The leaderboard contests on StackR have been live for a month, and a lot of the VeVe fam are jumping in and getting to know the system better. I’ve been playing around with StackR as well, so I thought I’d do a follow-up and give you my takeaways.
Perspective
This is just my personal experience; yours will be different. The VeVe Fam is made up of people from different countries and all walks of life, and our opinions are based on our perspectives. We even had different jumping-off points as to how we got to VeVe. Some came over from NBA Top Shot or other fiat-style platforms, some from crypto, some from influencer mentions. Where we came from can also influence our opinions on this subject.
I came from the crypto side. I started getting interested in crypto in late 2019, because I was frustrated with the low interest rate, and spent the COVID lockdown watching education videos on crypto to try to get my head wrapped around it. Then I found my way onto central exchanges which were set up more like a stock market board. They were easier to understand, and I didn’t have to worry about Ethereum fees or to juggle endless wallets. I picked the safest one I could find and stuck with it.
But when, in mid-2021, I decided to explore NFTs, I ran into a lot of the same problems I had in the beginning with crypto, where the Ethereum fees were three times the cost of the NFT I wanted to buy. I gave up until I found VeVe, where I could buy a 6.99 comic and actually pay 6.99 for it without the thirty dollar Ethereum fee. I’ve been collecting on VeVe ever since.
So, while I don’t mind learning about new tech, I tend to gravitate towards what’s easiest, cheapest, and safest. I tend to build up a lot of inertia when I’m feeling comfortable, but I will move when it becomes obvious what direction the wind is blowing and I can use it to get moving again.
Takeaways
Base
The hardest part about StackR for me had nothing to do with StackR at all: it was learning how to use Base.
I kept hitting “buy” instead of “swap” because I’m so used to using regular exchanges instead of dexes. All I can say is, I’m glad I have a crypto friendly bank, because I made so many weird transactions those first couple of days putting USD back into the account I took it from. I was sure someone was going to freeze my account. It’s also a good thing that ETH no longer charges an arm and a leg for a ten dollar OMI purchase anymore.
Once I was comfortable with that, it was all a matter of double-checking all my addresses and transferring it over to the StackR wallet. Even after double and triple checking everything, I was still nervous about it not showing up. But once it finally turned up, the hardest part was over.
Listings
I had trouble finding the market when I first wanted to use it. It’s very strange there’s no market button at the top. Instead, Listings is under the ‘Discover’ tab, which is definitely not an intuitive place to put it. Under a word like ‘Discover’, I’d expect things like: What is StackR? What is VeVe? Since the point is providing a place to buy and sell VeVe collectibles using OMI, I feel that Market Listings should be its own tab.
The listings can also be a little confusing at first, especially Volume. I’ve also noticed that when I click on a comic to get more information, the comic number is no longer shown, which can sometimes make me second guess myself.
Other than that, buying is pretty easy. I like to sort by price and rarity, and I often find really good deals on uncommon comics compared to on the VeVe Marketplace.
Selling
Selling is pretty easy; most of the time, I go through the VeVe app to set it up, but I have also gone straight over to StackR to sell or reset the price. I’ve chosen to only sell items with special mint numbers or rare pieces for the most part, I don’t want to have a transaction list a mile long when I do taxes.
Despite that, selling directly to OMI also has big advantages. I had an emergency bill over the summer and needed quick cash to cover it before a due date. I picked a collectible that I knew would sell in a few hours, then immediately transferred the OMI back to base, cashing it out and sending it to a crypto-friendly bank that had the money available for me the next day. Maybe I’m biased, but that’s a win as far as I’m concerned.
Leaderboards
A great way to get engagement that’s far above my league. Even so, it helps generate engagement, market sales, and OMI burns, and all of those are good for the whole ecosystem.
In General
I like using StackR, it’s just a matter of getting past the learning curve of using a DEX if you’re not used to it. It gets away from VeVe being completely closed off; it gives us some flexibility we didn’t have before. I have listings in both the VeVe Market and StackR Market, depending on the reason I’m selling them. Sometimes I am trading up and need gems, sometimes I’m accumulating OMI to hold onto, and sometimes I’m buying in or cashing out. It’s good to have options, and StackR is a step in the right direction.