I had the chance to do a crypto onboarding experience from scratch today. Having gone onchain as early as 2015, one doesn't have to go through what a new crypto user goes through that often. The good news is that we've come a long long way indeed! It was so refreshing to be able to set up what is essentially a bank account and start using it in a fully sovereign way in seconds. We're getting close to the cyberpunk vision of why crypto was created.

I used only Uniswap products for this experience. Although it might at first feel antithetical to the spirit of crypto, where you should be able to use any wallet or blockchain to touch money, a user experience that is holistic from beginning to end is so much better. It's the Apple equivalent to using a Linux distribution. Using a Mac doesn't make it any less of a Unix based computer. It's just the preference of optimizing for UX and simplicity vs openness and verifiability. In this case, using Uniswap products didn't prevent me from using other services either. It was just my preference.

Thanks to Uniswap's mobile wallet I was able to create a new wallet in seconds, without having to store a secret phrase. I then received some ETH on Unichain in a second, which I was able to use to buy some USDC in a second. All of this happened with almost zero fees (less than a cent). Then I connected my wallet to Uniswap's webpage to put my new funds in some Uniswap pools and earn some passive income. Again, with almost zero fees.

The hardest part of this whole experience, which I didn't have to go through because funds were already available to me onchain, was later when I tried buying some crypto with fiat funds. My bank kept declining my credit card purchase attempts. And for some reason the ACH connection was not working. I finally was able to get some crypto through another provider, but the whole trial and error was frustrating. And ironically it was the fiat leg that created the most issues. As it should, I guess?

It's so cool that anyone in the world with access to a smartphone can have the same experience I did. Without having to pay practically any fees. This was not possible prior to crypto. It took us some time, and there's still many challenges and snafus, but it's finally here. That feels good!