From beginning :-)
My first contact with cryptocurrencies, in particular Bitcoin, was in 2013. At the time I tried to compile material about it (in pt_BR, sorry), since, in 2013, the Brazilian cryptocurrency market was incipient and unfriendly (outside nerds/geeks places) ...
At that time I installed the recommended desktop wallet (on my work notebook) and it downloaded the entire Bitcoin blockchain ! I realize that I didn't need to be a genius to figure out that soon I would buy a dedicated storage device just for the blockchain... beyond all the security issues I needed to manage.
There were many fawcets (addresses that gave you some satochis for free or in exchange for small tasks) and it was almost an adventure to operate with bitcoins (I don't remember if there were Brazilian exchanges yet)... but I opened an account in two international exchanges ( Coinbase ) and ( Blockchain.com ).
I experimented a bit with bitcoin, but due to zero usability (at the time) and my lack of time to study and understand the crypto world I abandoned my first experience...
During these days, digging through my backups from that time, I found in my coinbase count some BTC, BCH and BCHA (probably due to bitcoin forks that tripled the coins for BTC holders at that time - that narrative that bitcoin is deflationary doesn't resist to the facts ;-)
COVID-19 and time available for study
With the arrival of the covid-19 global health crisis, I was forced to work remotely and, as a side effect, I had time to study things that I was interested in and that were "frozen" on my huge todo list called: things to do before "leave this planet" :-)
So I started revisiting the Brazilian crypto scene again... I read several portals, joined several Telegram groups, watched some lives (remember, time was my friend now! - and, as they say, there are evils that come for good...) and I decided again to give cryptocurrencies a chance and also improve my financial planning skills...
As everyone may know, the crypto scene has changed a lot from 2013 to 2020! Thousands of new cryptocurrencies (unbacked money printing is not exclusive to bad central banks - sorry Ancaps !),a lots of scams , more sophisticated scams , and lots of bullshit to filter! But now I had time and motivation :-)
Personal vision of world, economic fundamentals and building a portfolio
For not to extend text so much [are you still here yet? Thanks :-)] after a lot of reading/studying/reflecting on cryptocurrencies I decided put my hands again in crypto, because as everyone should know, it takes a little practice to fully assimilate the new concepts.
Warning note: Something that works for me may fail miserably for other people! My choices reflect how I see the world and what I think about the issue of wealth production and distribution. Here are my assumptions:
As far as I could understand, the odds of getting rich with bets on shitcoins are statistically low !
I intend to generate wealth with my regular work and use part of my savings to invest (in a rational way) in cryptocurrencies for the medium and long term.
I want to help transition the economy from inflationary fiat currencies that only benefit the global financial system to a system where money is once again a social tool for inclusion, value exchange and a sensible reserve of value.
I choose cryptocurrencies that align with these assumptions.
Based on this assumptions, in 2021, I'm studying a bit of economic fundamentals [I confess I was surprised because I loved reading about economics :-)] and putting together my medium and long-term portfolio which, in a way, is linked to my personal plans for now 2, 5, 10 and (if the universe permitting) over 10 years!
I separated my portfolio of cryptocurrencies into only 4 categories (pt-BR):
Currencies for web 3.0 (Virtual Machines): ADA, ETH and BCH(via SmatBCH ) (yes, some currencies can be used in more than one category);
Dapp-optimized currencies: FIL ;
NFTs (0.5% or less of the Portfolio). I confess that I don't see value in NFTs , but I prefer to keep my mind open and have a minimum of these currencies in my portfolio.
Yes, I still have a few (very few indeed) BTCs, but I no longer make investments in this cryptocurrency. I take profits and use it to rebalance my portfolio :-)
closing the conversation
This is just my brief description of my timeline with cryptocurrencies. I don't bring any absolutes truths! And, with the evolution of the crypto market (and with what I'm learning) a lot things can change!
Have you ever stopped to think about your timeline with cryptocurrencies?
I am too in Noise: oigreslima