Why Asking Me Which Token to Buy Is a Mistake

Many people assume because I’ve owned Bitcoin since January 2013 that I’m the right person to ask about cryptocurrency trading advice.

I’m not.

Why? Becuase I’m too emotionally connected to the concept of human freedom and liberation from the Ponzi scheme that is the fiat fractional reserve central banking cartel partnership with governments around the world. I often say “violent governments” but to me that’s redundant as a nation state government is a monopoly on the use of force in a geographic region and the 260 million deaths by government highlighted by the research leading to the term democide speaks for itself.

But I digress.

I’m not a good trader. Trading requires emotionless dedication and commitment to learned patterns, “gut feelings”, and cold calculation. To be good, it takes a bit of ruthlessness. The pain of loss aversion can not exist there. If you made a bad trade, you own it and learn. Stop losses hit? Suck it up and try again. Margin called on your short? Learn from it and grow. Trading effectively requires intense focus. You may spend hours charting things out to discover there’s no trade to be made. You may make one trade decision all month that makes or breaks your year. The stress of that can not phase you.

Speculation is your fuel, not utility value.

I’ve been building things with technology since 1996 and view it as a means to improve human lives. I think about fundamentals and how society can be reimagined to be more voluntary with self-sovereign control of value. Peer-to-peer digital cash with almost instant and almost free transactions for the unbanked is what drew me in, especially after building a shopping cart company for ten years and seeing how the acquirer, payment gateway, merchant account, and bank system works in the credit card racket. The crypto market spoke and went with “store of value” instead.

I bought my first bitcoin at $20 each. I spent $50 and got myself 2.5 BTC. I bought a little more here and there. When it crashed from ~$120 to ~$50, I bought more. ~$1,200 to ~$250, I held all the way down. Sold a big chunk around ~$800 to ~$900 to pay off the house before watching it top out near ~$20,000. No regrets. I didn’t sell what I had left then either and watched it go to ~$3,300. When we topped out above ~$60,000, you guessed it, I didn’t sell.

In 2013 I read a LOT about bitcoin and one post by Rick Falkvinge in particular argued for a future price not of $50 to $100 (it was $40 at the time), but $100,000 to $1,000,000 (you can still find the post online today if you want to read it). I knew he was right. He bought at $3 and told the world it would 1,000x in 5-7 years. When BTC hit $3k the first time, people started to understand.

I’m not a good trader because I want to control my own keys. I have friends that lost over 10 BTC on MtGox. Not your keys, not your coins. I’m not a good trader becuase I’m not going to leverage a short position and root for the future chance of a non-violent global consensus to go down in perceived value and purchasing power in order to increase my personal share. I don’t know how to catch a falling knife, and I don’t know how to buy back in much higher than I sold if I made a mistake, becuase to me, selling a chance at a peaceful future is already a mistake at most any price.

An ocean is a large collection of drops of water. Every individual contributes to the emergent property of price flow. The whales push us around becuase we have weak hands. They leverage short the market, dump on us, and buy back everything we sell at much cheaper prices. To me, holding through a bear market (or even a bull market correction) is a badge of honor. I didn’t play the game. I patiently waited for the next round, stacking sats and other undervalued utility tokens in anticipation of the next round where I can look at my fiat valuations and reassure myself again, I’m playing the right long-term game. I’ve been through multiple bear markets and my reason for being in crypto has not changed.

Go make your money. Get your women (or men, if that’s your thing), your fast cars, your penthouses, and your bank accounts which make you feel secure. Do your thing, and I won’t judge or condemn you. I respect the traders and the important liquidity, price discovery, and market signaling they provide. I will suggest ensuring you’ve defined success before you chase it. Make sure the end result will bring you the peace, joy, fulfillment, and lifestyle you actually want. Get to know people who live that way and make sure it’s what you want.

For me, I’m in it for freedom. I’m here as a revolutionary who doesn’t fight with guns or march around with signs. I recognize the true war is an economic one becuase money and financial value are ideas. They are non-physical or spiritual. It may appear on paper that I lose some battles as the price corrects, but that’s just short-term thinking.

At times I’m a little envious of these traders I respect. A part of me thinks a few dedicated months and years of work, and I too could get good at this game. But that’s not my definition of success, glued to a screen and timing the markets, essentially enslaved to the great opportunities and the actions and timing they require. I’m a builder who is thinking about the future.

No, I don’t know which token you should buy to maximize your returns. I’m thinking about what tools are needed to maximize freedom and make all of this easier and more accessible. Builders create the structure the value stories rely on. There’s a lot more building to be done to make this industry more professional and ready for the market beyond innovators into early adopters and beyond.

To the traders and builders alike, I salute you. You may not even realize you’re part of a revolution, but I thank you for your service either way. Just by being on the field, you are adding to the inevitability.

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