I'm Back

Hey guys, it's me, RulesForRebels, back after a long absence. Maybe I'm a fair weathered fan only comming back around after Bitcoin price is back on the rise. In fairness however I stuck around and persevered on here for a couple years, even after the platform continued to dissolve into shittiness I was sill here trying to be positive and keeping the content comming. At some point it just seemed like the whales only cared about enriching themselves, the creators of Steemit seemed to put it on the backburner and honestly nothing I could do was going to make any difference to this platform.

My History

I've somewhat tuned out of crytpo going back to like February or March of 2018. I'd initially been involved in crypto going back to probably late 2012 or early 2013. Was pretty heavily involved leading up to the 2017 bull market and hype. During that period it was especially exciting seeing some mainstream adoption catch on. I was going to 2-3 crypto meetups a week in Chicago, heavily involved on here and the forums.

Ouch 2018 Hurt

During the bull run friends and family told me to take some profits, obviously nobody can predict the markets and most of these people never believed in crypto or viewed it as legitimate from the start, but after seeing prices decline and crash I was kicking myself for not taking profits. I literally saw an amount of money that could have paid off my house dwindle down to an amount that couldn't even buy a late model Toyota Camry.

My Psychology During the 2017 Bull Run

During 2017 I saw my crypto holdings rise to an amount of money I'd never before had. Not millions and not never work again money, but enough money to pay off my house, or setup a nice retirement fund that by retirement time would have me set.

My psychology in regards to not cashing out was that while it was a large amount of money, it wasn't doing blow on a yaht with Instagram thots money. It would have changed my life for the better, but it wouldn't have been life changing money, I would have been middle class or upper middle class with a paid off house, but nothing super spectacular, no lambos...not that I even want or would buy one if I did have the money...but you get the point.

Losing it initially didn't really hurt that much

So around February of 2018 I was going on a trip to Cancun with my girlfriend, my parents, and my sister. I was a bit disheartened by the slide in prices and keeping up with r/cryptocurrency and CoinMarketcap was a bit depressing and distracting. I decided for a week at least I wasn't going to check prices, I wasn't going to keep up with news, I was just going to tune out.

Well obviously things continued to slide. I'd occasionally see prices and while I preferred not to do the math and see exactly where I was sitting, I knew to a pretty good degree of accuracy. I remember my business partner asking me if I was depressed or if it stung and honestly it didn't. I mean don't get me wrong it did, but I kind of looked at it as not real money since it was in crypto and not in my bank account. I allowed myself to deceive myself that you can't lose house money, well fuck yeah you can, house money is still your money. I also kind of figured scared money don't make money, if I was a pussy I never would have rode things up to the highs to even lose it in the first place.

It Stings in 2019

Looking back on things in 2019 it does sting a bit. I've had some life changes, I walked away from a business that allowed me to take home a six figure salary so I'm a big more appreciative of how hard I have to work for my money these days. I also realize I kind of got sucked into the hype and excitement of the 2017 Bull Run.

Looking back on it today I'm kinda like fuck dude, it would be nice to have a paid off house and no mortgage that would be an extra $1300 a month I don't have to pay, while I wouldn't be rich I wouldn't necessarily have to have a day job if I didn't really have housing costs, I could freelance a bit here and there, work on side hustles and blogging and Youtube.

I wound up going back to work. I actually have a job I really enjoy, basically a director level digital marketing job. Pay could be better but I essentially get to run 8 Shopify eCommerce stores doing a couple million a month in sales, it stings a bit doing it for someone else as opposed to myself like I was previously, but there's a lot of creative freedom adn I don't have to deal with any of the merchant processing or inventory headaches I did when I was running my own shops.

Am I a Fair Weathered Fan?

I know in the crypto community people talk trash about people who only care about the price, but honestly price drives engagement and community and excitement. Crypto is kind of a boring fucking space when prices aren't rising and people aren't making money. While I've been involved in crypto since the early days, unlike my man @brianphobos and others I don't really have the technical ability to move and shape the space so it's tough to get excited about the tech as much as someone who does have that background.

This recent surge in Bitcoin price has stirred my interest once again and it's fun talking with my dad who I got into crypto as well as friends about what's going on and prices. There's a sense of excitement and comradery around it. I also think when there's money to be made and when prices are on the rise there's more development, more companies getting involved, I just heard Western Union is experimenting with crypto, there's some other exciting stuff going on. This stuff wasn't happening when Bitcoin was at $3,000 so I do think prices bring acivity and excitement to the space on their own.

This next time around

This next time around, I say that somewhat anticipating another Bull Run, I'm not going to be greedy. I'm not going to cash out everthing, but I sure as fuck am going to take more profits along the way where as before I took out next to nothing.

That's another thing that kind of annoyed me about crypto back during 2017. This attitude that people who take money out and rebalance or diversify into other assets are weak hands or pussies or don't have as much right to be in the space. Quite frankly we should be treating Bitcoin and Crypto as we would any other real investment if we want it to have the legitimacy of other investments. If you find yourself up 3000% on crypto your kind of a fucking dumbass if you don't pull some profits and throw some into the stock market or real estate or an index fund, at least that's how I see it.

Catch Me Up? What Have I Missed?

So I logged on to Steemit the other day. I see Adsense running on the top of the screen, something many of us had been calling for for years. I see the interface is a bit different, you can't login with your main key anymore, lots of little changes.

Wondering if someone can bring me and others just tuning back in up to speed on some bulletpoints we've missed over the past year or so? With Steemit specificallly as well as crypto in general?

Anyhow guys, probably not going to devote the same amount of time I did in my hay day as there's other things I need to be spending my time on but I do hope to reconnect with many of you and be more active. I'm curious to start browsing around here and see which of my old friends are still around and active. I've checked in a couple times over the past few months or year or so and seen @robertandrew and @harleymechanix and many others around. Look forward to reconnecting with many of you.