A Little History
In 2012 I discovered Bitcoin and thought it was neat that I could use some of my gaming PC's processing power to earn this imaginary internet money. In 2013 I bought my first Bitcoin using Coinbase at around $64USD/BTC. I sold everything right around Halloween of 2013. I don't need to further illustrate how stupid I feel for trading and not saving.
I have a wife now. She thought this cryptocurrency stuff was risky, complicated, and foreign. I can't say she's wrong. I think that's a rule when you're married. She didn't want us keeping any hard earned USD in the crypto world.
Tonight a lot of that changed.
Her Misconceptions
You can own a fraction of a token
At one point through the rise of Bitcoin, Bitcoin became too expensive for her. It didn't click until tonight that she didn't realize that you can own a fraction of a token. She still doesn't think owning a fraction of a coin was as good as owning a full coin. My friend @mavericklb felt the same way when I told him about obtaining Ether. Once my wife saw that it wasn't like owning stock shares, she appreciated the added flexibility of storing value on the blockchain.
If there's not a significant enough return, it's not worth it
My wife feels that a savings account earning 0.15% is no different than a checking account earing nothing. She has a certain percentage in her mind that if it's not a get-rich-quick scheme that it's not worth it. I'm on the side of the fence that earning something is better than nothing at all, no matter how little the growth is. She watched as BTC rose from $21 to over $2000. In her mind, if you weren't there for that ride, it's too late to invest or "waste time" storing savings and assets on the blockchain.
Crypto is hard to obtain or trade
Living in the US, Coinbase has been my go-to place to exchange dollars for tokens. I explained how it can be purchased using a direct deposit or even a credit card. As soon as she saw the possibility of earning points through crypto purchases, she started to get on board.
Conclusions
Going forward, she's liking the idea of storing a small amount of our monthly savings deposit somewhere on the blockchain. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies are still in their infancy. I'm excited to watch what's to come.
Tell me, what have the conversations been like with your spouses or significant others. Are they on board? Have you been trying to convince them of the value? Is it a secret? Let me know in the comments below.