I think most of us have at least 1 or 2 tales of crypto ragrets. Whether directly recalling trying out mining software back when blocks were easily mined, forgetting them on the pool and having them slurped up automatically a few months later, or perhaps throwing out a bitcoin laden hard drive, to the tune of a ~$300M current valuation, or just realizing how insanely rich you would be if you had simply purchased a hardware LEDGER and bet $100 on Bitcoin at the crucial time in history, we can all definitely trace back to a few discussion with some brilliant person where we downplayed or dismissed the idea or the validity of cryptocurrency.
When I was younger and learning about this technology, $200 for a crypto investment would have likely been unthinkable. I was a broke ass college student and that money was needed for rent, party supplies and the occasional meal. I've grown a bit since then and spent a lot of time trying to make my money work for me. The recent injection of $1.5B into the bitcoin economy was the last sign I needed to know that crypto was not only here to stay, it is a fixture and possibly the future for all finance, and possibly a sleugh of other existing technology, and I needed to buy in, even if it meant buying high.
I barely understand how cryptocurrency and the blockchain work. I have a much better understanding of its function and utility after purchasing crypto, making trades, investing in alt coins, and participating in a bit of Monero and Raven mining. I transformed my old gaming computer into a heater that pays my cell phone bill, and every day I learn more and explore more, the more I delve deeper into the world of cryptocurrencies.
The thing that sticks out to me the most is the fact that I own my currency. It's not backed by a bank, gold, debt, or a private ledger. Every cent of bitcoin ever mined and spent is accounted for publicly and privately, simultaneously, on the blockchain. There is no longer a real need for a bloated nodal network of financial institutions to keep track of our ledgers and extract our bill payments from our accounts. Your government could potentially file your taxes for you if they got a list of your ledger addresses in a hypothetical future where there is no longer debt-backed fiat currencies serving as a mainstay for trade.
I believe in crypto. I am not sure if the recent insane growth is hype or not, but history has told me that things are going to continue moving in the upward direction, and dips if anything are temporary. I do not put everything I have into crypto, it's not an option for me at this point in my life, and it never makes sense to go all in high. I maximize the faucets that are worth my time, mine what I can, and contribute a small amount of money every pay check into a random alt coin. I consider crypto to be my own little lottery ticket, and the chances of profiting so far have far outweighed that of a traditional lottery.
If we look back at the age of private currencies in the united states and try to draw comparisons to today, we truly can't. They were mostly discontinuous, insecure, poorly managed, and often just a way to entrap people with debt at the company store. Crypto is the antithesis of this, and it serves to potentially liberate us from the power struggles associated with the manual control of a loosely backed, debt driven lie of a fiat currency. I think we're just scratching the surface as far as use cases for blockchain are concerned and I'm more than excited for the future. As always, I deeply regret taking so long to plunge into this terrifying, entrancing universe of cryptocurrency.
