How Crypto Changed My Life

You know that we are probably in a bear market when my articles begin to be less about the current Bitcoin, Ethereum and crypto markets. The prices that they could go to, and what is happening in the macro world as well. Instead moving towards topics more so about reflections of my experiences in this market, striving to become better, and also building for the future.  That is exactly what I will be talking about today.  While I'm as optimistic as ever about the future of Bitcoin.  The reality is that the market right now is in the gutter, and while prices could begin to recover.  There is just as good, or maybe even a higher chance that prices will drop further.  This is the time where all of the building happens.  Bear markets are also the times when portfolios are built that can change people's lives forever.  That is exactly what I will be talking about today.  How crypto changed my life, and how it could change yours as well. Not only in a financial way, but several other factors as well.

So grab a coffee. Find a comfy seat and let's dive into this deeper.

1. Changed My Life Financially 

We might as well get the most obvious answer out of the way first.  Being invested into Bitcoin, Ethereum and many other cryptocurrencies over the last several years has changed my life financially. I have touched on this topic a bit throughout different blog posts in the past, but will do so in more depth here.  Before investing into crypto, my financial situation looked quite bleak.  I had just recently graduated from university and had high student loan debt.  Poor spending habits and some bad luck with family emergencies would compound that debt even further.  I was quickly getting overwhelmed and had thought that not only would retirement never been an option for me. But just getting ahead and not living paycheck to paycheck would be difficult as well. And then I found Bitcoin.  Back then Bitcoin was incredibly cheap. I began investing a little by little with what small extra cash I had.  It wasn't much, but it was a start.  I continued doing so without seeing much luck.  In fact, I think my portfolio actually decreased in value, but I didn't give up.  Then suddenly, the Bitcoin went parabolic.  My portfolio that was initially very small, had grown into something sizable.  The same would happen with Ethereum and other coins as well. It was more money than I ever thought that I would have.  While the money was great; the best thing that crypto gave me was hope.  Anything was possible now.

2. Sending Money Overseas

Maybe some of you know that I don't live in the same country that I was born and raised in.  I grew up in the USA, but am living in Japan currently.  Although I'm thinking about moving again soon.  Actually, living in a different country is one of the main reasons that I initially got into Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.  Each month, I was always needing to send money back home to the USA to make student loan payments, credit card payments and the list goes on.  Remitting money to different countries is not only expensive and slow, but a hassle as well.  If you remit through Western Union, there are high fees, and you also need someone to pick up the funds for you.  I hated needing to always ask family members for help almost as much as I hated the high fees Western Union charged.  Other services were available such remitting via banks or apps like TransferWise.  But they both were quite expensive and also very slow.  This is what made Bitcoin so appealing to me in the beginning. I could quickly send money or cash out in the USA much faster and also much cheaper.  It was life-changing for me.  As the years went on, I stopped sending Bitcoin to do this. I fell too deep down the Bitcoin rabbit hole and couldn't part with any of my BTC.  I would then use Litecoin, stable coins, or anything to get the job done cheaply.  Crypto made my world much smaller and much more convenient.  

3. Passive Income

Being able to earn a decent passive income from crypto changed everything for me.  This could have been included with #1, but I decided that it was important enough to have its own section.  As I mentioned above; when I first got into crypto, I had very little extra money.  This resulted in me finding any way possible to make money with my crypto.  While it might sound like a mistake in hindsight when considering the recent lending market chaos. I found 3rd party crypto lending services that would pay me crypto to lend there. That is when everything changed for me.  The results started out very small.  A few cents interest here and there.  I would continue to accumulate and prices would also continue to rise.  Shortly after that interest would be a few dollars per month.  This was really exciting for me.  And so I would accumulate even harder, and luckily prices would continue to go up as well. Soon, my interest earned would be several hundreds of dollars per month.  It had become something substantial.  The circle would continue to repeat and build.  Until I began hearing about the lending market FUD, and would take most of my crypto off of these services, and put them into cold storage.  I am lucky that I was able to escape the summer lending meltdowns unscathed.  Earning a passive income with crypto changed my life forever.

4. Learning How To Invest

While the financial gains with crypto can be exciting and life-changing.  I would argue that the investing skills and patience that Bitcoin taught me would potentially be the most valuable takeaway for me.  There are stories of people winning the lottery and receiving hundreds of millions of dollars. Fast-forward a handful of years later, and most of those lottery winners have already spent all of their money.  The reason for this is that they didn't know how to properly save, budget, invest and the list goes on.  Even if the prices in the crypto market would all go to zero tomorrow. Many of us would probably still be able to still be successful in the future.  Because of the skills that we learned in this market.  Things such as budgeting your finances, constantly investing, dollar-cost-averaging, taking advantage of price dips, researching the market, building a passive income and the list goes on. The unfortunate thing is that most people in the world don't know how to do those things, or don't have any interest in doing it.  Instead of saving or investing, they would much rather buy that new tech gadget, buy new clothes or even buy that new car.

5. New Friends and Opportunities 

Finally, the last way that crypto has changed my life is the new friends I've made along the way and also the opportunities that I have received.  We often hear the famous phrase, it's not the end point that matter, but the journey along the way.  I try to always remember that.  While I'm just as excited as anyone for Bitcoin to eventually reach a price of $1 million per coin, for Ethereum to reach $30k per coin.  The truth is that no one knows when that will happen.  If we have our sole focus on that end result only, we won't be able to journey to get there.  The world is changing rapidly, and I believe we are in the midst of a crypto revolution.  We are lucky to be alive and witnessing this historic event, and I want to fully enjoy it. Throughout the years I have become more active in this space with my crypto blogging, and also being involved on crypto reddit and other places.  I've had many great interactions and have made many friends in the space. I've also been able to freelance with some of the biggest companies in the crypto space.  It makes me even more excited for what the future may hold, and what we all may experience next.

There you have it.  These are the 5 largest ways in how crypto has changed my life.  While there are definitely other factors that didn't make the list, or just forgot about. The fact is that I'm sure for those of you who are reading this article, there are most likely several ways in how crypto has changed your life as well.  While I'm sure that for most people, they have all been positive changes. But, there could have been negative lessons learned as well.  Especially for those who have lost money being liquidated when trading with leverage, or having their crypto frozen on 3rd party lending services. 

So how about you? How has crypto changed your life?

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As always, thank you for reading!