While the crypto and blockchain industries have grown rapidly in recent years, they are not without challenges. One major issue is the increased number of people being duped in Ponzi schemes and phishing attacks. As a result, MetaMask, a digital/crypto wallet, has been a major focus because it hosts millions of people using the web-based platform to manage their digital wallets.
During a recent interview, the MetaMask founders discussed various industry issues and offered their perspectives with MetaMask in mind. Dan Finlay and Aaron Davis founded MetaMask in 2016.
NFTs Offers Limited Creativity
MetaMask has aided the growth of the DeFi and NFT industries, owing to its seamless connection to Ethereum-based networks. Within a few years, the number of MetaMask users increased from 1 million to over 30 million, thanks to DeFi and NFTs.
However, the NFT industry, according to Finlay, lacks proper creativity. He supported his claim by pointing out that some NFT creators mint exact copies of the same art and sell them. NFTs, in his opinion, are supposed to be one-of-a-kind pieces of digital art/property.
Cryptocurrency Is Gambling
According to MetaMask executives, cryptocurrency is similar to gambling because no one knows what the future of cryptocurrency will be. Too many people are promoting it: “It feels too little too late, but putting your money in cryptocurrencies is gambling, I’m not saying what we have right now is the future of finance, and [you should] move your life savings over. A lot of people are advocating crypto and I think that is extremely dangerous behavior.”
Crashes Caused by Bad Actors
Finlay believes that much of the chaos, particularly in the last six months, is the result of bad actors’ actions.
“There are so many different kinds of failure that are happening all the time.”
Recent failures include Celsius and Voyager, as well as millions of dollars in investor funds. Their debts were incurred as a result of the demise of Terra and UST.
Finlay believes that such incidents are caused by industry players who are not honest or transparent in their operations, leading to investor misinformation.
He said,
“A lot of the collapses that happened during this last round were things that were branding themselves as DeFi but then were actually kind of operating as shadow banks with massive leverage. And those aren’t transparent. And so there’s no way anyone investing in those was ensuring transparency.”
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How MetaMask Handles Ponzi Schemes
According to the founders, MetaMask has taken steps to combat scams and Ponzi schemes on its platform. Finlay stated that while the platform cannot eliminate Ponzi schemes, it can do its best to deprive them of the resources and access points that make them effective.
“We can’t stop people from making Ponzis on blockchains, It’s by definition impossible for us to wrap the whole thing into one unified bow and enforce it in a direction.”
This is accomplished by improving user consent features and making it difficult for shady projects to gain traction.
“We can’t ban the Ponzis, but we can deprive them of the precious oxygen of exposure.”
However, users must do their part to improve the defence. They should be cautious not to invest in overly ambitious projects that make unrealistic promises. Greed is the single most common reason that people invest in Ponzi schemes.
