This New Year, Resolve to Decentralize and Truly Own Your Funds MyEtherWallet Follow Jan 3 · 5 min read

It seems that all New Year’s resolutions have three things in common:

They are an intention to improve your life by resolving or putting in order a problem that you’ve allowed to go on for too long.

They require considerable effort and organization to implement (otherwise, they would have been dealt with already).

The time and effort required to make them happen would be worth the result.

Understandably, most resolutions focus on health, family, and professional aspirations.

Also understandably, most resolutions fail by February. Why? Some of the top reasons are:

Without a strong, specific motivation, the effort required can seem excessive.

Lack of a clear goal makes it difficult to focus.

Trying to change too much too fast leads to feeling overwhelmed and discouraged.

While we can’t quite help you with the resolution to eat better and be more active, we CAN help with the resolution to gain full control of your funds this year by embracing decentralization. To ensure that this is a resolution you can stick with, we’ll tell you

Why you might want to make this resolution — to give you motivation

What exactly you can do right now — to define clear goals

How you can keep taking small steps — to make sure you don’t feel overwhelmed

Let’s do this!

To decentralize or not to decentralize?

If you’ve been reading anything about blockchain, you are likely aware that decentralization is one of the main benefits of cryptocurrency. In its originally intended decentralized form, the blockchain enables independence from third-party institutions like banks, regulators, and governments. This was the purpose of Bitcoin creation, and though the concept of cryptocurrency continues to evolve, decentralization remains at the core of its philosophy.

That being said, decentralization is a personal choice. Using centralized services can feel much more familiar. As a society, we have become accustomed to trust other parties to make decisions about our information (social media), our money (banks), and our future (governments). On the other hand, the reality of how those decisions affect our lives is becoming increasingly clear. Internet companies use data without our knowledge, banks can impose fees or freeze accounts without explanation, and governments continue to implement more surveillance.

So… To decentralize or not to decentralize? In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet weighed the relative benefits not so much of life versus death, but of a resolute, agentic life versus one controlled by circumstances. In a centralized context, your money, data, and freedom are not entirely in your hands. Most of the time that works out fine, but when it doesn’t, the consequences can be catastrophic — loss of access to funds, leaked data, restrictions on freedom of speech and movement. It’s worth the effort to look into decentralized solutions before a big scare happens.

What can you do right now?

If you are managing your Ethereum funds with MEW, you are already using a decentralized solution. Perhaps you are not ready to have your funds fully decentralized — at this point, most people aren’t, including the most vocal crypto enthusiasts. But you can take small steps towards that goal by getting more information and trying new things.

Although decentralization can be a challenging proposition in some ways, it doesn’t have to be a lonely one. The cryptocurrency community is very active in encouraging people to think about ownership of their funds.

One such initiative is Proof of Keys, celebrated annually on January 3rd in honor of Bitcoin’s genesis block. Founded by Bitcoin investor and podcast host Trace Mayer, the idea is to make sure you truly have full control over your crypto assets. On this day, Mayer encourages cryptocurrency holders to withdraw their funds from custodial exchanges and move them to non-custodial storage solutions that offer full control of their private keys.

The goal of the exercise is to reveal whether custodial exchanges actually hold the cryptocurrency that they claim. It’s no secret that traditional banks don’t hold enough currency to fulfill obligations to all customers, should they decide to withdraw their money simultaneously. Many centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, on the other hand, claim to be different. Proof of Keys is a test of that claim.

If you decide to take your funds off a centralized exchange, on January 3rd or at any other time, what are the options for decentralized trading? MEW’s integrated exchanges allow you to swap tokens, ETH, and even BTC right in MEW. You won’t need to provide any additional information (unless you are buying ETH with a credit card via Simplex) and your exchanged funds will be deposited right back into your decentralized MEW wallet. For more details, see our Decentralization as a Lifestyle article. Check out MEW’s Swap page today, and see if it suits your needs as well as, or better, than a centralized exchange.

Steps to consider for the rest of the year

The new year may call for a refresher on Ethereum and the cryptocurrency space, with tips for best security practices and cool things to try. You can find all that and more in our Absolute Beginner Guide. Even if you’re not a beginner, go ahead and browse MEWtopia for fun answers to user questions and an up-to-date guide to the types of crypto wallets that exist out there.

One of the most exciting developments to emerge in crypto last year is Decentralized Finance. Without a doubt, MakerDAO is the most influential DeFi protocol at the moment, and MEW makes it easy to dip your toes into decentralized loans and interest earning with Multi-Collateral Dai. Just go to the Dapps page in your MEW to find the ‘MakerDAO’ Dapp.

While on the Dapps page, you can also look into getting your own decentralized domain. There are numerous benefits to decentralized domain ownership, including resistance to centralized attacks and censorship. Most practically, you can use a domain name as your wallet address, like an email for your funds, and never mistype a character in a blockchain address again.

Finally, make some time for browsing other Dapps, like games and NFT platforms, with the help of MEW CX, our browser extension wallet. The list of Dapps is provided in collaboration with State of the Dapps, one of the most comprehensive Dapp listing platforms available. With the security of MEW CX and the privacy of burn addresses, you can make the growing Dapp landscape your decentralized playground.

Of course, do keep in mind that when you are using a non-custodial wallet solution, it is up to you to make sure that your private keys are secure and to be vigilant of any phishing attempts. We are not a bank, in all the good ways, but that also means that your funds are in your hands. However, we strongly believe that blockchain ideals, like decentralization, don’t need to be sacrificed to make crypto user-friendly and secure. Together, let’s make 2020 the year of decentralized cryptocurrency solutions!

Your MEWteam

MyEtherWallet.com

MEWtopia

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