Crypto has a lot to do with volcanoes. A coin can lie dormant for ages, only to explode and send shockwaves, with people shaking their fists in the air, swearing that they 'knew it was coming' and foolish things like that. Some tokens explode into existence, like a new super volcano rearing it's head from the ocean, fire challenging water and winning, swiping other projects with tsunami waves. Other coins are dead, their flame extinguished, an empty husk bereft of the potential that once rallied it into the declining mound it is. Yes other projects spew lava slowly, with an inner flame boiling rock inside its guts to spill a bit out every week, reassuring everyone that the 'team is working'. Puffs of smoke, like press releases, draws viewers in or keeps observers at a distance, but grab their attention either way.
Something seemingly as simple as a volcano has, as you have been reminded of above, multiple different formulations, just as the fairly simple idea of blockchain has had a myriad of uses and abuses. The lessons that one can draw from this comparison, or rather the lessons one can illustrate with it, are that:
a) It depends where you build - Considering the potential for volcanic activity is a must when buying real estate. Considering the potential for eruptions, extinctions and types of magma output is the main factor when deciding whether to buy or not. In real life, building on a volcano would be foolish, with crypto you have a choice: be a fool and trust a project or be an ever greater fool when said project turns out to be viable. Since that is not a comfortable choice, the second principle to learn might sweeten the burden.
b) While you might have heard not to catch falling knives - because the dip could well double or triple relative to what you are buying at, considering it a good deal, with potential opportunities the game is a bit different. You are a greater fool when the project succeeds and you were too sceptical of it to invest. This means that you should build on volcanoes. Seriously, buying (because you can hardly call that investing) a tiny amount in every shitcoin would be a very long term good strategy, provided you hold on to your bags until every given coin explodes. Of course only a minute proportion will ever return anything, however those that will will make your loss with others well compensated for. Did you know most companies, and by most I mean 90%, don't survive a year? And out of those that do, 90% go bust in their second year? And despite this banks are willing to invest into whole portfolios of startups, knowing that they might have to wait a year or two before finding the new Uber, Netflix or AirBnB, but that this strategy pays off. If you have the means, do what those who have means do.
