can't use the crypto money I earn working for gitcoin.com

Question

Recently I resolved a public GitHub issue and was paid 125 units. I was told its worth about 125 dollars.

I've installed the chrome metamask plugin. I also purchased 5 dollars worth of ETH from coinabase, which I see in my metamask plugin.

I also see the 125 I earned doing the work.

Why is these two shown separately like this? What do the two icons mean? I'm trying to send 125 to a) a person or b) a checking account c) or back to gitcoin.com to fund another GitHub issue as a funder this time

But metamask won't let me send the 125, I am only able to send the $2.xx which I believe is the leftover from the $5 purchase from 'coinbase'

help

Answer 1

DAI is different from ether. The yellow icon represents DAI. According to this article here

Dai is an Ethereum ERC20 token that is pegged to $1 USD — every Dai is worth $1, and will always be worth $1, regardless of how much Dai is in existence.

Whereas Ether is the stable cryptocurrency of ethereum and is denoted as ETH in your metamask. But the difference lies in the fact that the value of ETH does fluctuate while DAI is always constant at $1 all the time.

As for the transaction part, those are always conducted in ethers. It is possible to send tokens but for now and according to this question Metamask does not have the UI to deal with tokens (This is before ver 4.8.0). You should try doing it in the ethereum wallet.

Answer 2

Adding to the above, I'll try to answer your 3 questions specifically.

How do I send my 125 DAI to a person?

You get their Ethereum Wallet address (0x-something) and send it to their Ethereum address. Given DAI is a ERC-20 token (read: a Ethereum token which follows a common standard, allowing for ease of transactions), it can be sent to any Ethereum wallet quite easily.

How do I send my 125 DAI to a checking account?

The easiest way to a checking account is probably through Coinbase (in the US), so first things first, we need to get the tokens there.

Step 1: Exchange your DAI for ETH using Oasis Direct (https://oasis.direct/). This will get all of your funds into ETH, which is the 'parent' token that Coinbase accepts.

Step 2: Transfer your ETH from your Metamask ETH Wallet (0x-Something) to your Coinbase ETH Wallet (0x-Something)

Step 3: Cash out to your checking account.

How do I send my 125 DAI to Gitcoin, to fund another issue?

This is the easiest of all. Gitcoin issues can be funded using ETH or ERC-20 tokens, like DAI. Just navigate to https://gitcoin.co/new and fund a Github issue of your choosing.

Hope this helps!