Going All-In-On Crypto?

Going all-in-on crypto. Would you do it? Would it even be possible?  These are thoughts that I often find myself having.  I'm as optimistic as a person can possibly be for the future of crypto, especially Bitcoin.  However, I still haven't gone all-in on crypto.  Of course, the first thought that comes to most people's minds is that this would be a foolish idea.  With how volatile the market is, and how some projects simply go to zero.  Adding nothing but stress and risk to your life, with there being a chance that you could lose everything. Then when you add on the fact of how poorly the market has been performing this year, it only helps to point out how risky of a venture this could be.

But what if you actually would go all-in on crypto? What would that kind of life look like and what benefits could it offer? What challenges or risks could it present? Let's dive into this idea more.

Before we talk about what that sort of lifestyle would be, it would be a good idea to talk about why someone might want to go all-in on crypto.  The first is that there could potentially be a lot of money to be made.  Another possibility is that people who are living in countries where inflation is bad, or simply don't trust their government.  This would allow them to have control of their own money and potentially escape from their devaluing currency. Another option may be that you are a world traveler and it is just much more convenient to use crypto instead of switching between currencies.  And the last common reason is that you are really into crypto and want to help bring about change.  Whatever your reason may be, it likely is one of the options above.

So let's talk about the life of someone who uses crypto for everything in their life.

Getting Paid in Crypto

Just a few years ago it might have seemed impossible to get paid in crypto if you wanted to.  Except for if you had a job in the crypto industry, where it would have been much easier.  Outside of the crypto industry, it would be much harder for you to find a company that would be willing to pay you in crypto.  Perhaps they would be willing to make an exception for you, but it is more likely that they would prefer to pay you in fiat, the same as they pay everyone else.

The great thing is that services are now beginning to be offered that allow you to get paid in crypto, even if your company pays you in cash. In the USA, one of these options is Stripe.  You can register all of your "bank details," just like you would with any banking service.  But you can have it instantly converted to Bitcoin if you choose.  You can also have your paychecks directly deposited into places like Coinbase.  While it would technically still be dollars. It would be easy to convert from there.  The key point is that it doesn't really matter if you get paid in crypto or fiat.  As you can quickly convert that money into the crypto of your choice.  It would just save you the hassle of performing the transaction and also save you some money in fees.  For me, this isn't a dealbreaker.  I might be one of those odd people who really enjoy my crypto purchases and wouldn't want to give up this process so easily.

 All this means that almost no matter your situation if you want to get your salary paid in crypto, you have the ability to do so.

Making A LOT of Money

We now have the ability to be paid in crypto, but why would we actually want to do it?  There will be a small percentage of people who want to do it to have complete control over their money.  No longer needing any 3rd party to have access to their money.  But, a larger percentage of us would want to do it to make a lot of money. The crypto industry is arguably the most volatile financial market out there.  This also means that if you were to take your salary in crypto, and "time" the market correctly. That you would be able to multiply your earnings significantly.  For example, let's say that you were earning $40,000 per year from your salary.  In this situation, you decided to get paid in cash, resulting in that salary never increasing.  But, if you were to get paid in crypto and it happened during the bull market, with your coins going up in value by 10x.  That would result in your original $40k salary now being $400k.  In terms of crypto bull markets, a rise in price by 10x is fairly conservative. Even Bitcoin went up by nearly 20x last cycle.  If you were to compound these earnings even further by staking, lending out crypto, or participating in crypto.  They could increase your portfolio's value rapidly.

What this all means is that even someone who is working a job that doesn't give them much of a future financially, could completely turn their life around and quickly become rich.  It is enough to make us all begin dreaming about the possibilities.

But, with great volatility comes great risk.

If you were to take your salary in Bitcoin from the bottom of the last cycle in 2019 to the peak in 2021.  Your earrings would have increased by more than 20x.  However, since then the market has been on a constant downward trend.  If you were to take your salary in Bitcoin from its all-time high of $69k to its current price of around $20k.  That would have resulted in your earnings dropping by nearly 72%.  Even higher if you had been saving in other altcoins.  This could have catastrophic consequences in your life if you didn't have enough savings to compensate for the difficult times.  Your monthly expenses would be much harder to pay.  You may no longer be able to afford your house or car payments.  There is a chance that you could lose everything.  This is the type of risk that everyone needs to consider before they would ever think about going all-in on crypto.  And it should be something that makes most people realize that they shouldn't choose this type of lifestyle.  At least, not yet. 

