The Unfortunate Focus on Money

In a session this morning, my client told a story of one of his friends, a wealthy man of the same age (nearing 60), who umms and ahhs about buying quite basic items, with the example given as a shirt. While he can easily afford to buy any short he pleases, he still thinks about the price of the shirt. My client thinks this is because he is cheap, but in my own experience, this only looks at the issue from one angle, the filter of money.

I am fortunate to work with a wide cross-section of people who come from and inhabit all kinds of positions in the employed economy, from near the bottom to the very top. Plus, I have friends that range across this spectrum too and this has given me a fair bit of insight or at least, opportunity to reflect on different perspectives of money.

When a rich person is perceived as cheap because they think over small purchases, I have found that is rarely the case, it is just that their own process is geared toward evaluating an item differently. When many people look at buying a shirt, they make their purchasing decision based on some personal habits, including price. But for many people, part of their buying process includes the feeling of getting a good deal, meaning that it has to provide value for money. This point isn't limited to poor people who can't afford to make a mistake, it spreads across the entire demographic - no matter personal financial positions.

For many people who have worked their way to being wealthy, this has been part of their decision making process this young and, being rich doesn't change that. It might seem cheap and unnecessary to outside observers, but it could be vital to the purchaser. Often, people are blinded by narrow aspects.

Moving away from money for a moment, another example would be a romantic partner. For me personally, looks do matter, but they are not the only thing that matters, and it isn't likely even top five, even though it might be the first thing noticeable from a distance. But to make a decision for a long term relationship, other factors are far more important like, personality, beliefs, attitude, independence, temperament and most importantly - their ability to put up with me, a smartass who can be stubborn AF. Looks mean little in contrast to other factors, but luckily, I was able to satisfy those points and still have a hot wife.

I know and have known many beautiful women, none of them were hot enough to marry based only on their looks. I don't think that person exists, though some people seem to make their "judgements" based on looks alone -if that is the only thing they can reference.

So, where am I going with this?

Well, in the cryptosphere, a lot of the participants seem to rate a project on its ability to make them profits on their investment, which is is very much like filtering for a partner based on their looks. Yes, it might be important and attractive, but it isn't enough to make a relationship sustainable. It is taking all of the complexity of what is a newly forming industry and narrowing it down into something that no longer is representative of the industry at all. Many do this in crypto investing, as they will buy into a "project" based on whether it will make them profits, not whether it is a project that will make a difference in the industry or, be sustainable.

In my opinion, this is the mentality of future fiat holders - they don't actually care about the future of industry, they just want to buy a better step on the fiat ladder. If they did care, they would be investing into projects that actually could have a positive effect on the industry. Most projects in crypto have zero value proposition other than their ability to generate profits for investors, which makes them well, Ponzis, as it is about attracting more wealth on top, to increase the wealth of those who bought in earlier. Eventually, it collapses, because those at the base will dump vast amounts of the token into the market, crashing the smaller amounts held by the latest buyers and requiring a massive cash injection to support it. Without actual reason to hold other than price, there will be no long-term support.

In regards to Hive for example, there are many, many people who owe their current wealth to Hive, even if they do not earn or hold HIVE. This platform is an application ecosystem that enables a very wide range of activities for earnings and provides a social framework that is leverageable to move across experiences, investments and through gateways in (and out) of many projects. In my (biased) opinion, Hive is one of the most valuable crypto projects in the world at this time, because of the way it is able to meld economy and social activity together, empower non-technical and unbanked users to generate value and provide a hub of overlapping communities that transverse many blockchains and generally, the ones that are more valuable to the future of the crypto industry.

This is the thing for most users who are not desperate for money to live their lives or just wanting to improve their own lifestyle - they are looking long and that means, price doesn't matter now. It really doesn't. Yes, it is nice to have a high evaluation and attract new users, but investors are something quite different than people who buy tokens in the hope for a price pump so they can dump - They aren't investors, they are gamblers.

But, most people do focus on the money, because most people don't feel they have enough, which means when they look at buying a shirt, the price matters to them, including overpaying for the shirt in order to signal to their peers that they have wealth. Someone who is wealthy, might not have that need, but if they still need to have "value for money" to buy, they will evaluate the cost in relation to what the product offers them.

What all of this means is, value comes in many forms, but individuals choose what is important to them. For many, looks are the thing that attract them the most in people at first, but for a long term partner, it doesn't matter that much. A person might like to have a fancy label embroidered on their shirt, but to someone else, that is meaningless and useless. Another would like to have a Mercedes SUV parked in their driveway, whilst their neighbor drives a Toyota and holds a stack of crypto instead. We all make our decisions, including on which parts we focus our attention when evaluating items, with our experience and personality dictating what triggers our purchasing process to buy, or skip buying.

One thing I have regularly noticed in the wealthy I know however is, price is not very high on their list - utility is. Reasons to use matter and if the only reason to invest into a project is in the hope for profits, that isn't much of a project, is it? But, I am not looking to sell crypto, I am looking to be part of the industry.

Price is a direct look at the value of a token, but it speaks nothing of the value behind that price. Most projects have nothing of substance, so they can only draw attention to their price as evidence of their value. It is smoke and mirrors, like a person who wears an expensive shirt and drives an expensive car, yet is struggling to pay their credit card debt.

Looks are deceiving. Price at this point in crypto, is a deception.

The future unfortunates, focus on money now.

Taraz [ Gen1: Hive ]