This is my second post mixing stoicism and bitcoin, since I'm practicing and found very insteresting stuff to share.
Week 2: Clear your mind
The other day, someone asked if I knew anything about the new project OpenAI ERC-20; The only thing I was informed is that OpenAI released the ChatGPT, that's it. He said they released a token where you can buy some kind of share and enforce the project.
I looked up and turned it out that is a Telegram's project where the developer use the API and try to tokenize his project. I replied with what I found and then asked:
/ should I buy it?
/ You don't need to -I said- you can use freely or until expires without the need of buying unnecesary tokens
/ But what if this goes up and we lose it?
What we was seeking is the main strategy of all shitcoinery: pump and dump. Buy stuff, take advantage of the moment and sell it. I'm not against any practice of this kind, I don't care what people do with their money but when they ask me, my answer will be almost the same: nop. I learned something last week and is important to stay focused in our main goal. You need a purpose and that purpose should be your principal guide in your mind. So, you need to have some things to keep clear what you want to accomplish.
Choice
Everyone have paths. My main choice is bitcoin and that's something I chose after years of studies. Think right what you want:
- Do you really want hard money, auditable transparent and with accountability,
- you just want trade
- You want some web3 log-in technology or maybe,
- you are now, at this moment, just navigating without really understand what is your main choice?
Look at me, chill my friend. You're early, no FOMO, no FUD, no bullshit. Start today by asking the main question: what do you want? Maybe you find bitcoin too volatile, that's ok too...but make a choice, don't run of it.
Refusal
Just...say no1. I mean, come on, we don't have time for bullshit projects. Yes, others projects outside bitcoin tends to have several options to grow the money, yield farming, huge APYs, locked values, 4-40% of return and all kind of emotional background with the final purpose: to quit your money and give it to them, strafalarious VCs scammers that with the tale of being crypto, they will play your mind with more bully-bully buzzwords until they drain all your wealth.
But you're smart, you're focused, you're stacking sats and you learned from previous events from these people, their main goal is not to build something, is to sell their tokens and then walk away. You're not part of this, say no.
Yearning
The most hypocrite thing I always hear when I talk about bitcoin and we say no to their scamming projects is we're all here to make money. Makes me physically ill when they put me in the same bag because this is not true and I can tell you why. When you understand the purpose of bitcoin, you're not in this world to make money because you already made money by buying satoshis. What these people are trying to saying is we're all here to convert tokens into fiat money and that's fine but in my opinion, that is just stupid, you have bitcoin, you have a fine and hard money, why in the world would you go back again and buy something centralized, devaluated and with censorship included?
Please, don't fall, you know it's not true. You buy bitcoins because you have better money, don't give up just because some parasytes told you to do so.
Preparation
You're studying bitcoin and currently, you're falling the rabbit hole. You realize there's some much to do in every aspect of our life: economy, finance literacy, programming, build, analyze, debate, people are trying to do a better place, it's your turn: are you ready? if not, that's on you. Prepare for what is coming, trust your plan. Don't have a plan? Prepare your mind, make a choice, trust yourself and your skills. Don't have any? Today is a good day to build one.
Being prepared is not just read the news, is being physically and mentally ready for what's next. Make exercise, eat meat, control your health, draw a line and start.
Purpose
It took me nine years to realize the value of bitcoin and four years to realize what I was looking for with my bitcoins. Today I can tell you that my plan is to save money with bitcoins. Not trade, not invest, saving. I talked about my call in a previous post at Stacker News and my take for save, not invest was:
(...)[the investors] with all the software equipment and mathematical knowledge, can't beat inflation. But if you noticed in the last few lines, we are talking about investing as a job because, in fact, investing is a job. You, in your profession, today, are obliged to invest (extra work) to ensure that money does not lose against inflation, but you can no longer do anything to save because saving itself is putting out the fire with Coal.
The only hard money that can face inflation for the past decade was bitcoin. When I understood this, it became clear that my place in this world was not behind a 4-screen laptop looking for a signal to put limit orders and stuff like that2, my main goal was the simple but best plan -as for me- in the entire ecosystem: save with bitcoins.
Choose your principle, choose your priorities. Mine was saving, yours, maybe, is to trade or exchange. That's fine but you now what is worse than one principle? Not have one.
Assent
Sir, please ask this simple question:
- Do you really know what is in your control?
For instance, I now (try my best to) control my body, my mind and my actions. I exercise at least 3 times per week, I try to diminish alcohol, quit smoking, try to be a good student, a fine teacher, a parent, a friend. I'm also learning and sharing about bitcoin with people I care and have interests, I take all my sats outside exchanges, learn about pubkeys, coinjoin, what's the best way to stack sats; all these activities, I can control it. I can't do shit about CZ, volcano bonds3, Ukraine, Russia...if you're a person of power, maybe you're reading this and can do something, that's cool but as for me, writer, can't. I accept this and focus on what I can and will improve. Embrace the unknown and be ready to cofront it.
That's it for this second week.
Clear your mind, eat well, stack sats and stay humble sir.
Footnotes
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Disclaimer: I used to have some ETHs and layer 2 projects. I know this for real experience ↩
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I'm not against trading nor any other financial exercises, please don't get me wrong. I used to trade, went well but it's a journey that I didn't want to, it wasn't my purpose. ↩
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I think volcano bond are a form of fraud but it's just me. ↩