My background is network admin(Cisco), security (CISSP) which includes a pretty through understanding of cryptography, and a few years developing API's and security controls like Oauth. When I first heard about Bitcoin in 2013 a friend was mining it. I thought to myself sure buddy, go create monopoly money out of thin air. Good luck with that... It sounded kinda silly, but the one part of it that caught my interest was the use of the public/private keys. After thinking about it for awhile my impression was that it seems so crazy that it will probably take off. Of course I did nothing about it when it was $80 a coin.
Fast forward 4 years, I heard about Ethereum. It made a lot of sense to me. So I figured out how to buy some at $10.43, wow that seemed expensive at the time. I bought $300 worth. I started adding to it over the next few months. I also read about Ripple and XRP. They are chasing a trillion dollar a day market with some success. The company seems to have their act together. I ended up investing in XRP mostly on blind faith that they will deliver something that changes banking and XRP will be a part of that strategy. So at this point I'm a few months in. I've added a tax return and some money from pay checks to the pot. Now let's fast forward to May, peak of the market. I've invested $9500, my Portfolio is worth $69,000. Ethereum paid out huge gains, but XRP is where I made most of it. I pull out $8,000 for a remodeling project and leave the rest there. From June -July my how things have changed. It's a sideways/falling market. I can't short or long to make a dime. Very few recommendations are correct. It's a very difficult space to make money at the moment. I'm not a stock trader by profession, so chart analysis is a bit beyond my skill set.
From here I've got $45,000 left, oh wait that was yesterday, it's at $42,000 today. I do consider myself lucky to have made anything, don't get me wrong. I'm being a bit pessimistic today. I did end up picking up some Steem along the way on a dip. I see Steem as a sleeping giant that hasn't taken off yet. I still think it's a good investment. Applications like Steem, Ripple, Ethereum are here to stay. I'm a bit more skeptical of the payment coins, especially Bitcoin. I've used Bitcoin and I think it's cumbersome to use, needed development is slow to be delivered, it's too slow to move money, too expensive, and I really don't like that it's mostly mined in one part of the world. Best case scenario I transfer a coin to a Visa and spend it like cash. I still don't see the advantage over my debit card. My bank can transfer money to any email address in minutes. My PayPal account can do the same and I don't even like PayPal. Why would I wait 30-60 minutes and pay a couple dollars to use Bitcoin. What it did provide was version 1 of the tech, which lead to better projects. Keep in mind I'm normally using US dollars and they are stable compared to most currencies in the world. I do see a use case for other countries trying to store value in Bitcoin if their currency isn't stable, or using it for cryptocurrency purchases. I realize that's not a popular opinion, but it is my opinion. I probably need to try Litecoin, Monero, or Dash. I do spend my days assessing dev projects and picking them apart for a living. My current role is a Solution Architect. If it doesn't make sense I can't build it for a business.
I also think the ICO's are taking advantage of huge pay outs to cash in on new comers with little more than an idea and a website. I see it as a risk to established coins, like Ethereum and will invite more flash crashes as competitors dump huge amounts of coins on the market after an ICO. Now there are probably a few good projects mixed in there and those will be very hard to distinguish because they provide so little to invest in. Personally I would prefer to invest in projects with less return that have been around for a few years once they've proven themselves with an MVP, POC, and maybe even a beta project like Steem. Take a look at Zcash if you have any questions about ICO's being a good investment. It's probably a few years away from getting back to the ICO price.
So that brings me to my next move and that's the part I'm torn about. Here are the options I'm considering. What are your thoughts? Is my view of the market wrong? As I've explained I'm more on the techie side. Market strategy is not my strength.
A) Cash out into USDT until summer is over and re-evaluate the market in fall.
B) Ride it out, forget about the money aspect and trust that the tech will be here long term and it will bounce back.
C) Take the money and run, consider myself lucky to have gotten into crypto at a good time.
D) Buy as much as I can while the market is down
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