These market fluctuations will have huge effects on your life.  Essentially becoming like a bear.  Hibernating over the winter and hoping to wake up and survive when spring comes.  If we chose to live only on crypto, things would be difficult during the bear market, and we would all just hope to survive until the market recovers.  While the market is down, we would need to drastically cut back on our lifestyle.  Living as frugally as possible.  Perhaps saving more, as it would be a chance to take advantage of lower prices.  As the market recovers and our savings balloons up in value.  This would be a time that could finally open our lifestyle up a little.  Begin to go on trips, and perhaps make the large purchases that we had been waiting to do.

FRUGAL Life

One of my favorite things that would happen as a result of having all of our money in crypto is that we would most likely live a more frugal life.  Not in the sense of saving during bear markets and spending during bull markets.  Instead, there is a chance that we would always be more frugal about our spending.  I don't know how you feel, but I'm the type of person that would probably have a difficult time giving up or selling my precious Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other crypto.  The reason for this is that I know how much price appreciation potential these assets have in the future.  For example, if I went to Starbucks today and used $5.00 worth of my crypto to buy a coffee.  Even today that would be like pulling teeth for me.  But, there is a very real possibility that this $5.00 in crypto could be worth more than $500 in the future.  Suddenly that coffee has become very expensive.  If you go all-in on crypto, you will likely be thinking about all of your purchases in this manner.  You'll begin to buy only what you really need, and cut out most of the wasteful purchases in your life.  Something that we could probably be doing much better.

Using / Spending Your Money

Just a few years ago, it might have actually been impossible to live a crypto-only life.  Yes, you could buy and save in crypto.  But, it would have been very hard to find places where it was accepted.  Meaning that you wouldn't be able to buy anything with it.  That is no longer the case. While admittedly there are still few shops that "accept crypto." The fact is that you still use your crypto even when they don't accept it upfront.  There are several crypto debit cards now where you can use your crypto to buy anything.  For example, Coinbase offers its own debit card that even offers crypto-back rewards.  When you make a purchase, the card instantly sells off that amount of crypto in your account and then gives the merchant the cash.  Meaning that you could use this card anywhere that accepts Visa debit cards.  There are also other options as well.  Such as the Fold app, where you can use your crypto to buy gift cards from the biggest retailers around.  There are even a few places that accept crypto natively, such as Travala.

It goes even deeper than that now.  During the 2022 Bitcoin Conference, Jack Mallers gave a keynote presentation showing new adoption for the Bitcoin Lightning network.  He announced that Strike had partnered with 3 of the largest PoS payment providers in the world, to allow payments through Bitcoin. Shopify, NCR, and Blackhawk.  While this wasn't as sexy of a news story as a huge company like Apple, or a new country adopting Bitcoin as legal tender.  In my opinion, it did come close and its true importance will be revealed later.  While these are only 3 payment providers, they are so prominent that it is likely that you can find a store near you that accepts Bitcoin payments through this partnership.  Here is a list of just some of the merchants where you can now pay with Bitcoin Lightning.

The key point is this.  If you want to live a crypto-only life, you now have the ability to do so. Whether your employer wants to pay you in crypto or not, or whether retailers accept crypto natively or not. You can make the decision for yourself.  There are both benefits and drawbacks to this life.  In some ways, it will be much more convenient.  Always having access and control of your money.  Having the potential for the value of your savings to skyrocket to a point where you might be able to retire. It also will change the way you think about spending and saving.  But, there are drawbacks as well. The first was that often the market collapses and could make life very difficult for you.  Also, in most countries taxes are required each time you use crypto to make purchases.  This would make paying your taxes incredibly complicated.  And then there other things such as sending money to those who don't use crypto would become challenging as well.   In crypto, there has always been the idea that you should never invest more than you are willing to lose.  By living a crypto-only life, that would make life much more stressful in this regard.

As for me, going all-in on crypto has been an idea that has intrigued me for years.  With me moving to various places around the world, the convenience of it does appeal to me.  There is no denying that become much easier to live this type of lifestyle in recent years as well.  For the time being, there is just too much risk for it to be feasible.  Part of the reason why I have no problem surviving the Bitcoin bear markets is the fact that I still have money outside of crypto.  If I didn't, I would be much more worried about the current market situation.  The crypto market is still incredibly young.  There will be a time when we all decide to go all-in on crypto.  I believe it will be sooner than many of us expect, but just not yet.

How about you? Would you be interested in going all in and living only on crypto?

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As always, thank you for reading!