10 minute read
A Guide to Crypto in the GCC
New to buying crypto and don’t know where to start? Here’s a guide to the crypto market.
Digital CO
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Digital CO is a Bahrain-based company that provides quality crypto mining solutions. They deliver services including crypto mining consultancy, crypto hardware and software, and installation test commissioning, technical and environmental advice, as well as after sales support. Moreover, Digital CO designs and builds their own mining systems to fit the needs of their clientele.
To know more about Digital CO’s services, visit their Instagram @dcryptomining.bh or call +973 3330 1019.
Rain
Rain is a licensed cryptocurrency brokerage and custodian servicing the Middle East, Turkey, and North Africa. Moreover, they are licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain. It is a trading platform that allows you to buy cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, XRP, USDT, and many others. You can use your bank account to conveniently purchase cryptocurrency through this userfriendly app.
Rain currently supports trading in the following local currencies: Bahraini Dinar (BHD), Turkish Lira (TRY), United Arab Emirates Dirham (AED), Omani Rial (OMR), Saudi Riyal (SAR), Kuwaiti Dinar (KWD), and Qatari Riyal (QAR).
Trading fees: 1.5% (buy via bank transfer), 4% (buy via card)
KuCoin
Headquartered in Singapore, KuCoin Exchange is also known as “The People’s Exchange”. The platform offers a KuCoin wallet that is protected by multilayer encryption and offline storage through bank safe and/or funds escrow. KuCoin also comes with profit sharing among token holders.
KuCoin is a large global exchange that offers several features and tools that could appeal to more advanced traders. It is not licensed to operate in the US but covers a wider number of cryptocurrencies than most exchanges.
Trading Fee: Charges a maximum of 0.1% decreasing based on your last 30-days trading volume.
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Binance
Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world in terms of daily trading volume. It was founded in 2017 and is registered in the Cayman Islands. Initially based in China, it moved after the country’s increasing regulation of cryptocurrencies.
Binance is more than an exchange, with an ecosystem that includes programs for crypto start-ups, NFTs, and developers/contributors. Its main exchange is not licensed in the USA, but has a separate exchange called Binance.us for users wishing to trade in the USA.
Trading fee: Charges a maximum of 0.1% decreasing based on funds/trade amount
Coinbase
Coinbase is a digital currency wallet and platform where merchants and consumers can transact with new digital currencies like bitcoin, ethereum, and litecoin. Coinbase is a distributed company; all employees operate via remote work and the company lacks a physical headquarters. It is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States by trading volume.
Trading fee: Charges a flat fee (changes according to the size of your transaction)
CoinMENA
Headquartered in Bahrain, CoinMENA is a Sharia-compliant crypto-assets trading platform that is licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB). Through CoinMENA, users can buy, sell, store, and receive digital assets safely and securely, as well as deposit and withdraw in their local currency.
The exchange platform is available in Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Oman.
Trading fee: 0.75%
WHAT ARE NFTs?
You’ve probably heard of the Bored Ape Yacht Club with listings coming up to hundreds of Ethereum, Beeple’s $69 million collection being sold at the prestigious Christie’s auction house, or news about Southeast Asian countries being consumed by blockchain games like Axie Infinity. What do they all have in common? NFTs.
What are NFTs?
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are files minted at the blockchain. Once on the blockchain, these files are provided with a unique identity code and metadata that give owners the ability to verify ownership. Every file uploaded to a blockchain is unique and inimitable. Through a marketplace, these files can be transferred from one wallet to another.
NFTs can be a wide range of files like JPEGS, GIFS, MP3s, text, and even videos! Their flexibility is a big reason why it is a great medium for all kinds of artist to showcase their work.
NFT art
Unlike traditional mediums of art where fraud and ownership are sometimes tricky to distinguish, NFTs simplify uniqueness and ownership.
Since minted assets have unique identification codes and metadata, buyers are secured in knowing the legitimacy of their purchases.
More and more people are choosing to mint their artworks as NFTs because of the ability get royalty from the art they create. In traditional art, artists would only be earning from the initial sale unless a contract that includes royalties for use are provided in the transaction (which a lot of people don’t bother with). Art is traditionally viewed as a “for me” purchase and not as a purchase for profit.
Secondary sales of NFTs have royalties with percentages differing within marketplaces. Because NFTs are integrated within a platform, artists benefit from resell value of their minted projects continuously. Moreover, artists profit from all sales of their art, whether it was bought from them or from a previous collector.
