It's the principle of the matter...
I was sitting in my office the other day when I got an email from one of the teachers in my district. This teacher works with the online school kids in our district, so it isn't that uncommon for me to hear from him. Likewise, email is actually my preferred method for people getting ahold of me in the district. I tried to implement a work order ticket system a while ago, but it never really stuck. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I suffer from undiagnosed ADHD, so if you stop me in the hall and ask me to do something, I will forget as soon as I take a couple steps further down the hall.
So, while an email isn't surprising, I was a bit taken aback by the subject line of this particular email.
Crypto Question
That was the subject of the email. This should be good I thought to myself. While I don't doubt that many folks in the district have probably at some point installed the Robinhood or Paypal app and dabbled in cryptocurrency, besides @iikrypticsii no one in the district ever talks to me about crypto. In fact, besides the people in the district who my wife has told or I have told myself, I would guess 70% of the people I work with have zero clue how invested in cryptocurrency I am.
The crypto question turned out to be regarding storage. He wanted to know how I store my crypto and if I had ever heard of a wallet called Tangem. I let him know that I bought a Ledger Nano X a while ago and while it works, I can't really say I like it. I had never heard of Tangem before, but if I were to ever buy another cold wallet it would probably be a Trezor.
As you might imagine, this small question led to a larger discussion (via email) about crypto. It turns out he got invested about 3 years ago. I kind of remember going to a dinner where he sat at the same table as us and I was talking about crypto pretty heavily that night. It makes me wonder if I had a hand in getting him started. I also assume that's how he knew I was invested in crypto to feel comfortable asking the question.
It turns out over the last three years he has invested on a variety of platforms and at one point had five figures in crypto, but sold half of it before the election because he was nervous about how the unknown outcome at the time might impact the markets.
It also turns out that in the time he was invested he played around with a bit of options trading. My hats off to him. That's one thing I will likely never understand and I have heard about so many people getting rekt doing it that I don't think I even want to know.
I can appreciate the draw though. Both he and his wife work in the public school system. On top of that, they have four or five kids, so I would imagine money isn't falling about the place for them. He often teaches summer school and does odd side jobs for extra cash.
The draw of crypto riches is a big deal. It's part of what got me. It's also part of what still drives me. I'm not going to lie. If I invested all this time into Hive and my other investments and at the end I have nothing to show for it, I'm definitely going to be wondering if I just wasted the last 5 to 10 years of my life.
It all has to mean something in the end right?
Which brings me to another thought that has been on my mind for a while now. I wrote a mini rant in a comment about how much it drives me nuts that I have been invested for seven years now and I have quite little to show for it. I've never invested in DOGE or heavily into other memecoins because up here on my moral high horse I care more about the technology and the potential it has to change the world.
Meanwhile, "Chad" down the street installs Robinhood, throws a couple thousand dollars on some random memecoin on Solana and becomes a millionaire. It's a joke right?
@edicted pointed out in that same comment/rant, would I be as salty if "Chad" down the street won the lottery and was suddenly rich? (loosely quoted). It's a fair point. I would imagine stuff like that happens all the time and it doesn't bug me at all. How is this any different?
I think part of it has to do with crypto is sort of an identity. Those of us who are invested in it for this amount of time identify with it. It's more than just something we are involved with, it's part of who we are. To some extent it's something we live and breathe. Healthy as that may be or not.
The conversation lasted for several exchanges back and forth. I let him know that I am always happy to talk about crypto. We will see if he takes me up on that offer in the future. It's interesting to see the scope of people who are getting involved with crypto and how for many of them it is a case of the blind leading the blind. Even worse, it could be a case of the nefarious taking advantage of the blind.
It also makes me wonder if his current position would be any different if he had come to me sooner. I likely would have told him to hold through the election. He might have got some bigger gains that way. Then again, he might have put it all in the TRUMP token. Who knows...
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:u37t33dyaufvrqujwmvm54ln/post/3lle6qsfpsk2s
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:u37t33dyaufvrqujwmvm54ln/post/3lle6qsfpsk2s
The rewards earned on this comment will go to the author of the blog post.
True wise words, besides the identity, I think its the work and patience we put into our Hive accounts and patience on the market, holding for years (2 years for me now), while others put no work or patience, they just got ontime for the bull market and throw $$$ on memecoins, but as you mention there are other things like lottery, casino where ppl make millions and doesnt seem to bother anyways 😅✌️
Yeah, it's a pretty crazy game. I guess the hope is we might not see those quick riches but we are building something that can give us a stable passive income in the future. In the long run that might be far better.
A fool and his money are soon parted, and betting on a meme coin is one of the best ways to see it happen. There are those very rare cases where you get in early enough and make a fortune, but it takes incredible luck. I have made money on them before but back in the last big bull run. Now they are just too risky for the most part, and the only way to really get lucky is to use to spray and pray method. Spread the bets all around and hope for a godsend.
I don't mind talking crypto either, but I would never tell anyone to bet on a mem coin these days. Options trading is a lot less risky, and it's still a scary thing to do!
I have that issue with the memory as well, two seconds later if I bet distracted it's gone. Maybe early dementia kicking in? God I hope not!
I don't think it is anything quite that severe. Hopefully anyway. You have plenty of time to be demented when you are older. Yeah, I have never been a fan of memecoins and I only throw money into a handful of them. It's hard to scoff at them when you have people making big gains, but like you said, it's really all luck.
Your comment is upvoted by @topcomment
Info - Support - Discord
I hear you. At the same time, if you are up over 10%, you are beating the S&P500 in the stock market, which is kind of the benchmark for all markets, and that right there is a pretty awesome achievement. Hell—just beating inflation would put us ahead of probably 90% of the people who are not invested and are in effect losing money by keeping it in the bank since inflation is higher than the bank's interest.
I'm also kind of bummed that I haven't hit it big in crypto. I was right there with that DOGE thing! It did turn my few bucks into a few hundred, which was great, but man... why couldn't I have had the foresight to have bought more before? When I get a little discouraged and feel that I should have more to show for it than I do, I just try to remind myself that compared to tradition markets, I am winning.
Yes, I guess that is a good way to look at it. I am likely doing a lot better than many other people, so I shouldn't really complain. I was actually sitting in my house the other day thinking about stuff like this and I remember I said to myself "what if this is as good as it ever gets". It's a pretty good life even if I don't get rich. Again, I can't really complain. It would just be nice to see some windfall from all the working and waiting.
As Good as it Gets — great movie!
Anyway, yeah I hear you. It'd be nice. I just would love to get to the point where I don't have to worry about money, don't have to always look at the price tag and hunt for the best deal to save that extra 50 cents. I think I'm past the age where falling into money would change me much, so even if I got a lot, I'd probably still worry and check prices. Habits are hard to break. But anyway, if I don't get there, oh well. Life, eh? Enjoy the process.
View more
I don't really have many friends who want to talk about crypto. It does seem to be a minority interest really. Of course I'd love to get rich to be secure, but I'm not relying on crypto to do that and I don't really want more stuff. I expect some treat it like playing the lottery, but I don't know what the odds are of a big win if you don't have some special insight.
I do just enjoy Hive for the community and for getting me to express myself. I think others have a lot more to gain from it than I do.
Anyone who buys anything to do with Tr*mp loses my respect. You know my feelings...
Yeah, I know for sure. I kind of look at crypto right now as going to the casino or playing the lottery. I can put $5 in a slot machine or I can put $5 into a regular BTC buy. I'll probably come out further ahead with the crypto...