Friday Finance 4/28/2023: Hitting 50K and Meeting with the Police
50K HP!
I did it! After five years on this blockchain, I finally hit 50K Hive powered up the other day. This specific goal is one I have been working on for at least a year now. It's a pretty amazing feat when you consider the fact that I have never powered down.
Sure, there was that brief month or two where I got distracted by HBD and started throwing a lot of my earnings into the savings account, but besides that, my sole focus has been growth.
I remember my early days on "that other chain", I was scraping for pennies with my posts and I even bought some of the token back then. Sad thing is, that was back when it was worth several dollars. Looking back now, it probably wasn't the smartest move, but it still gave me a jump start to get to where I am today.
Besides that small investment at the beginning and the ensuing purchases when that chain shut down, everything I have on Hive has been earned through posting, commenting, and curating. I am really proud of that.
I now plan on looking ahead to my next goal of having 100K HIVE powered up. In case there was any doubt after five years that I am here for the long haul...
It is time again for another Finance Friday/Friday Finance. This is a series I started where I talk about random bits of financial stuff that I have seen, gathered, or experienced during the week. I hope as a reader you find it informational, entertaining, or both. I also hope it can generate some good discussion and edify the Leo community.
Did I mention Cops?
So a funny thing happened the other day. Several months ago at the school district where I am the Director of Technology, we had a student bring a loaded gun into one of our buildings. It was never used, but it was obviously a big deal. I had to work with the state police detectives to pull video footage of the student through the day so they could use it for the investigation.
While the detective was in my office, he noticed I had a crypto market site open on one of my screens and we started talking about crypto currency. As an enthusiast, I was throwing stuff at him right and left that I know was well over his head.
I think we have all been in a situation where we are excited about something and we just start spewing out so much information it can be overwhelming.
Anyway, he went on his way, I went on mine... end of story. Okay, maybe not quite.
Fast forward to last week when we had another alleged threat at the same school. I suddenly get a call from this detective again. He asks me to call him back, so I just figure he needs more footage for the old issue or maybe this new one that just happened.
I call him back and it turns out he is working a case where a woman's crypto currency was "stolen" and he wants to come up with his partner and pick my brain about the case. I told him I would be happy to talk, but I couldn't promise I would have all the answers for him.
My first thought is "how did little old me suddenly become an expert in crypto currency". I think you all know nothing could be further from the truth. As someone in the BRO Discord mentioned though, to them I am an expert. That's an interesting thought right?
Anyway, long story short, he comes in with his partner and it turns out this woman inherited $10K from a relative that died. She put in in Coinbase and bought BTC. This guy (no clue how or where she met him) offered to manage her crypto for her and help it grow.
She kept sending him portions of the money and he kept showing her charts over the past year or two of how much it was growing. As soon as it hit the $1 million mark (according to his charts) she said she wanted out. As the police said, "that's when suddenly the money was gone".
I pointed out to them that actually it was gone the minute she moved it out of her Coinbase wallet to theirs, but that was kind of besides the point.
We had a long conversation about the use, need, and legitimacy of Coinbase. I also threw a bunch of other information at them. The lead detective mentioned at one point that I missed my calling and I should be teaching about crypto. I don't know about that, but it was fun know I was helping out.
I tried to use real world examples that would help them understand what happened to the lady. Basically, it came down to the fact that this is a scam that has been happening for years, whether it is cash, gift cards, stocks, or crypto.
Same crime, just different mediums and that doesn't make crypto inherently bad.
Sadly, as you would expect, the ladies funds are gone. I explained how you could see the transactions on the blockchain, but it would take someone with a lot more brains and patience than me to actually track it all back to a single person. If they can even get that far at all.
I apologize, this got a little wordy, but it was a cool story that I wanted to share. Somehow, I have a feeling this might not be the last time I hear from them about crypto related cases.
Polygon
When I see news stories about Polygon, I always have to do a double take. I never know if they are talking about the Blockchain or the Software Studio. When I saw a headline the other day about Google Cloud supporting Polygon, I knew I had to read up a little more to see which one it was.
Turns out, it was in fact about the Polygon Blockchain. There has been a lot of hype around Polygon lately. NFT projects are moving over there due to the cheaper gas fees. We have also seen a lot of other projects make the shift.
The blockchain has been spotty at best for me, but I have a feeling in time and with all the investment that is happening there, it should get better. Google specifically is partnering with them to "simplify the deployment and management of nodes and to increase the adoption of the ecosystem".
Additionally, "Google Cloud's Blockchain Node Engine will support Polygon".
We have seen big names throw around collaborations with blockchains in the past and we all know they have amounted to pretty much nothing. Hopefully this time it will be different. The engine already supports ETH, but maybe this new announcement will be the catalyst that catapults Polygon/MATIC to mass adoption.
Then again, it might just be another in a long list of mundane headlines.
What do you think?
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