. There are those who are on the fence on whether it’s good or not, those waiting for more details, or those who are generally okay with it.
I was in the “yeah, okay” camp. Honestly, I was a lot more excited about the Space Portal announcement.
So, I’d rather talk about why I was a bit confused by the mixed reaction.
1. The idea that OMI is going to be used as the main VeVe token is not news.
It shouldn’t be news to anybody except the “VeVe collectibles aren’t NFTs” crowd.
Did Ecomi’s roadmaps change? Yes, but that’s what roadmaps do. There’s always going to be a gorge or a mountain or something else in the way you have to work around. As everyone is well aware, there was very little legal and regulatory guidance on crypto and NFTs for years. So you build roads to places up to the borders, waiting to connect them, but you don’t actually finish that last mile until you know what the tolls are if you do.
If you’ve been on VeVe, you should have been well aware those roads were there, even if you didn’t know how they were going to be connected.
2. Gems have always been in-app currency.
A Gem is worth a U.S. dollar, relatively speaking, but it’s still not all that different from buying any other type of in-app currency and never has been. Just because you think of it as a dollar or treat it like a stablecoin in your head, it doesn’t mean it’s anything else.
That’s why most people didn’t have to worry about doing their taxes until they cashed out. Providing a cash-out without going directly to crypto was a courtesy. It’s expensive, it takes forever to get your money, and good luck if the bank marks you transaction as suspicious.
That said, if you’re either playing the long game or playing the safe game, Gems still serve a purpose. They’re easy to convert in the marketplace and you don’t have to worry about the price of the Gem going up and down; you only have to worry about people panic selling any time VeVe makes an announcement. If you don’t want a double whammy (i.e. VeVe makes an announcement and both OMI and collectibles go down) just keep the vault in Gems and sell into OMI only when it fits into whatever your strategy is.
It also makes for a good playground for people coming into the space who want to learn about collecting NFTs but are still terrified of crypto. Taking away the cash-out button doesn’t keep new collectors out of the app. If anything, it keeps them in it longer until they’re ready to dip their toes into the StackR side of things.
3. Dollars aren’t as stable as they used to be.
A stable coin may be tied to a dollar, but what’s a dollar pegged to? The whole idea that the dollar is pegged to gold or oil is mostly a myth. Dollars are pegged to their own debt, which is why the housing crisis brought the system down and why crypto was invented.
When I started VeVe I could fill up a cart of groceries with 60 dollars. Now I go over that just filling a shopping basket. I can buy uncommon comics for lower than it costs me to buy a candy bar. Even common sense doesn’t get much mileage these days.
Even if we hadn’t had a bear market and your collectible was the same price as you bought it, it would have depreciated, because dollars depreciated.
Yes, alts have depreciated and OMI too but that’s not the point. The point is it’s really hard to latch onto a broken peg.
4. Social Media
One other thing I want to say about the posts I saw that I thought was interesting. Most of the people that I know and have connected with on a personal level and had strong opinions were already either dollar cost averaging out of VeVe already or were planning an exit strategy. I understand their concern, I understand their reasons, and more power to them for their personal financial decisions, and this mostly just sped up the timeline.
The vast majority of messages I saw with negative reactions were from names that I didn’t recognize at all, or that I only vaguely recall seeing from three years ago. So, I hope before you let the fud get the best of you, do yourself a favor and read the official announcements, watch the official video, recent interviews, or listen to recorded spaces to get all the facts and come to whatever well-informed opinion is yours and yours alone, regardless if they agree with mine or not.
And for those of us who were just minding our collections when this happened… check the markets. The grails are still off their lows, but there are some definite bargains out there!
Or in other words:
Stay for the fire sale, but leave the fireworks for someone else.