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Why, amidst an economic crisis, am I looking so much into Bitcoin?
I tried to understand investments in the distant past. Those from the videos overflowing on YouTube. But I didn't feel confident in that. Nevertheless, I started studying one thing here, another there, bought books, thought about analysis in a more comprehensive way, considered getting investor certificates, and there was always something strange going on in my mind. A kind of discomfort.
A feeling that it wasn't my way of investing, but since all my closest friends were investing, I decided to follow the tide. Right off the bat, I found things easy; it was just a matter of making a small evaluation and waiting, or so they said.
Then, after so much reluctance to understand, I gave up. That's not for me. People talking about open markets, stock exchanges opening and closing, I felt like just another person in the crowd, nothing more.
And then I entered other investment pages, and as always, the algorithm showed me that everyone was getting rich with cryptocurrencies, and I couldn't miss out on this millionaire market (FOMO, making people feel like they're missing out on something). NFTs, tokenization of the economy, ICO, IFO, mining, metaverse, 20,000-dollar land, 2-million-dollar monkey, and so on.
I bought some tokens (which later lost value because they had no fundamentals), saw what a DAO was, and became excited. Hopeful, even. But I still had no positive results from all of that. Besides, I felt something strange in the air, like something biting my head.
I remembered that since 2013 I've heard about this thing called Bitcoin, which at the time cost, let me see here... In 2013, Bitcoin reached a value of $1,120, at that time I said I wouldn't buy it because it was too expensive and I couldn't afford it. Ah! I know what you're thinking. Yes. I can deal with that.
So I decided to "invest" in Bitcoin, of course along with other cryptos, MANA, CARDANO, BNB. (Because you have to diversify, they say)
But I also decided to read a little about Bitcoin. Curiosity led me to read an article, which led me to follow some Twitter accounts, and with the people on Bitcoin Twitter, I inevitably had to read more. And that thing biting my head became even fiercer. How can a digital asset be worth so much? How can these people here on Twitter claim that Bitcoin is the salvation?
There must be something more that I'm not seeing. It doesn't make sense.
And as time goes by, I start to see more and more sense in things. The first action I took at that time was to convert all the other cryptos into Bitcoin (of course, I had some losses, but it was better to secure it sooner than to lose more in the future). I left it on an exchange that claimed to be decentralized and forgot about it because they said you had to hold Bitcoin in something called a HODLER.
There I was, thinking I was ahead of my time, HODLER!!!
I have Bitcoin on an exchange that charges an arm and a leg for anything. And I forgot about it for a while, while the price of Bitcoin plummeted like an oil drill.
But still, there was something I wasn't understanding. But I let it go.
Until LUNA died!
I'm not talking about my cat, which coincidentally has the same name as the deceased token.
There, on that day, I understood, in one fell swoop: What a shitcoin was; why it's essential to be decentralized; and how Bitcoin can't go through that (in this case, bankruptcy).
And then my mind went into retrospect.
"Ah! Now I understand the truckers' protest in Canada!"
"Ah! Now I understand why they use Bitcoin in war-torn Ukraine!"
"Ah! Now I understand what it means to be your own bank!"
"Money separate from the state."
And now comes the interesting part. New questions emerged!
"How will I take possession of my satoshis?"
"If there are only 21 million Bitcoins, how can everyone use it?"
"Why do they call it digital gold?"
You know when a flood of questions comes into your mind, and you can't understand anything, and you just stand there, motionless? So, that's how I felt. I decided that I would take custody of my coins, learn more, and spread the word of Satoshi like a Jehovah's Witness!
But most people didn't listen or even try to learn. And I only found comfort and a place to talk about Bitcoin in the Bitcoin community on Twitter, Discord, and Element.
And here's something I have to point out: the price kept plummeting, and it didn't scare me like in the distant past. I had received something that neither profit nor loss could take away from me: I had received an idea. And you know, "ideas are bulletproof."
A fixed idea in my mind; a direction; a purpose; a cause. It became easier to understand what to expect for the future. It made more sense of the discomfort I felt before.
I still want to shout it out to everyone, but since this is the quietest revolution of all, I'm learning to hold back and speak to those who are willing to listen.
To answer the initial question: Why am I looking so much into Bitcoin during an economic crisis? Because I'm at the doorstep of the rabbit hole, and it has done more for me than any money.