When I first jumped into crypto, it was with Monero and Pirate, with this idea that an alternate economy would spring up, away from the government's control and would run for those like me, who are not fans of the current American government. At the time, the idea was romantic in that all of us crypto users would have something to ward off inflation. So early on, I started right off the bad with no help or instruction, and invested in Pirate, Monero, and Algorand.
Monero was a secret and non-trackable asset that I thought would be ideal. Pirate was based upon the Monero network but was a hundred times more safe and secret and untrackable. Algorand wasn't secret or private but was just a staking coin that I had a hundred dollars in and was making about 10 cents a month in.
Why didn't I pick Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a public crypto where anyone can track and see the wallet it goes to and where it came from. Secondly, there was a rumor that the SEC and IRS was going after Bitcoin whales and at one instance and seized over a hundred Bitcoin from a suspect in an investigation. When the government starts to steal Bitcoin from citizens, then you have an issue. Several members of congress started to gain Bitcoin and also argue against it. Bitcoin also, in fact crypto also, was supposed to be separate from the economy. So if the economy was bad with inflation and increased interest rates, then the crypto was supposed to be good and make people want to buy in, which would then increase the value of the crypto. Instead, crypto prices seemed to follow the market, making it just another asset, similar to a foreign currency, which is based upon the US dollar. Bitcoin was the leader in all things crypto and when Bitcoin went up, all crypto did as well.
Crypto created overnight millionaires and with that, I wasn't part of that moment although of course wished I was.
After the US passed several new IRS laws about crypto, several companies in turn went and gave in. Places like BINANCE and COINBASE were not ordered to comply with the new law and reveal all transfers to the IRS. Because the IRS was not making money from crypto and couldn't track and control it, they enacted a new crypto tax which taxes every instance at a 22% rate. The simple case of taking Etherium, on an exchange, and exchanging or swapping it to Bitcoin, was a taxable event. On top of that, if you cashed out, you then had to pay taxes on any positive earnings you had made. The IRS was treating crypto like a stock. But it was supposed to be a currency. You don't go to a farmer's market and buy food using baseball cards, so why would the US government consider crypto as such? Because they could tax it. They couldn't tax it if it was money, but they could if it was an asset, like a stock.
Anyways...
After losing crypto in various rug pulls and scams, I really want as little to do with it as I can. While I do like the micro wallet and staking that Dutchy autofaucet allows me to do, I also have some ATOM staked in my wallet. Besides that, I am always on the lookout for direct faucets or other sites that are non KYC and allow for easy crypto.
I personally feel as though crypto will disappear soon, unless someone uses it for what it was intended. For example: I have a side hustle to make extra money and currently my craft is taxed and reported to the government as a small business. If I was to create my own crypto currency and give it a value, it would be similar to a stablecoin, which only goes up or down a bit over time, not something like everything else. But that way someone could buy my items using that crypto and everyone wins.
