Nearly everyrone who owns crypto has some Bitcoin (BTC). There could be a few crypto holders among us who do not have BTC in their portfolios, but those people are as rare as unicorns. If a crypto holder has BTC, then chances are good that person also has some Ethereum (ETH). While still rare, it would be more common to see a crypto holder with no ETH. It's commonly accepted wisdom that Bitcoin (and, to an extent, Ethereum) will make HODLers od BTC (and ETH) wealthy or rich. With the recent market downturn from 2021 which crept into 2022, I've thinking about this: Can we get rich in crypto without owning Bitcoin?
Cover Image made using HTML and CSS, with light edits using MS Paint.
The 4 SVG cryptocurrency logos come from Crypto Logos.
Things We Know For Certain
Rich No-Coiners Will Not Need Bitcoin To Get Rich
Many No-Coiners are already wealthy or rich. Many are so rich that they look at you and ask some version of
- What's Bitcoin?
- What the hell is Bitcoin?
- What the !@#$ is Bitcoin?
- Bitcoin? Get the !@#$ out of here!
We'll never end up among them, and I think it's safe to say that we don't want to be with them anyway. They're not our kind of people.
Poor No-Coiners Will Never Get Rich with Bitcoin
More likely is that we will know people in our economic plane who don't believe in Bitcoin or cryptocurrency in general. Many reasons exist among them for not beliving in Bitcoin or crypto:
- It's a scam!
- It's a Ponzi Scheme
- It's a pyramid scheme
- It's a casino
- It's a fad like pet rocks or bottled air
- It's too complicated
- My brother's sister's cousin got rug pulled, so screw that!
- My cousin's sister's brother got REKT, so forget about it!
Poor No-Coiners are eager consumers of FUD, and it's OK if they don't want to join us as we move along the path crypto offers us which stocks won't.
What We Don't Know for Certain
Can People Become Wealthy in Crypto WITHOUT Bitcoin or Ethereum?
There's more than one way to become wealthy. This could refer to having a diversity of assets (e.g., precious metals, commodities, securities, foreign currencies, cryptocurrency, real estate, etc.). This could also refer to having diversity within an asset type (e.g., stocks for companies in in tech, pharmaceuticals, mining, energy, agricultutal, etc.).
For those of us who have chosen to make crypto part of out plan, or The Plan, we have similar concerns.
We know how important both Bitcoin and Ethereum are to cryptocurrency not just for the sector but also for investors (and, yes, speculators). For that reason, it's practically a given that anyone involved with cryptocurrency will own some amount of Bitcoin or Ethereum or both.
However, with literally tens of thousands of altcoins on the market, with more coming online over time, it can be difficult for us to find those digital diamonds in the rough.
So it makes sense for people to spend money on BTC and ETH.
But Do We Have To?
Even among the Top 1% of cryptos (a number which varies depending on which crypto information source is used), there are amny, many cryptos which have mooning potential and can help us buy that Lamboghini or Rolls-Royce.
Most of us buy BTC and ETH "just because" it's the thing to do. But how do we really feel about BTC and ETH? What positions have we taken on BTC and ETH based on research? Are there innovations taking place on either or both networks which give us reason to think that buying BTC and ETH is a sure thing? If we feel so-so about BTC and ETH but buy them anyway, how is that different from spending money on Powerball or El Gordo tickets?
(Having said that about Bitcoin and Ethereum, the answers still point toward BTC and ETH. It's just a reminder that critical thinking is needed even when it comes to these leading cryptocurrencies.)
Meanwhile, there is a world of altcoins offering big-time upside and begging for buyers:
- Metaverse altcoins are coming online;
- Blockchain gaming is set to launch;
- Infrastructure cryptos such as FileCoin and JSTOR set the stage for Web 3.0;
- Crypto exchanges themselves have their own cryptos for governance and other uses;
- Stablecoins offer a safe haven from ultravolatile cryptos;
Many, many other sectors of life are moving into not just blockchain but also cryprocurrency.
Then there are the memecoins, which seem to make up 90% of all altcoins. They aren't for everyone, but we knew that. However, for the few who know what they're doing when dealing with memecoins, they can be a source of quick wealth and a stepping stone to the more serious cryptos in the Top 1% or Top 5% of cryptos. Beyond Dogecoin (DOGE) (and, to a lesser extent, Shiba Inu (SHIB)), we know as much about memecoins as Alexander Hamilton.
