My personal experiences with Cryptocurrencies.
Where to start?
I guess like many people before me; and no doubt a few after… I have been expecting Cryptocurrencies to somehow end up banned. They are an obvious threat to the banking industry and will not be simple things to regulate (although doubtless many will try). That’s why I shied away from them for so long, each time thinking that government will ban Bitcoin or any of the other too numerous to name alt-coins.
Early this year I finally dipped my toe in to the proverbial pool and was surprised that from the grand total of £138 invested in February (very few coins, yep the Ethereum coins turned out to be a mistake, should have bought 10 not the 3 I did… ah well, live and learn – albeit painfully in the financial sense).
Next came some Litecoin and Ripple, finally I converted some in to Bitcoin (only a small amount, just enough to possess a stake).
It’s been roughly 6 months and although I have increased my investment like most others I find myself looking toward the smaller value coins and contemplating placing an amount in each one and hoping that if 9 of the 10 fail that the 1 that comes good clears the losses for the other investments. I’m sure many of us have seen the @JSNIP4 video detailing his gains (and kudos to him for pulling it off; I hope his dream/forever house is everything he’s ever wanted).
With the potential to make large gains comes the risk of big losses, but unlike the stock market these tokens aren’t from what I have so far seen purchased on margin, so you lose only what you invest and don’t have to find the missing 90% of the investment capital that you never put up.
If the fates smile on us all then with a good run maybe we will get a return that can set us up for the future that comes when the economy has not only crashed but began to rebuild. There will be fake paper wallets containing no tokens despite their claims on the wallet; but it is not like there aren’t fake GBP/USD/EUR/YEN... out there.
Silver and Gold will always be a hedge, but given the issues with their storage and securing them it doesn’t hurt to have a few paper wallets around with some tokens to trade.
The day will come when Government attempts to outlaw or tax these forms of currency, but the community will adapt, bringing in new features to provide anonymity, better encryption and additional resilience. Going forward this medium will change the world if it is given a chance, and it deserves that much. For decades we have been devaluing our currencies to inflate away the debt obligations that have built up, created financial tools which are beyond the ability of man to control and which will if given enough time bring about a financial apocalypse.
I however am hopeful, my glass is more than half full… as I believe we are starting to develop our own solutions to combat these toxic instruments, ones which are distributed and not under the control of authorities (financial or otherwise) who will abuse them to keep the party going a little longer (that’s not saying there won’t be attempts to do this).
Maybe, with these new tools we will once again begin to look longer term, beyond just the next election cycle and toward a future where we all find new ways to earn through whatever talents we have using platforms which empower us and do not just take from us our creativity and our labour for their own profits.
Let the future be bright, I may not have made a large fortune out of a tiny investment; but that is OK, I have begun to learn valuable lessons which show me that there are other avenues out there to earn income, not just by me, but all of us.
Now… where is the next big mover and shaker so that I can drop lucky by picking right!