I’m celebrating today. A few good things have happened after such a long stretch of misfortune.

Firstly, I started rekindling my interest in cryptocurrency. Sheer amounts of life setbacks, catastrophes, etc. have kept me from working for way too long, so I wasn’t able to invest in any crypto back in the day. I won’t get into it, but I’ve been in dire straights for an interminably long time, but the Libertarian in me was still interested in crypto.

At that time, I really was only aware of Bitcoin and LiteCoin. I started a Coinbase account, unverified because their system is just awful, and started collecting Satoshi from several Bitcoin faucets. I kept up at it for about a month before getting tired of the grind. I was collecting and collecting, but it was worthless. I figured I’d have to keep it up for a lifetime to start to see anything substantial, so I went to do other things with my time.

It took the pandemic to start making me rethink things. Part of me wishes that the government would just implement a universal basic income to support people who are struggling, off-setting the burden of the welfare system while simultaneously avoiding too much inflation (the bane of anyone who follows Austrian economics), and part of me wanted to look back into crypto. No banks, decentralized, no way to wind up in debt - crypto just looked good.

Moreover, there are many, many kinds of cryptocurrency out now, so if Bitcoin feels out of your reach, there’s also BTC, XMR, Dash, Dai, and many more. I discovered this website and decided, “What the heck? Let’s do it!”

This leads me to my second happy moment. I decided to head back to Coinbase, verifying my account after years of inactivity, and decided to check my portfolio. Wouldn’t you know it, those piddly little Satoshi I’d gathered up with faucets was now worth about $94!

I’m celebrating, but also need a place to vent my concerns about crypto in general.

My Big Issue

My point of contention is that crypto in general seems to be more of an asset than a currency. From my understanding, it was created after the 2008 recession as an alternative to the devaluing fiat currency. The limited nature of a digital currency was sure to protect it from the hyper-inflation that threatens fiat currencies.

Now, while there are ways to spend crypto in the world (I have an account with BlockCard, for example), most places are still not accepting crypto as it is. There are some great ideas out there for markets, such as OpenBazaar, Bitify (if it didn’t look so dodgy), and the new Particl market, but you still can’t choose to buy from Amazon from your crypto wallet.

I wonder if Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency will ever truly topple the banks or even an entity like the Federal Reserve? It would certainly upset a lot of politicians, but as it stands, the Federal Reserve isn’t even a government entity! Why not put currency in the hands of people instead of allowing the politicians to control it?

If, however, crypto will always remain an asset, its value always tied to what it’s worth in fiat money, then surely it will eventually plateau, correct? If I keep holding my little nest, perhaps it’ll continue to grow bigger and bigger, but it’ll eventually stop. Eventually, we’ll have to wonder if it’s still a good idea to invest in a coin due to limited supply. When that happens, if crypto can’t become a real currency, it’ll be stagnant.

You’d have to jump to a new coin, and then a new coin after that.

Maybe I’m wrong about this because I’m so crypto illiterate. I just wanted my very first post here (after my introduction, that is) to be crypto-related. Perhaps one day I’ll look back on this post and shake my head with how naive I really was, and I hope I do! These are the concerns of a crypto newbie - someone who doesn’t have the means for any investing most of the time and unsure of how it all works.

Thanks for having me, here at the start of my journey proper!