We Never See Nothing

Just few days ago a friend panicked because Bitcoin and his “diversified portfolio” went down like crazy, and so did tech stocks. He’s basically hiding under his blanket, not knowing where to go, helpless, and not being able to function well (he is heavily invested). Same with a friend who owns half a million in Bitcoin.

All while I am secretly hoping to keep buying cheap.

I’m quite new to the space, but I am frankly surprised how much others who have been through worse freak out so often. For us n00bs who just got in this year, I feel it’s extremely important that if you are heavily invested in Bitcoin, from time to time follow the exercise of thinking what to do if Bitcoin hit an all-time low in an extremely short time, to the point that one would feel like “all is lost”.

I am NOT saying that Bitcoin is going to zero. In fact I believe the opposite. I hold almost no fiat anymore. But it may go low enough, for long enough (or fast enough) for many people to panic into thinking this is going to happen, and sell at an incredible loss.

So here’s the exercise I do often when I am having negative thoughts (if you never have negative thoughts you shouldn’t be here, becoming the reincarnation of Buddha is far more profitable that Bitcoin).

Alright, here I go:

Why am I invested in Bitcoin?

Obviously I want huge, or at least a positive ROI (and anyone who tells you they don’t is lying) but this won’t happen overnight, so I spend about one or two hours every day reading books about Bitcoin, tech articles, and pure Computer Science math. This shit is hard, I often want to ragequit.

I have nightmares with elliptic curves or mnemonic seed words. But I remind myself the reasons why I believe Bitcoin can bring a big change to the world. No one knows how positive it can be but we can rest assured that the current fiat system is absolute crap for the 99% of us, so the bar is set very low.

If I lost all my money (Bitcoin suddenly disappears, someone steals my keys or points a gun at my wife and tells me he knows how much I have and expects nothing less), what happens?

I have a stable job, pays well enough so that I can start stacking again or getting my savings back in place. I have two children, so I need to take finances seriously. We have great social security.

It would be a very shitty situation, but it won’t be life or death. I’ll be able to perform normally after a weeks.

I don’t own a house, a car, and the most expensive thing on our rental apartment is a US $1,000 sofa that we bought (I might sell it for Bitcoin, wife might get really pissed though).

I don’t have any debt, stock, bonds, and my last CD (3% interest rate lol) is expiring soon — as soon as it does it’s going to my Bitcoin stack.

If Bitcoin crashes for long enough to make me doubt, would I feel it’s still worth it?

Hell yeah. All the learning has put me on a higher level as a software developer: cryptography, math, security, privacy, anonymity, reading about countless hacks, best-practices, etc. I am learning rare and valuable skills, that can let me find great jobs with lots of flexibility like the one I have now.

If you’re in Bitcoin for the wrong reasons, you might leave for the wrong reasons, and leave in the deep red.

Let’s face it, if Bitcoin crashes, our chart-reading skills won’t transfer into a well-paying job (alright alright, unless you live in Manhattan).

Enjoy your morning/afternoon coffee, or make some guacamole to dip your chips!