As some readers may recall, in 2020 (November, to be precise) I took a very small plunge into the heady and exciting world of Cryptocurrency.
You may have heard a bit about Cryptocurrency at the moment, with the complete and utter failure of the FTX exchange where somehow - magically - it went from a value of $32 Billion (yes, Billion with a B) to effectively $0. If you have not read about this, I would (for once) urge you to do some reading. This will become the Enron story that a new round of market survivors tell to each other around the digital campfire.
The story spooked yours truly - spooked him to the point that I sold whatever little bit I had in my very small Crypto account. As this had started two years ago in November, it seemed fitting to end it in November as well.
The specifics:
As you can see, I had wild fluctuations in my account. At it's height - in January of this year - it was worth a trifle over $400. At its nadir, it was worth about $76.
The drop off right at the end is, of course my sales. By the time I was done, I ended up with $136 in my electronic pocket in cash. As my initial investment was $35, that is still a 388% return. Not terrible for a little coffee money (although, I suppose, not nearly as well as I could have done).
You will notice that remaining $0.09. This is because Coinbase will not do a "complete" transfer from one "currency" to another; there are always scraps remaining and they have lower limits to it. I have two choices: keep the scraps, wait to "earn" more cryptocurrency through a small quiz (we will see how soon that happens again) and then sweep it all up for sale, or just donate the rest and close the account. Me being me, I will try and scrape out that last little bit - after all, it costs me nothing.
One note: As I had mentioned before as well, I do continue to "earn" the Brave token through the use of the Brave Browser and looking at advertisements and occasional quizzes and that I have successfully converted it into actual gift cards for Amazon. This continues to go on - after all, why not as it does not cost me money - but the value of the BAT has dropped from around $1.00 to $0.22. Not a great deal of foreseeable gift cards there in my future.
Fundamentally, I still very much like the idea of a currency and medium exchange that is universally applicable and not subject to government interference and manipulation. It seems very apparent, however, that cryptocurrency is not that medium.
And thus I end up with a little money in my pocket and a story that starts out "Let me tell you about the time I was in the crypto market..."
I suppose your experience belongs in the "all's well that end's well" category. Crypto didn't keep it's promises, but it didn't end in personal devastation either. I doubt there's any system that will ever be free of interference and manipulation. Wherever there's a pie, there are many fingers itching to get into it. That's just human nature.
ReplyDeleteLeigh, to be honest it was more dumb luck than anything else. What I should have done - and failed to do - is set a top at which I would get out. Instead, I got greedy. Like many people.
DeleteHonestly, I am struggling to understand how crypto comes back from this. I fear all it has done is demonstrate that Central Bank Digital Currency is feasible for central governments, which brings up its own difficult issues of privacy and control.
Anytime you can end an experiment in the Market (with all the greed and manipulation there) on the plus side, hey! The story you can tell gets told more often TB. It'll be very interesting to follow the story/trail of FTX in the coming days.
ReplyDeleteNylon12, more dumb luck than any plans on my part. I could have done better, if I had planned - but yes, any market experiment you walk away from relatively unharmed is a good market experiment.
DeleteFTX fascinates me, due to the colossal nature of the failure. When the gentleman in charge of the liquidation, who in charge of Enron liquidation, says "Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here", this is something diferent.
I think a digital currency is in the future for all of us. Whether or not it uses block chain technology to ensure it is free from manipulation or whether it is backed and manipulated by our government, I think the day is rapidly approaching when we all will have it. Just in a few decades, we have gone from an all cash society to one that uses very little cash. It seems a small step at this point to go to all digital.
ReplyDeleteDigital currency should be an option like cash/debit/credit etc. Freedom and liberty will cease to exist if we all must go to digital.
Delete...And therein lies the plan...
DeleteEd - I do not disagree that it is in the future. I do think that if government becomes the only game in town, it represents not only a not very free future, it will drive a lot of things underground, things that are perfectly legal right now.
DeleteMatthew - I am fine with it as an alternative - just not the only one. Right now it is a cash of caveat emptor in terms of employing it.
DeletePete - There are people that are literally salivating for this to happen.
DeleteBrave.
ReplyDeleteI use Brave and the rewards and I have absolutely no clue
of who/what/when/why/how to do anything with it.
Matthew - Like everything, there are steps. Likely when you signed up for Brave, they asked you if you wanted to create an Uphold account. One has to create the account and then link Brave and your Uphold account. Your Uphold account will then be the depository for your BAT.
DeleteWhen you are ready to spend it, you then have to create an account at Tap Network (https://brave.tapnetwork.io/). Then you have to link the Uphold account and the Tap Network account. From there, you can use BAT to buy things.
I have bought Amazon gift cards in the past and then in turn purchased actual books with them. But now that there is almost no value, it is a lot harder to get motivated to "click through".
I watch a Glenn Beck show way back when he first started his own network with a man who was a leading expert on Crypto. He proceeded to explain it to them and the audience exactly how it worked. Still didn't understand a word what he said and from the look on their face's neither did they.
ReplyDeletePlease go to virtualmirage.org for an excellent explanation of how this all works. There is also a minister who blogged about getting into it at about the same time as you.
The title to the crypto is Coin.
DeleteGL - Thank you for the link. Interesting article - and yes, people are literally going to lose their shirts in this.
DeleteIn principle I understand what is trying to be done. The problem is that, as with anything, it has to be used and accepted as a medium of exchange and have some inherent value, even if just in the eyes of the beholder (even shells, once used as currency in certain places, had an aesthetic and visually pleasing benefit. Crypto has none of that.
Great post about trying things in moderation. A lesson for all. Crypto had some assumed promises that didn't pan out. At least so far.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't a nice thing to think or say, but I do think it and I will say it: I hope the Democrats and Ukrainians suffered immensely from the collapse of their FTX money-laundering operation.
Karl - At best it is a bad look. What would be perhaps best is if whatever money was given to the Blue Party by FTX ($40 million is the number I have seen) would be donated to some charity, or even given back to FTX for their bankruptcy proceedings to pay back their investors.
Delete