MetaMask, the leading web3 wallet provider, has released MetaMask Bridges, a bridge aggregation service. This feature allows users to transfer their assets across multiple blockchains from within the wallet.

Bridges has been launched in beta and is a part of the newly-launched MetaMask Portfolio dApp.

Users can bridge assets worth up to $10,000. Initially supported assets include ETH, WETH, stablecoins, and native gas tokens like Polygon’s MATIC.

The feature currently supports Ethereum and compatible networks Avalanche, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon. The team plans to expand to Layer-2 blockchains Arbitrum and Optimism.

MetaMask has integrated with bridge aggregators Socket and LI.FI, which will give users access to four individual bridge providers – Connext, Hop, Celer cBridge, and Polygon Bridge.

MetaMask will not charge any additional fees during the feature’s beta phase.

“Our team is committed to deeply understanding the evolving bridging space to provide the most secure experience possible so you feel confident when using MetaMask Bridges.” the blog post read.

In March, ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin confirmed the company’s plan to launch a MetaMask token, in a bid to decentralize the wallet provider.

Burning Bridges

In 2022, the number of bridge exploits has risen drastically, with many suffering nine-figure losses.

Harmony’s Horizon bridge was exploited for $100M. North Korea’s state-sponsored Lazarus Group is suspected to be behind the theft.

Wormhole, a protocol which allows users to bridge assets between Solana and other blockchains, was exploited for $320M.

Binance Smart Chain had to be paused after its official bridge was hacked and drained of $560M worth of BNB tokens.

The largest exploit of 2022 so far has been that of Axie Infinity’s Ronin bridge, which was used to connect its Ronin sidechain with Ethereum. Hackers managed to steal more than $600M in March.

The city of Rio de Janeiro is seeking crypto firms to operate its tax property seasoning in 2023, according to a decree published on Oct. 11, allowing taxpayers to use crypto alongside fiat currency to pay tributes. The move makes Rio the first Brazilian city to accept digital assets as payment for taxes.

It is expected that taxpayers will be able to pay with more than one crypto asset and that other types of taxes will be enabled in the future, the city stated. The decree also states that companies willing to provide the services must be registered with the city and comply with the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requirements.

The hired companies will provide cryptocurrency payment services and convert crypto into fiat currency. Funds will be transferred to the city in local fiat currency without any additional cost to taxpayers. Mayor Eduardo Paes said in a statement:

“Rio de Janeiro is a global city. Therefore, we are following  technology and economic advances in the universe of digital financial assets. We have a look to the future and we want to become the country’s capital of innovation and technology. Our city is the first in Brazil to offer the taxpayer this type of payment.”

Similar actions have been taken around the world. In September, the United States state of Colorado started accepting crypto as payment for any taxes owed. The legislatures of Arizona, Wyoming and Utah have all introduced bills to accept tax payments in the form of digital currencies to varying degrees.

Rio de Janeiro’s initiative is another example of the efforts being made in the country to broaden adoption. Recently, the number of companies holding cryptocurrency in Brazil has reached record highs as of August, as the local taxation authority, Receita Federal do Brasil, recorded 12,053 unique organizations declaring crypto on their balance sheets in August, up 6.1% over July.

1. The first one is from the people with knowledge and experience in crypto, they answered: “a decentralized technology able to remove middle-men,”
2. and the second group has almost zero knowledge about topics like bitcoin, investments, and economy.

Their answers are biased. How much the price of cryptocurrencies falls is the only thing in the news and that is what people who are not related to the crypto world see.

Crypto is about the future and we need to talk about it.

Many people have heard about cryptocurrencies, speculate about them, and try to encourage more people to join the ecosystem. They have bought some cryptocurrency because they heard about it on social media and read the popular title “Buy this coin and you will be a millionaire tomorrow”.

I believe that Crypto is not just the Bitcoin price, finance, or people creating their own cryptocurrencies and convincing others to buy them.

Is not just about prices

There is a group of people who have deep knowledge about crypto, some are advanced users, others work full time on blockchain-related projects (also called web3 projects). Because this group has been building projects since the beginning of crypto and the first use cases were related to finance, there is one topic that most of their conversations are about: Decentralized Finance. DeFi is perhaps the most important topic both in our daily lives and for our future. But we should not stop talking about this, there are other reasons to pay attention to crypto and we need to start talking about those.

There are many industries where crypto (including blockchain and cryptography techniques) can be applied and talking only about one use case (DeFi) will make people focus only on that. It is necessary to show people that crypto is not just about prices, and discuss with them how the technology can be applied in their field. There will be more opportunities to leverage the tech in different fields.

Crypto is the future

Talking about decentralized finance is great, but it is not the future, it is already the present, it needs a lot of improvement, but it is here and helping people.

Crypto is here to help empower the users to have control over their assets, from money to data.

We need to encourage people to understand how to use crypto, and when I say “understand,” I am not talking about understanding how blockchain and cryptography work, because we drive cars and most of us don’t have any idea how they work, but we understand that transporting ourselves quickly is crucial to achieve more in our daily lives.

Many entrepreneurs and developers are building solutions with technologies related to blockchain, but it’s not even close to what is needed to improve our future. All of them (me included) believe that crypto is the future.

It is necessary to talk about technology and DeFi in different conversations. 

It’s essential to spread the seeds and help create conversations in many places. If we want to introduce the next billion users, we need to talk about how we are going to do it.

We need to start thinking and talking about how crypto can impact different fields. Without thinking too much, it is easy to imagine the technology applied in fields like:

• Healthcare: the medical industry has suffered greatly from the inability to securely share and access sensitive patient data.
• Security: when users own their assets and information, they will need to store their personal data securely and easily.
• Law: as Kleros does using blockchain and crowd-sourcing to fairly arbitrate disputes. 
• Social media: running away from centralized social apps and their censorship power, we will need decentralized social networks, like the ones Lens is helping to build.
• Data storage: how much information do you save in centralized entities and how do you know what they do with your information?
• Digital rights: piracy has brought incalculable losses to image creators, which is particularly prominent in areas such as news, design, photography, and e-commerce.

Just by thinking for a few seconds about it we realize that we are talking about years and years of work, but we need to start from somewhere, and speaking about how to implement it is the first step.

A single program is not enough

What makes me happier than ever is knowing that the Ethereum Foundation supports more things rather than just finance.

They launched the Fellowship Program that helps projects to “become a tool of and for the next billion – whether it is a decentralized application, a community-building initiative, or a piece of research”. I think it’s awesome to see one of the most influential foundations helping to improve the future.

But a single program is not enough. More people need to join the Ethereum Foundation and help them to reach the next billion in any way possible.

The first step to the future

We need to see beyond what it’s in front of us now.

We need to talk about other opportunities that crypto brings to the world, how this new technology can improve the lives of the future generations.

The world of crypto moves very fast. There are so many things going on at the same time that it’s hard to keep up. It’s important to understand what we are living through.

There are more opportunities in crypto than I talked about earlier and we need to find them and take them. Although, including blockchain in our lives won’t be easy, and it isn’t needed to apply it in everything.

We need to talk about crypto, the first step to the future.