NFT games
NFT in games has gained a lot of traction and support. Games always involve assets to be owned by players; some can be traded in-game and most are restricted to one account. NFT games are opening up the possibility of a secondary market, enabling players to trade assets outside of the games.
NFT games also have tokens gained through gameplay, enabling players to “earn”. These tokens are usually used to create or buy assets in-game or serve as a governance token, allowing players to have a say in how the game development progresses. Furthermore, players can freely trade these tokens outside the game in exchange for cryptocurrency.
NFTs are just starting to be adopted. There is still a lot of utility that can be innovated and created using it as a medium. Outside of art, it can be potentially used as placeholder for physical assets, with the benefit of easier and secure transactions through the blockchain.
For now, everything is speculative. It is always advised to do your research when investing in NFT projects. The only guarantee is: it is here to stay but for what purpose and to what extent, are solely decided by us, the community that drives and maintains it.
STORIES OF THE FUTURE
Gulf Insider explores the mind of Bahraini visual storyteller, Ishaq Madan.
Can you share a bit about yourself?
I am a self-taught published Bahraini. My inspiration is heavily drawn from my desire to bridge the gap between Bahrain and the world through visual stories that embody the definition of “Sonder”, in parallel with local Bahraini constructs and of architecture and traditional metaphors via visual elements and personal emotions.
I look up to Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama, and the late German photographer Peter Lindbergh as their philosophies intertwine in respect to the breaking of norms, and the call to pursuit whatever brings you joy in the medium of photography; the same can apply to other aspects of life too.
Tell us about your creative process. How do you decide if an idea is viable? Do you act on all your creative ideas?
I consume a lot of stimulating media such as music and films. It often helps push my creative drive as it inspires me to simply create. I often visualize things in my mind and try to relay it into reality. I keep a notebook with me to jot down ideas that may come up, it helps me keep things in perspective so I can return to them when the time is right.
You’ve been creating conceptual images for many years, but how long have you been in the NFT world and what got you into it?
I would say I am fairly new to the NFT space. If I recall correctly, I started observing it during late 2020 as I found it quite fascinating. The space has a lot of room to grow, and there are plenty of interesting projects with varying features that bring about a sense of
Opportunities are plenty and give
room to experiment and power to create freely.
community. What I believe in the most is its capability to give power back to creators. Adding to that, I find it as an alternative space to experiment with my works differently.
How did you choose what to mint as your genesis piece?
I chose to mint “Ebb & Flow” as my genesis piece on Foundation, thanks to the support from my fellow NFT friends Leon D, and Abdulla Bin Hindi of Toyio. It is a portrayal of the daily rhythmic thought process free-flowing through our minds, with the varied stream of colors symbolizing individual thoughts that influence the choices we make as we make our way through life. Often fuzzy and chaotic, yet we move forward through the highs and lows. Parallelly, the piece symbolizes a transition to the metaverse as the streams of light teleports your very own being to the new world.
How do you see the future of NFTs and especially NFT photography?
The world of NFTs is somewhat chaotic as there are currently a lot of poorly executed projects flooding the market; I cannot simply ignore that. The relevant parties must address this in order for the perception of NFTs to change for the better.
I am sure you also have come across people who are sceptical. However, the use case of NFTs can broadly contribute to bettering transparency and accountability in the art world once certain features are refined. Perhaps, an introduction of regulatory frameworks targeting NFTs may prove to be beneficial in the future.
How do you think can blockchain technology bring more opportunities to the creative industry?
Opportunities are plenty and give room to experiment and power to create freely. For instance, creatives can create their own smart contracts with rules that protect themselves and consumers without relying on intermediaries or conventional contracts. Moreover, creatives can benefit from the peer-to-peer nature of blockchains which can streamline commissions and fees, in turn reducing costs that may incur due to intermediary management.
The public ledger nature of blockchains would also allow transactions to be transparent and auditable with ease so the likelihood of fraud occurring is minimal; certainly, it would also deter creatives from taking advantage of consumers as the data is immutable, no creative would want to tarnish their reputation. In relation, the value of creative works can also be tracked in real time, creating an efficient and dynamic matrix for creatives, consumers, or collectors to gauge supply and demand of any given work, deterring mispricing or falsely undervaluing or overvaluing works.
GULF INSIDER
FAMILY OVER THE YEARS
