CRIPTOCURRENCIES: INVESTMENT OR GAMBLE?
Cryptocurrencies are considered by many the newest holy grail, the ultimate way in which they will become rich fast.
We may all agree that the blockchain technology is a revolution for the global world where we live, and will give us (already gives us) the chance to communicate and interact with one another without fear of being controlled, among other features.
As much as the technology is truly disruptive, and has the potential to change the world, it is inevitable for many people to let greed overcome logic, and what started as a potential improvement for the future easily becomes a get rich quick scheme.
This way we see, every day, so many companies who make use of the blockchain technology and the Initial Coin Offerings to take advantage of this mentioned greed.
These people are selling whitepapers (plans on what they will do and how they will do it), with nothing that backs them up or gives them any kind of credibility, and becoming millionaires.
At any point in time, when these things happen, no matter if we are in a bubble about to burst or if we still have 5 years of continuous uptrend, it is important to ask ourselves one question.
¿Do we really know what we are doing with our money?
Coming from a sports betting background as I do, there is something that bothers me a lot, which is social stigma.
So for example, for a long time I have had to hide the fact that I made my income out of betting on sports, and I dealt with all kinds of accusations.
For over 5 years that I have been betting on sports for a living, i have not once had a negative month, where I lost more money than I won, and that did not keep many people from calling me a gambler, ALL THE TIME.
Through time I learnt that many people will just repeat what they hear, and if betting on sports in conceived as gambling, and gambling is something socially known as wrong, then I must be doing something wrong.
What's the point of this?
The point is that while I have been accused as a gambler, just for the environment where I worked, I saw many people starting businesses and going bankrupt, people investing in the stock market and constantly losing money, people buying cars worth many years of salary...
Is it riskier to analyze sports outcomes and invest in good value, rather than starting a business with no experience or market research? Who is gambling here?
Back to Cryptos, tokens are going up in value dramatically, and in my opinion, many of them are raising tons of money out of thin air, with nothing to back them up (see my post on wagerr for example).
People call it investing, but what's the difference between throwing money to a new ICO, or to a random outcome of a football game?
RED OR BLACK? CIVIC OR STATUS?
Because the degree of randomness is much smaller. Don't get me wrong investing in an idea with no tech is just bad business but investing in many of the cryptocurrencies with proven real world applications is a no brainer.
You are also investing your money, just with higher risk and lower returns. That is what is wrong with what you are doing
Sure there are many cryptocurrencies that really provide not only real world applications, but also tremendous value compared to centralized competitors, money transfer being the first one to come to my mind.
In fact, among all of us in crypto universe, many people do extensive research and elaborated investment.
What I wanted to point out was how much money is blindly going into projects with nothing but a whitepaper and a couple posts in bitcointalk announcement section, making millions through ICOs.
When Bitcoin made its first move to $1000 my brother and I where talking about it. He said Bitcoin is the perfect thing, it is like a large company, but if it goes bankrupt no on will take the fall. Bitcoin is a tool like any other asset. Use it don't fall in love with it. One day it Could be worth nothing remember MySpace. How about Enron the list of dead company's go on and on. There is always a time to get out of something. Just sell for a profit.
I do believe Bitcoin is absolutely revolutionary, but it is true what you say.
In many cases it is hard to place your money somewhere and avoid being emotionally attached to "it".
But that is what in my opinion makes the biggest difference between gambling and investing.
Everything is a gamble, there is no such thing as a sure investment, anything can go wrong in any endeavour you take.
I do agree that in every choice there is a risk and a reward, and there is no such thing as absolutely zero risk. Mainly because in every decision we make there are elements that interact directly or indirectly and we cannot control.
However, there are many circumstances where you can accurately measure what you are willing to lose and what you are trying to win.