There are many cryptocurrencies we can use as vehicles for achieving wealth and the riches associted with wealth. Which ones we buy to HODL depend on who we are as indivuduals and our needs. At least for new cryptophiles, we can't go all-in on one crypto. Instead, we need to be strategic in our purchases not just in timing but also in selection. We may be gung-ho on metaverse but so-so on either The Sandbox (SAND) or Decentraland (MANA); in that case, we buy the one which excites us more.
Sometimes It Pays To Be Where the People Aren't
BTC and ETH are the safe plays: they are guaranteed to go up just because or their market dominance. Another altcoin or two can take away from that market dominance to enter the picture, but that is years away from happening. BTC and ETH have the market dominance they have because that's where the people are.
Earlier I mentioned Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. Just as BTC and ETH have overall market dominance, DOGE and SHIB dominate the memecoin market. Pick a market, it has a dominant crypto.
There are cryptos which are just as good or better as the dominant cryptos, and they may even have better fundamentals than the dominant cryptos. Yet they are virtually ignored by people only familiar with the dominant cryptos. For old-school cryptos (pre-Ethereum), Litecoin (LTC) is one such crypto. For payments between institutions, there is Stellar Lumens (XLM). If a crypto looks promising enough for a professional investor yet it's ignored by many people, that could be an opportunity to stake your claim in crypto and fill that bag!
Then There Is the Special Case of Hive
Hive (HIVE) may be the best example of a cryptocurrency with solid fundamentals and a developing infrastructure which nevertheless remains in the background virtually ignored even despite being a Top 2% cryptocurrency (or Top 1%, depending on the day). For all the things we do online in the current world of Big Tech-- Facebook (Meta), Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Craig's List, eBay, etc.-- Hive offers a platform for developing alternatives to them. At first they may seem trivial or weak, but that's because they are new and unknown even among Hivers. With enough time and persistence, any of the Hive alternatives to Big Tech could break out as did Splinterlands (DEC) for blockchain gaming.
The point is, Hive offers many reasons for HODLers of HIVE to be excited beyond the pumps-and-dumps we get from those friendly South Korean crypto traders. We're at the launchpad, but the countdown to lift off is many hours away.
Just My Two Sats
If we're really excited about a crypto and we believe in it because it satisfies all the conditions required by a professional investor, why shouldn't we devote more of our resources to those? If it means diverting some funds from the BTC and ETH in our wallets, then why not?
That's not to say that we should invest in everything we like. We would be spread too thin, then when one or more of those cryptos moons we won't go far because our bags are too light. We just have to determine which cryptos we feel so good about that we don't think twice about spending money on them.
No one thinks about buying BTC or ETH, and it shows from their degree of market dominance. If there are other cryptos we feel the same way about, then that's where we put our funds. Speaking just for myself, I believe that 2022 will be a great year for Litecoin (LTC); you can make your own determinations about that crypto. We each have cryptos for which we be can enthusuastic advocates. However, it's safe to say that Hive (HIVE) is a crypto we feel strongly about (especially in 2022).
If we feel so-so about some cryptos we have, we may be better off swapping them out for those which excite us. If things don't work out, there are lessons we can learn from the experience to make sure we're better prepared for next time. However, if things work out well or better than we expected, then we can use the gains as stepping stones to other cryptos we wanted but couldn't buy before.
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| Sometimes I discover posts way after the initial earnings period. It's too late for me to upvote posts then, so to make up for the lost upvote I send a slice of PIZZA instead. My main focus is cryptocurrencies from a number of angles (educational, commentary, observations, even pop culture). A secondary focus is sharing my discoveries about the world of Hive Social. Most of my posts can be found at these two locations: ● LeoFinance : @magnacarta ● Proof of Brain : @magnacarta Follow me at this D.Buzz-only account : ● D.Buzz : https://blog.d.buzz/#/@magnacarta.buzz-- note the ".buzz" at the end! If you follow me at @magnacarta.buzz, please follow me at this account as well I expect 2022 to be the year I go from being crazy or weird to being eccentric. If that doesn't happen, then Festivus will last longer than I can stand. |