I postulate that the consensus is unanimous: Blockchain technology will change the world and Bitcoin is here to stay. So if you are not on the horse yet I would strongly suggest you jump on it as quickly as you can. Speaking of horses, a tweet by Peter Schiff, a renowned American stock broker, financial commentator, as well as a self-confessed Bitcoin hater comes to mind. After the infamous Bitcoin drop of 36% in May 2021 Peter had this to say.
My rebuttal is simple — just look at the long term price chart! Touché! Now I am not a trader nor do I really look at the prices all too seriously. If you zoom out, there is only one way this financial glacier is going. (Metaphorically incorrect I guess as glaciers go down. I was going for the unstoppable part.) Suffice to know is that crypto assets tend to be highly volatile so best strategy is to hold and dollar cost average into it. You cannot go wrong with that!
Granted, many people are more conservative and as such feel reluctant to invest their hard earned cash into some Internet money. Not necessarily the greatest choice given the debasement of fiat currencies around the world but fair enough. If you are not sure what I mean with that I strongly suggest you have a look at Raoul Pal’s report on The Exponential Age.
Equally, if you more of a bookworm type then I would suggest reading Andy Edstorm’s book Why Buy Bitcoin. His summary on the monetary side of things is super easy to understand.
At this point I wanted to share some of my insights that I have made recently from reading and listening from experts in the crypto industry.
Let’s start with some books. I have only discovered the pleasures of reading a couple of years ago. More recently, I have purchased a Kindle. What a convenient delight. I live in South Korea and getting books delivered takes ages so downloading them instantly definitely saves a lot of time.
So this month I have attempted to read Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas M. Antonopoulos.
Warning: Only purchase if you are a programmer or like reading dictionaries! Needless to say I didn’t go far! It is easily downloadable from the Internet so feel free to have a sneak peek.
I did munch into Jeff Booth’s book The Price of Tomorrow on Deflation. His book is a warning about two dangerous trends. The first is that technology and price deflation will cause lasting widespread unemployment. The second is that the global economy is underpinned by an unstable mountain of debt. I have found this interview to be useful in understanding his concepts:
On the YouTube front I have enjoyed some fantastic interviews that have confirmed and challenged by believes about this industry. Peter McCormack’s ‘What Bitcoin Did’ channel posted some excellent discussions. Noteworthy are Peter’s episode on Bitcoin vs Gold #2 with Peter Schiff & Greg Foss.
I have already mentioned Peter’s tweet. Frankly speaking I don’t think he really believes half of the things that he tweets out about Bitcoin. (I bet you he is secretly amassing a Bitcoin stack himself). Be that as it may, discussions with naysayers are immensely important to avoid confirmation bias. I believe we should be constantly scanning the horizon for counterarguments. In this particular case I do not believe that his arguments have merit but it is still important to hear them.
Another interview that I enjoyed in the realm of questioning your assumptions is Peter’s talk to Allen Farrington, Crypto Cobain, Udi Wertheimer, and Alex Gladstein. They discuss tokens and securities, scalability vs decentralisation, nation-state resistance, and building on Bitcoin.
I have loads of other video suggestions but let’s wrap this up. In conclusion, my recent crypto lernings are as follows:
#1. Don’t let the price bother you! Up, down, sideways, whaterver. If you zoom out the price only goes up. Just BUY and HOLD! Don’t TRADE either unless you know what you are doing. 99% of people do not!
#2. Reading books about this space is a great way to educate yourself. (Not all books are must be read! I hate starting a book without finishing it but — yeah nah bro — I do not want to Master Bitcoin, pun intended).
#3. It is always important to scan the horizon to counterarguments to avoid confirmation bias.
