Hello from Japan + Self Intro

*American born and raised in Japan
*Translator + professional poker player
*Transitioning to crypto hodling

Wondering why I'm wearing a mask? Well, in Japan it's dope to wear masks. As you can see, I am fucking dope.

(Actually, my lips have been getting really dry these days and I don't have any lip balm, so I'm testing it as a moisture retainer.)

Heard about Bitcoin 4 years ago, actually started studying its underlying technology 3 months ago, and am now putting my money that was uselessly sitting in a bank to work. Am also studying investing as it is a field that I've never put any thought into.

It's ridiculous how much there is to learn in this space, and yet it's incredibly exciting.

Initially put some money in BTC, saw it go up some, put some more in BTC, saw it go up again, put a bunch in Cardano, saw it quadruple, and finally put a bunch more in a few other cryptos. Today was the first day I saw significant drops in value all across the board in my portfolio.

In poker, I had a clear game plan so upswings/downswings didn't affect me as much. In crypto, I'm still learning every day so my strategy is continually being adjusted. Poker has prepared me somewhat for variance and hodling still feels easy at this stage, but throughout this ride I've witnessed psychological biases creep up in me, and that's been a bit scary. Awareness of the propensity of humans to certain kinds of systematic error doesn't necessarily mean avoidance of them.

Most importantly, though, I love where blockchain (and more recently, DAG) technology is taking us. Decentralization, privacy, efficiency, removal of intermediaries, proper incentive structures. The potential applications never cease to amaze me, and Steemit is one such application.

Thanks for reading, and looking forward to evolving with this community :)