A reader asked me, essentially, 'if you've known about Bitcoin since 2011 and can predict future price moves, why aren't you rich now?' The reply expanded to a post, although I have talked about this topic many times over the years, since it does come up often.
Preface
Within this post, I'm not being judgmental when I talk about my own ethical beliefs and opinions, and how they may differ from other peoples'. Just like my veganism, I don't force it on people, I don't go to a steakhouse and yell "you are murderers", I don't hate people who eat animals. But I'm willing to talk about why I don't, if they ever ask. Our beliefs may be at odds, but there doesn't need to be conflict or animosity. Same with my ethical beliefs about investing. If you profit off money itself, so be it. I don't, and I don't respect that you do, but I'm not upset with you, not blaming you for anything, not trying to make you feel bad, and not even trying to change you. I'm merely telling you how I feel about this topic. If it makes you feel offended or attacked, that's on you, and you should do some self-reflection to find out why. But please, know for certain that I'm not judging you (or anyone) with this post. It's about me. If it makes you think, so be it. If you want to discuss it, then let's do so civilly, with a mutual desire to discover truth, not to 'win'. Thank you.
I'm very much NOT an investor.
I don't like to capitalize. It feels wrong to me to 'make' money or currency by owning money or currency. I don't see that as adding any value, but rather taking value. If everyone tried to put food on the table (and all the other stuff we need in this world) by trading in and out of money/currency, it wouldn't work. Somebody has to produce value.
That's where I feel content creation comes in. I feel that I'm producing something people want, and benefit from. I've never managed to monetize my efforts, but I intend to. I think I should (finally) be able to get paid for the years of full-time work I put into education, entertainment, motivation, etc.
But investing, I've always avoided. I stack silver bullion as a private store of intrinsic value, not for moonshot hopes. I said on YT in 2011 that I wouldn't own any Bitcoin until it was a viable currency (not just for buying 1 million BTC pizzas), and never as an investment vehicle. Good luck to those that do, I said, and proceeded to call the chart moves. My confidence grew over the years, to the point now where I've essentially made no bad calls, and made a TON of really great ones, even when I was going against the entire market, it seemed, I was always bang on. But I didn't get a wallet until 2017, when I saw BTC being used all over the world, not just online but in local shops. It sat empty until some subscribers tossed me some tips for my video content over the years which had helped them. That 0.2 BTC grew in value to almost $5kUSD at which point I converted all of it to STEEM, which then lost 99.5% of its value, leaving me with about $200 at this point. I was wrong to go all-in on STEEM but I believed in the platform and concept.
Like I was saying, I'm now finally trying to monetize my content. There are free & decentralized options that don't require me to have a smart device, finally. I'd love to be compensated for my work, as so many out there nowadays are. It isn't working on STEEM, but I'm also trying LBRY and Flote, with an eye out for others.
It's hard for people to believe that I could have profited, but didn't. It's kind of hard for me, sometimes, but it's true. I've documented the whole process, speaking about this many times both here and on YT. That's just how I am, I'm not making it up. My nature and nurture has led me to being the person I am right now, which is one who chooses to earn money/currency to pay necessarily bills and stay alive in the current system, and does not profit off the up and down moves of charts.
A few times, my wife (who supports me 100% in all I do) very gently mentioned the fact that, had I been a little less principled, we could be very well off right now, or at least not hurting, having to calculate how much formula the baby needs over the coming month, and other stressful shit. I hear her. It's hard for me, too, sometimes. And maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's not wrong to profit off money/currency itself, and take from other "investors", knowing the house always wins (banks, exchanges). From my perspective, he who profits in investing, does so at the cost of he who loses. For me, no investor is "making money", only taking it from other investors, and enriching the system. But like I said, maybe I'm wrong about that, and I'm open to debate.
But until my mind is changed about that, my integrity forces me to act the way I do. It is an ethical decision, and I live my life by such decisions. I don't ask that anyone else understand it or agree with it, but I don't mind talking about it when genuinely asked.
It does kind of suck that a lot of people assume I'm full of shit, because I'm poor. "If he was telling the truth about his ability to predict the chart, he would be rich!" It hurts that most of them don't bother to go and look. I provide the links. I'm telling the truth, and have been the whole way through. I don't delete posts/videos with bad predictions. I'm intellectually honest, but people prefer to question my integrity and jump to a false conclusion, than do some investigation.
People like my old friend Davincij15 are rich right now, not just because they DO invest in cryptos, but because flocks of people see them profit, and subscribe, buy newsletters, send tips and donations, etc. He's loaded, but hasn't made a single good call since early 2011, when he (correctly) told everybody to get into Bitcoin. After that, he's got zero ability to read charts, no matter how much time he seems to spend trying. It's pathetic, but he got noticed by some big crypto channel last year, and has blown up ever since. Am I jealous? Probably, but mostly it's just upsetting because people could actually be getting real info from me, and doing well, rather than sending money to already rich people to get bad advice. I doubt I'd want the fame he's got over this, but at least having some more exposure for my messages would be nice. I wouldn't take the limelight like he has, but more views to my pages is my goal. I'm here to be heard, not ignored.
That said, sometimes I find myself siding with the voices (including from within) that say "just take a bit for yourself, you deserve it, you've got a family to feed and you're a good person, take a little profit and buy yourself some stuff you need, don't be stubborn.' Thus far, I've resisted, and I continue to look for ways to earn a living with my efforts. I may be a fool - that is up for debate. But if so, I am a fool with integrity.
DRutter
Some people feel that if somebody has a chance to get their hands on money, regardless of the details, they'll do it, no questions asked. It's strange that having morals and integrity gets you questioned nowadays.
If someone "earns" money (takes from others), better hope they're a good person because money is power. If you think you'd do good things with power, then maybe you should take it. Buuut we probably all think we'd do good with more power. Who really would hmmmm?
After writing this, I remembered that I own some CANNA tokens (on the steem-engine site). I've been earning various tokens for my posts (like WEED, LEO, BEER, etc), something we're all doing even if we don't realize it. I've been converting mine (at current market rates) into CANNA tokens, something I see as stable because the price doesn't usually fluctuate much. The way the token is set up, growth is fairly slow, but steady. So I don't really consider that investing, more like earning, and then saving. At some point I'll cash out for something else, of course. I have about $20 worth at the moment, going up by about a dollar per week. Figured I'd mention it!
I love what you do and genuinely wish you and your family the best success. My goal with crypto is to use it to provide a financial base for my wife and kids because I know the system will not do this for them, neither do I expect it to. My focus is not on the riches, or lambos etc but purely for my kids. I believe that if you maybe changed your views like your wife suggested and made tyour family's financial stability your sole focus, then you could see making money from this space in a different light ie you could use your seer like talents to make money in the mid to long term but purely to support your family. Don't give up DRutter!