The other day I asked some close friends, "do you remember trading 0.01 bitcoin amounts as if it was nothing?"
When I started trading in 2017, that was about 9USD worth, today it is 580 USD. You want to know the "funny" part, I still pretty much trade it as if it is 9 dollars worth, my mental reference hasn't really changed much, which I find insane. Well, the strategy for trade has changed, but I find myself using the same amounts on the exchanges in a similar way, despite the change in their equivalent dollar value.
This morning in a rush, as I was running late for work, I pulled my stake out of a DeFi project after only a few days in the pool and lost two months of my salary value in the process. Two months of salary. I went to work and didn't think about it all day, it barely registered and it is only now that I am sitting at the computer again I am thinking, "WTF has changed?"
Yesterday I was waiting for my wife while she was interviewed for a new job and went into an electronics store close by to do what I normally do there - browse. I do this a lot, just window shop and look at the latest TVs, laptops and perhaps an Odyssey wide screen.
When we got home I asked my wife what is wrong with me,
why is it that I can't buy anything, why can I walk through there knowing I could, but feel like I can't?
I explained it away that it is because in the bull year, it is better to use that value to earn, not to take it out too early - but with what was lost this morning, I could have had a TV, laptop and the screen, and change left over. But this isn't the reason, it is because I have a scarcity mindset and while my wife might think this is good, I am not sure how healthy it is long term. Mind you, these purchases would have been luxury items that are unneeded, as my 16-year old plasma TV with a Chromecast to make it "smart-ish", works just fine. But the same value would cover some of the renovation costs we have facing us, or a fair amount of the garden landscaping that needs to be done.
Perhaps it is all because of where I started from in crypto too, which is from nothing. Maybe it is the amount of work and stress that it has taken to get this point that makes me no longer see this as money, but something more valuable. And I think it is more valuable, because unlike money, I actually own this.
I asked my wife what she would want as the outcome from my work and she said, "to be debt free" and essentially, we can already have that. The problem is that in order to "have it" I would have to give up everything I own. It is a funny catch-22:
in order to own everything I have, I will have to give up everything I own.
I am not willing to do that.
There is too much value at stake, and I don't just mean the increasing financial value in a bull year, there is the rest of my life to think about, a life where I see "being in crypto" far more valuable than having to buy-in later. Yes, owning my house and not having to worry about a mortgage would be nice, but if I had never got into crypto, it would never have been an option to pay it off anyway, meaning I would be doing the same as I do now, working daily, not buying new TVs or screen, worrying about income and paying a mortgage for the next 25 years, just like near everyone else.
However, if crypto is going to be the new-normal I suspect it will become, taking that "easy" path, even with no mortgage going forward, will be far less valuable and harder than staying staked in crypto. A decade from now, we will see if the gamble has paid off.
And, that is the thing with it - as there is a huge amount of risk involved in staying in, while there would be short-term respite from getting out. However how long does that respite last if the world economy is going to degrade and everything I have bought and owned in that economy, starts to get very volatile indeed - where is my backup plan then?
A lot of people would choose the security over the risk, but then, the majority of people on this earth are economically struggling and finding themselves increasingly under pressure. Shouldn't it be that as we age and mature, our economic position improves? It doesn't seem to be the case for many people, with increasing debt exposure and living closer and closer to the edge, whilst the wealthy get wealthier.
It could very well be that I am wrong and will pay the cost of not playing short, which could see me live like everyone else - a mortgage to pay and a lack of personal opportunity due to heavily limited resources - but that is the life I have already known for far too long - it is time for a different experience.
We can only see the world through the eyes and experience we have and it is going to be different for each of us. However, if we each want to have improved conditions moving forward, we can't keep behaving in the same way that is holding us back.
The fantasy world isn't crypto, it is the belief that the current economy will suffice.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]