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 --- A GOPHER-LIKE INTERFACE FOR HIVE BLOCKCHAIN ---

An $800 Mistake

BY: @makowrites | CREATED: Nov. 20, 2018, 7:28 a.m. | VOTES: 24 | PAYOUT: $0.24 | [ VOTE ]

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Cover image courtesy of Pexels.

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Back in August, I had a buddy who was watching Crypto markets like a hawk. Like many other enthusiasts, he caught wind of the Ethereum Classic Coinbase listing and convinced me to make my first steps into Crypto investing in the hopes of making a quick profit. Like many other enthusiasts, we both bought in way too late. If you follow Crypto, you know the story. The hype ended up being the pump, with the price falling from a peak of $20 as soon as the coin was listed on Coinbase.

Over the past three months I've watched my initial investment dwindle by 10%, then 20%, then 30%, all the while too stubborn to admit defeat. With my losses approaching 50%, I finally swallowed my pride and sold out. What was supposed to be quick cash very quickly turned into an $800 mistake, and one that I'm going to be struggling very hard to make up before I get married next June. Even though I've made a terrible mistake, I've learned a few things by watching the dialogue around the Crypto community. I figured I'd share them with you, maybe you can make heads or tails of them where I can't.

1) Nobody knows anything about Crypto

"It'll start going up within the week."
"Bitcoin will be $20,000 again by the end of the year."
"Keep HODLing, it'll go back up."

If you chat about Crypto in extremely public channels, you could play a game of Bingo with these statements. Everyone likes to pretend like they're an expert, but the reality is that even the 'experts' have no idea what they're doing. Crypto doesn't follow traditional stock trends and patterns, even though analysts like to talk about it like it does. Crypto isn't stock, it's gambling. Instant transfers and unlimited day-trades are proof of this. It's a game that's meant to be played, and when it is, some people win and a whole lot of other people lose.

2) Bears and Bulls are Bullshit

Face it, the Crypto FOMO is done and gone. Forget the bulls, last year's December peak was FOMO, to the letter. Forget the bears, this last week's $4 billion crash is people finally wising up and getting out. The only way we will see numbers even remotely close to 2017's peak again is if there's some major development in blockchain technology that provides relevant use-cases or if fiat crashes. It doesn't matter what your whitepaper says right now, nobody's buying and the proof is in the downtrend.

3) For 99.9999999999% of Cryptocurrencies, there's no use-case

Without a market for goods and services based entirely in Crypto pricing and not based on the fiat value backing it, there's not a single viable use-case for Crypto currently. Steem is the one Crypto I legitimately have hope in because it's actively working towards this end. Imagine being able to exchange goods and services for a standardized amount of Steem or SBD, regardless of the fiat price. That's a use-case, and it's the kind of thing that Crypto is going to need if it's going to recover.

4) There's no such thing as quick profit

If you're going to make money off of Crypto, you've got to be three things: diligent, intentional, and lucky. Keep your ears to the ground, listen for insider trading that might lead to potential buy-low, sell-high opportunities, and play the upswing. If you're not on the leading edge of an uptrend, though, it's best to let it pass. By the time an opportunity hits common knowledge, it's already too late.

I'm by no means done with Crypto or the blockchain. The tech is interesting, and it does have the potential to be a fiat alternative if fiat ever crashes. But for now I'm out and watching the daily ups and downs, watching for an opportunity to start making my $800 back. That's one of the perks of Steemit. Here I get to share my thoughts, writing, art and whatever else with you and build an investment from scratch. I'll be sticking around here and continuing to write in the interim because free crypto is going to be no laughing matter if the market ever recovers.

Have you had similar losses this year? Are you feeling the sting of a declining Crypto market? Let me know about your experiences in the comments below. As always, there are some SBI shares up for grabs if I feel like you're actually invested in this article and you leave a good comment.

That's all I've got for now. Catch you next time!

Cheers,

~ Mako

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Thanks for reading!

Check out my most recent posts here:
I Have a Confession
A Statistical Look at @Tagalong

My Current Ongoing Story:

Kayde's Tale (Part 1)
Alora's Tale (Part 2)
Kayde & Alora's Tale (Part 3)

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TAGS: [ #writing ] [ #blog ] [ #crypto ] [ #steemit ] [ #article ]

Replies

@minnowsupport | Nov. 20, 2018, 7:49 a.m. | Votes: 0 | [ VOTE ]

Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by Mako from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP. Be sure to leave at least 50SP undelegated on your account.

@cryptogee | Nov. 20, 2018, 8:46 a.m. | Votes: 0 | [ VOTE ]

Excellent write up @makowrites, I did a similar one myself months ago, however mine was more based around the first point you make in this article.

I have tried telling people time and time again, you cannot predict the future price of crypto by looking at a chart. This is because, a) the chart represents a bunch of speculation, and b) there are no real world indicators that caused the chart to create that shape.

There are many people on Steemit who publish their chart data along with a load of nonsense about Elliot Waves and blah, blah, blah.

Some of these people are deliberately trying to pull the wool over your eyes, however most are simply delusional and have not realised that the human's ability to spot patterns among chaos is seriously affecting their judgement.

Even in the stock market those charts are questionable. What's the first thing any financial adviser in any (regulated) country have to tell you by law?

Past performance is no indication of future performance

The reason this is law, is because the law realises that humans look for (and find) patterns everywhere. They then place a meaning on top of that pattern. It is why we have religion and superstition such as numerology and astrology.

I like the other points you make as well, and like you say 99.999999% of cryptos have no use case. This is what makes Steem different, so hopefully we see more and more use cases.

Steemit is the first, however games like Steemmonsters excite me, even though you don't have to buy in Steem, you are rewarded by it, and need to be on the blockchain to take part in the competitions.

The more use cases that pop up for Steem, the more people who'll use it until one day, boom!

As far as similar losses, yes, I like everyone have suffered badly. In some ways it's not so bad because I invested profits from the BTC and SBD pumps, so it's not like my bottom line was affected, however I did want to see those profits grow rather than disappear.

Verge was a big one for me, I bought at between 700-900 Sats, and lost about 75% of that. Though I'm hanging onto those because of their partnership with Pornhub, which could turn out to be the ultimate use case!

I got burned in Z-Classic as well, bought a couple at around $150, sold one for $135 and the other is now sitting at around $4.

Got pounded by XEM, I put thousands into that. Everything was going to plan, and then that exchange got hacked and all of their XEM was stolen. So I bought in at $0.18 all the way up to $1.00, it got hacked around $1.20 and is currently sitting at $0.09.

I sold for massive losses and moved it to Electronium instead.

Oh well, I've just read the tea leaves and they say that 2019 is going to be the biggest bull run ever! 🤣😂🤣

Cg

@makowrites | Nov. 20, 2018, 7:19 p.m. | Votes: 0 | [ VOTE ]

I keep telling people that HODLing only allows other people to steal your value in the interim. Just sell and buy back in lower if it ever shows consistent uptrend again.

Thanks for stopping by, it’s been a while!

~ Mako

@steemitboard | Aug. 14, 2019, 6:07 p.m. | Votes: 0 | [ VOTE ]

Congratulations @makowrites! You received a personal award!

https://steemitimages.com/70x70/http://steemitboard.com/@makowrites/birthday1.pngHappy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 1 year!

You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking

Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
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