There's Gold in Them Hills

As I sat here debating whether or not it would be a worthy endeavor to dust off the laptop, I found myself unable to banish these thoughts from my mind. So, now you’re going to be stuck with them.

You Either Get it or You Dont.

Observing the efforts of, lets call them “business minded people”, pivot into crypto in an effort to obtain their fame and fortune vexes me. Deeply. Thankfully this lot of opportunistic midwits are not actually paying attention to the crypto market right now. This is due to their abandonment of what they thought was the easy way to fame and fortune during the bear market. In case you haven’t noticed; I have already pointed out their problem: They simply do not know anything about this space.

But I digress.

This entry isn’t for those people. This entry is for the people who want to know about this space, the people who love this space, and the future people who will one day endeavor to learn about this most interesting time in history.

A Sucker for Analogies

I like analogies, I found them to be an extremely useful teaching tool while rearing my numerous spawn. So lets start by looking back to the year 1848.

In 1848 a gentleman named James Marshall discovered gold in California. While I imagine he would have preferred to keep this a secret, much to his chagrin, his discovery led to hoards of people descending to California to make their fortunes. By 1849 the search for riches reached its zenith, and to this day we know this period of history as The California Gold Rush.

The folks who braved the unknown to find their fortunes were known as the 49’rs. These were people from all walks of life sharing a common goal: improving their lives and the lives of their descendents. Day after day, with no guarantee of success, they undertook back breaking labor with the hopes of one day striking gold. The risk was high, whether from injury or banditry, but the 49’rs were all in. In this single endeavor almost all of them essentially had similar odds of success.

Now obviously, not everyone won. For every success story there were numerous people who suffered a whole lot of suffering and misfortune for nothing. That said, their efforts did pay off on a larger scale. The entirety of the US economy benefitted from their efforts, and the State of California rapidly developed.

By now, the brightest of you already know where I am going with this, and I love you for it.

Modern Day 49’rs

Yep, you were right. There does exist a breed of modern day 49’rs, although we go by a different moniker these days. Most of y’all know it, but for the uninitiated: You can call us degens. Granted the backbreaking labor is not involved in our modern, digital, Gold Rush, but if it was it wouldn’t deter us. Degens are the spiritual descendents of the 49’rs and we are no less committed to making our fortune.

While our forefathers certainly also faced the risk of financial loss while searching for gold, the dangers we face are somewhat different. Hacked wallets, scammers, corrupt politicians, regulatory uncertainty, the seasonal crypto thots that arrive every bull market, etc. Despite all of this we still push on, because even if we lose it all we know that there is always the chance to make it all back.

Much like the State of California other people do in fact benefit from what we do. The parasitic bureaucraces that have attached themselves to the honest taxpayers. The businesses that are created to make what we do easier, more user friendly, safer, etc. The more we push through, from cycle to cycle, the more we help what will ultimately be understood to be a technology that changed the course of human history.

We take the risk, for the outsized reward, and when its all said and done we will have helped change the world.

Why This Matters

If the current crypto market sentiment remains in place, we are roughly 6-8 months from the arrival of the midwits, many of whom proudly proclaimed the death of crypto in an attempt to assuage their butthurt from, well from getting their asses handed to them by the market. They will come back just as clueless as before, and continue to convince businesses to pay for their “expertise”.

They won’t be the only opportunist in the mix either. New cults of personality will appear on the main character stage, new scams will arrive, and at some point the death of crypto will be proclaimed yet again.

So here is some general advice that you can do whatever you want with. First of all learn the power of networking in this space. If you want to learn, find other people with the same goals. Growing within a crypto community is a way to accelerate your understanding. You have to actually participate to conquer the massive learning curve involved with becoming a degen. Yes, you’re going to make mistakes, and yes you will most certainly lose money at times (how else would you learn risk management?).

Don’t copy trade influencers, I don’t care how rich they are (or claim to be). You have to learn how to do your own research, and lucky for you there are a lot more resources available these days. Understand that popularity/clout/follower size, are not guarantees of competency. Much like the real world its easier for the unscrupulous to rise to the top, especially if they are social media savvy or have backers with deep pockets. Some of the best crypto traders I know have X accounts with criminally small following.

Finally, don’t kid yourself about the amount of work its going to take to get anywhere in this space. This is a time consuming, stressful endeavor that requires the acquisition and honing of many skills. Inevitably in every cycle someone makes a lucky trade and finds himself set for life, only to lose it all. If you want to win, you’re going to have to work. Just like your gritty, dirt covered, spiritual ancestors.

The End?

I don’t know to be honest. Time is scarce, and we are in a bull market. My sparse free time will likely be much better spent trading than writing. If I do continue to write, it will likely be in a newsletter and on a subscription basis. So the jury is out on this.

In any event I do hope you enjoyed reading this, and a like, follow, and retweet always goes a long way. In the event that I do decide to go the subscription route, it would probably be a good idea to add your email address so that I can get you on the list.

In the meantime, enjoy the bullish sentiment, and find yourself a good group of people to network with. Outside of X, I mostly hang out in the Bitcoin Honey Badger Discord these days. I do enjoy the company (and alpha) of my fellow degens, and these dudes are as degen as they come.