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When I was in grad school, I had two hobbies: Crypto and League of Legends. Guess which one lost me $2000? I'll give you a hint: the other has given me a 10x ROI since those days.
Since I am not DoubleLift, I think you follow my point: crypto was a much better use of my time (all other things being even, i.e. my personal enjoyment and enrichment).
One needn't drink the kool aid and embrace the dictum that crypto is, at best, one component of a 'financial portfolio'. It's better to think of it as a passion project that promises some (possibly a lot of) return on investment.
In return for helping to finance the infrastructure of The Internet 3.0 (TM), we are given a stake in that internet. But instead of that stake being given in the form of a stock which commoditizes labor, what you have is capital whose value is equal to its adoption.
As an aside, this is precisely why it always baffles me when liberals that I love and respect dismiss crypto as being 'just for anarcho-capitalists and libertarians'. Crypto is exactly what liberals should want out of Capital: that the labor which we undertake to acquire our fiat is converted to a direct stake in the productivity of the economy (or at least, the digital one).
This is also why cryptos tied to the dollar are either misguided, or wolves in sheep's clothing. Those that are just venture capital upstarts are bound to fail... and then there are those like Facebook's Libra.
Facebook is hoping that it can leverage its profound powers of mass-adoption to prevent the more egalitarian spirit of crypto from growing any more than it already has. In a world where the Libra coin wins, all that has occurred is that Facebook essentially has stake in the U.S. government. He who controls the purse strings... etc. This is why he has repositioned Facebook as 'Meta' and has put a titanic effort to position his company at the forefront of the decentralized internet 3.0. He's read the writing on the wall, and he covets the power now up for grabs.
So, all of this is to say that it matters profoundly *which* crypto we buy into, and the quality/selectivity of our contributions really will help to determine the internet of the future. THAT's the hobbyist's calling (let alone the responsible citizen of this beautiful and amazing planet we call home). Not all of us can be programmers, but if we believe the future is digital and that Capital ought to be rooted in people and not a few wealthy elite, then both 1) making the choice to invest in crypto and, 2) choosing currencies wisely, are activities which transcend the importance of one's own financial gains.
Following the development of these assets is like watching the future roll out in real time, and investing in it makes us a participant. What a cool heckin' hobby, eh? And possibly quite a lucrative one.
(Standard 'this is not financial advice' bit at the end here. Admins: it would be super cool if you could slap a stamp at the end of people's posts that gives such a disclaimer automatically! Thank you for all that you do in making this site operate so well)
