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You've probably heard of the saying "time is money" which was a phrase that was coined originally by Benjamin Franklin. It's a saying that is easy to remember and talk about in the workplace during a short lunch break. And it couldn't be more true for crypto as well. However, understanding the relationship between time and crypto isn't so straightforward. This is because our perception of time is influenced by our perception and desires regarding crypto - and vice versa. Here is a short story that could help better introduce the Time and Crypto Paradox.
One foggy evening, a man slips out of his bed and walks silently to the bedroom window wearing a pajama, t-shirt, and flip flops. He peers out the window and sees sheets of pouring rain followed by the distant clap of thunder. He sighs and heads over to the kitchen to pour himself a cup of coffee. All of a sudden his cell phone rings in his bedroom. He rushes back and turns on his phone to realize that it was just a reminder for him to take his daily pills.
After getting some breakfast and settling in front of his laptop, he logs into his favorite crypto exchange and adds more crypto coins to his portfolio. Among them are Bitcoin and Ethereum along with several other altcoins. He bookmarks the CoinMarketCap price charts of some of these altcoins on his BRAVE web browsing app and flips on the TV to watch the morning news. On TV the news reporter talks about the possibility of an upcoming bull run for BTC. The reporter then talks about a lot of caveats to the prediction, leaving him uncertain about the future of Bitcoin.
After a few moments of hesitation, the man opens his laptop and creates multiple tabs on his Brave browser app. Each tab contains a live chart of each of his favorite altcoins. As he goes through each tab again, he notices that all of his favorite altcoins are relatively stable which makes him at ease. Then, he takes out a calendar and writes down the date when he thinks all of his altcoins are going to the MOON. Afterward, he packs some lunch before going to work shortly afterward.
Upon seeing that the price of the altcoins was stable for the past few days, he decides to look at the charts in three weeks' time while he focuses on more important things (e.g., paying all the bills, shopping for the necessities of life, and going back to work). As he works on other things, the weeks fly by without much conflict or worry. However, in the back of his mind, he has a slight eagerness to check how his altcoins are doing.
After three weeks, he checks the altcoin charts again and finds to his delight that all of his investments went up by about one USD. At this point, he can't contain his eagerness to check the charts, again and again, to see when the charts will go to the MOON. As each day passes, more and more of his time is devoted to checking the charts. Soon, he begins to feel that it is taking forever to get to his predicted "MOON" date on the calendar.
After about a month of checking the charts, he gets tired of waiting and decides to sell all of his altcoins for a profit in order to look for "better" altcoins. Just as he wants to sell all of his altcoins, the crypto market enters the bear market phase and all of his crypto assets are in the red (i.e., negative growth). He cries out frustration, "If I had just sold a few days earlier, I could have saved my portfolio! Arghh!" Then, he rips out several pieces of his hair.
The intensity of the bear market is relentless, taking away half of the value of his investments over the period of one week. A huge wave of depressing feelings washes over him as he sees his life savings go down and down. With each decrease in savings, he rips out more and more of his hair. (I think he might eventually get bald, don't you think?)
Anyways, his frustration reaches a peak point and he decides to sell all of his crypto assets at a loss and return to the land of fiat with much less than he had originally invested. As soon as he was certain that all of his crypto investments were sold and all transactions were confirmed, he slowly rose from his chair and walks outside the back door to his backyard. It's cold outside and the rain is pouring more than ever. He rips more strands of hair out in fury and slaps himself over and over while saying, "eh (slap), oH (slap), AH (slap)...". After about an hour, he faints from pure exhaustion.
All that time he was ripping his hair out and slapping himself, the cryptos that he sold all went to the moon without him...
