ICONex

Bdon

I read that the team was phasing out the ICONex wallet for ICONFi. Is this true? I love ICONex and hate switching, but I also don’t want to have my stack stuck on a wallet that isn’t being updated or whatever.

peter

Bdon It would make sense that Icon leverages apps built by the community.

Tristian

it's actually myiconwallet by ReliantNode, you can export the wallet (keystore) from iconex and unlock(create) new myiconwallet without the need to unstake
edit: btw if your coin is in ledger then there is no need to do anything as Myiconwallet support ledger also

Bdon

Tristian I have heard mixed reviews on MyIconWallet, and I don’t like the thought of not having custody of my keys on IconFi.

I'm not the most tech savvy, but I know enough to get by. Any suggestions?

elliott

Tristian thats odd, why would the team phase out of iconex when it's easy to use with a quality UI for MyIconWallet which so far looks kinda shaky

Tristian

Bdon ledger should be the safest, you can access your ledger icon wallet from iconex or myiconwallet without the need to expose your key and stake from it

Bdon

Tristian can you help me with a very dumb question: I didn’t ride the ETH train last bull market. I had just discovered crypto and was strictly BTC, LTC, and ICX.

I am no whale. I own a enough BTC "“for one day", and I own a decent bag of ICX.

Being that I never rode the ETH train, can you explain the value in staking? Obviously the free ICX is a plus, but for argument's sake, how are the free coins more valuable if you end up stuck holding your bag when you can’t unstable in time to sell a sizeable chunk at $100+?

I know there is something obvious that I am missing, but again, I don’t come from the world of finance or tech. Just an every day Joe Schmoe who has fallen down the rabbit hole and knows enough. Am I missing an obvious easy play here that saves both values..?

Thanks.

Tristian

Bdon

yea there is no point in staking if you plan to sell quick, other than that stake on long run and start to unstake when it reaches near the price point or when you think it may reach your sell target

Matt

elliott

Most likely ease of use and accessibility. It's much easier to use a website rather than install an extension. You can use it through varying browsers, not just Chrome.

Bdon

Tristian So, I am correct in assuming staking only serves the purpose ((individually speaking of course) to stack free coins?

Or is there another angle that I am missing. I see everyone screaming about staking = passive income, but unless you’re staking 100k or more, I don’t see how those free coins can make as passive income once the bear market comes to town.

So, and again I am admitting some ignorance here, wouldn’t the smart play be to sell at the end of the bull market and just hold the cash in a stable coin and wait for the incoming massive correction post-bull run?

elliott

Bdon We all wish we could buy the low and sell at "the end of the bull market"

But the mechanism of "staking" is typically the act of serving the ecosystem by "staking" your coins, and receiving a reward for doing so. That is the "incentive mechanism" built into the protocol - but it also helps in protecting your wallet value from depreciating in value since the ICON platform is "inflationary" (even though during certain conditions can be "deflationary")

The idea that "staking=passive income" is in some ways a flawed idea for now as everyone can see volatility messes up that idea and even though you may earn 100icx in a bear market the value relative to your native fiat currency goes down 99% resulting in it being a bad source of a passive income. And vice versa - really good if your staked coins go from (1$->$100) x quantity owned (woohoo). Now if your earned value is in a stable asset then yes, which I believe De-fi type products are introducing.

Bdon

Hah. I won’t sell unless my "goodbye work...forever" is hit, but I understand your point 1. I am arguing on principles mainly to better understand the whole staking concept.

So, I am right in thinking the "passive income" idea is a terrible way of describing the purpose of staking. It is indeed only to serve the purpose of growing one's stack and battling inflation. ((I fucking hate that ICX is inflationary).

On the subject of ICX being inflationary in nature, there was a point brought up by @josephcorey17 in his interview with Brad Laurie that I was curious about which sort of segues into your final point: the Icon Dollar. You mentioned the Icon Dollar and how BalanceDAO would lower the circulating supply of ICX: am I correct that you only meant the circulating supply is only lowered while those ICX are locked into BalanceDAO, and there isn’t a "burn" mechanism to it?

Thanks for the great explanations, fellas. It is much appreciated. I am merely trying to further understand all of this. The old board becoming a ghost town the final year or two kind of killed my information highway so to speak. Hah

elliott

Bdon Hmm, tricky to phrase it as "arguing on principles." Correct me if i'm wrong, but i believe you might just be trying to understand the tech at a "lower level." Where the area which would require clarification would be better understanding the difference between protocol design for incentivization of transaction validation, security, etc (proof of stake, proof of work, etc...)

for example: In the Bitcoin network there exists the miners which are there because they have been incentivized via the block reward (essentially earning bitcoin for maintaining the network via mining). However in a bear market there a points in time where it has been witnessed that CostOfMining > BlockRewardValue. Which would follow your idea of passive income being a bad way to describe the reward if it costs more to get bitcoin than they are worth.

With respect to ICON being 'inflationary' - IMO you shouldn't "hate it". It's just their approach to monetary policy. Instead of a couple people saying "Okay guys let's print 1.9 trillion USD", they have software which essentially balances supply/demand autonomously to modulate amount of ICX created. But that's the extent of my knowledge about that aspect of the software.

I am still in the process of learning about the two upcoming launches Balanced and OMM. So can't personally give any info about those two and the best approach to take. If we get airdropped tokens, I don't want to just dump them on the market - I am still trying to strategize an approach to take and happy to receive any suggestions there lol!

Anyone else feel free to jump in and let me know im dumb if you see me mis-state anything haha!

Bdon

elliott for example: In the Bitcoin network there exists the miners which are there because they have been incentivized via the block reward (essentially earning bitcoin for maintaining the network via mining). However in a bear market there a points in time where it has been witnessed that CostOfMining > BlockRewardValue. Which would follow your idea of passive income being a bad way to describe the reward if it costs more to get bitcoin than they are worth.

Bingo. This is precisely the point I was getting to. In my mind, it doesn’t make sense to stake if you can sell and just wait for a drop in price. Now granted keeping some for free tokens isn’t discouraged either, but the notion of "passive income" just doesn’t make much sense to me when we all know the likelihood is Icon is going to ATH and beyond, but unless you own and are staking a very large portion of coins, the passive income is negligible.

Miners mining in a bear market has always made perfect sense to me, because we all know those "free" coins will one day be substantial, no matter how small a portion.

Seriously appreciating the info and discussion, keep it coming.