Digital Penny stocks, with implied value, powered by HYPE.

I'll say this, I'm new... well not new to money or investing. But new to this digital pennystocks game of crypto trading. I'm new, and now I'm out. (well not really).

I am a tech junkie, with custom drones, souped up PC's, smart TV's, 360 cameras, HD media systems, Rasberry Pis, and all the like. Most recently?... a 6x GTX 1070 Mining rig grinding out some Zcash. It's been running for a month, and I've been actively trading and investing for that time.

I slid into this right at the top of the curve, and Ethereum had just passed $300 was on it's way higher. I opened a bittrex and went on my way to becoming a crypto millionaire ;)

I learned very quickly that the rollercoaster was off the tracks. That the most of the crowd trading them had a mob mentality and a couple youtube Mob leaders were using their traffic and view count to move a stock sufficient to make gains. Many were pumping ICO's, and leading viewers to believe 10x gains was very likely.

So I joined the crypto mob... I joined a dozen facebook pages, telegram groups, setup trigger alerts on my phone and off I went. I rode on some of the banter and I made some gains... But I also realized how fragile this whole thing is, and how actually important crypto/blockchain is and will be.

I think part of the excitement for trading in crypto is that people are excited about the future of blockchain, and they pass that excitement into their trading. Thinking it can only go up, because of the history of gains of Bitcoin and top alt coins.

But There's a couple problems...

The majority of buyers of Altcoins are traders! think about that for a moment, if most of the people buying a currency are just buying it to one day sell it, what happens? Those who are slightly less greedy than others make money, those who swing prices make money, and who is loosing all this gained money? Probably you... or me.

One of the beautiful things of crypto is the inclusion factor. Anyone with an email or phone can get into it. In order to trade on the stock market you need verified accounts, and brokerage account, tax paperwork, and more. It's tedious, and if you are like me, living abroad... good luck. Most investment accounts won't touch you, they have minimums, charge higher trading fees etc. So this beautiful inclusion factor is also a problem, the market is flooded with first time traders. Most don't understand Fibonacci numbers, trends, resistance and support levels, volume movements and all the like. Basically it's a musical chairs game, but most are still learning to walk.

It's the wild west. No rules. Nada. There's no guiding body, there's noone making sure people don't pump and dump on false news, or rumours. This is another reason I love blockchain, the openness and honesty of it all. Yet there is definitely people taking advantage of this for the time being. I believe this will continue until legal enforcement of criminal actions can be somehow woven in. I believe the exchanges need to associate here at some level, but regardless, it's the wild west for now.

Hacks and scams. There's millions in peoples hard earned money being siphoned off through scams and hacks... This is probably the most profitable arena to steal money. Pretty much anonymity is built into the system, these currencies are for the most part unrecognized by governments and law enforcement, so it's basically stealing something that doesn't exist. And in some cases, a simple website password and edit of a wallet address change can award you 30 million dollars worth of coin. So talk about upside.

Value. It's hard to determine if these coins have true value, or cuantify the amount. And you can spit out market cap, and volume and all the rest but the bottom line is, it's only valueable if people want to own it. And if the only reason people want to own it is to trade it on exchanges and no tangeable thing in real life, then it's really just a mechanism of greed and will NEVER be a viable instrument to trade for your hard earned money. Cash type coins will all fight for position, but the mob will decide, and it could change whats best or convenient at any time. I'll stick to ETH or BTC for now, despite drawbacks.

So the bottom line? I'm now only interested in purchasing coins tied to or fueling a technology that adds value to society, solves problems, and makes the world better.. This is important to me as these types of real world uses are what gives the coin value. Coins like LBC power the LBRY technology of content creation and reward. Coins like STEEM power steemit. These are the types of coins that will always have a value, and therefore deserve my investment. Ethereum will always be there as a foundation of other coins, I truly think that will be like the USD as Bitcoin holds the slot of gold standard. I currently own: LBRY, PTOY, Golom, & EVEREX. There are others and as I mine more, I'll buy more.

EVEREX I think Everex will be the only ICO that I'll ever see a profit from. A multi layered model of micro finance, remittances and international inclusion is something I believe in. If it makes me 0% return for 2 years, it's a product I'm happy to be a part of. It's one of the ways the blockchain will better this world.

If you are interested in the Everex ICO: https://t.everex.io/t/FqAoHXR