Hurts So Good - Tales of a Cryto Noob

Oh the pain of being drenched in the cold hard reality of discovering you are "the dumb money". Ie. the money that follows the smart money and is left hodling the bag.

"If you first heard about ethereum from The New York Times, you're not the smart money."
http://www.coindesk.com/icos-dumb-money-ethereums-ethical-dilemma/

Yes I am exactly who the esteemed journalist speaks about.

I had considered bitcoin about 2-3 years ago but was scared away by volatility and Silk Road connotations, (ok and perhaps a lack of any meaningful capital to risk). I finally drank the kool aid however after reading yet another article about the upcoming Technological Golden Age the Blockchain was about dawn upon us. Further, after seeing what the market was doing that May, suddenly dreams of one day being a wealthy early adopter were inescapable.

So yes, I indeed swan dived into FOMO pile with a sizeable a chunk of my savings, opting for "aggressive investment" instead of diligently putting it towards a shameful credit card debt. I do at least maintain that I did not spend what I was not willing to lose. As bullish as I was in the tech in general (and certainly frenzied in trying to get in on that uptrend, btw HOLY SHIT is getting authenticated with Coinbase etc a PAIN), I was also resolved in the fact that it could certainly all evaporate to nothing.

So there I am. Look at me! I bought the top!

It is actually even more shameful than that, because the 6 day ACH clearing time at Coinbase and low initial limits were far too much for me to handle, so I also swindled myself an additional 15% or so by credit carding my way through the throng via Coinmama. Final BTC and ETH landed in my wallet the day of the peak.

Then, after panicking away some 25% of my investment value via some coin swaps and fiat sellbacks during the first week's downward gyrations, I quickly learned the true value of HODL on reddit and twitter (best meme), and have now at worst split off a small portion into a few shitcoins for potluck and several ICOs I have faith in. The current value of my investment is sitting at about 40% of it's original.

So it's been an informative six weeks!

Having said all of that, barring the, let's say "lack of finesse" of my entrance to Crypto, I have no regrets. I agree that about 95% of the projects in the space are deserving of the "shitcoin" category (what a name), I truly believe that the 5% that get off the ground in the next few years have full potential to change the status quo. I find that very exciting. Why? To oversimplify things, I can offer these three points:

1. I am over banks (international money transfer, hell even DOMESTIC, is stupidly difficult, inefficient and expensive)
2. I am over middle men (again, banks, governments, forex agents, any other kind of agents, record labels, and so on... )
3. Passports, check books, drivers licenses, birth certificates are all borderline ancient technologies and woefully inefficient. Ripe for revolution. I think my children and anyone else born after the iPhone was will agree and wholesale shun the lot.

I will also round that list out with:

1. Making a transfer of digital value that is secure and near instantaneous to some other person, anywhere in the world, without needing a bank, just feels so -cool-

So while I am still covered in third degree market burns, I am still very optimistic for the future of the blockchain and its successful implementations. I don't think many bonafide "game changes" will occur for some years, but certainly I think blockchain is here to stay.

Until then: