#Bitcoin that is not self custodied is not bitcoin. It is effectively just more garbage Fiat by another name.
DCA.
Not give a shit about the Fiat price.
Exercise and appreciate my health.
Do something creative.
Go outside.
Eat a tasty home cooked meal.
Spend time with my spouse.
Learn something new/try to find something I’m wrong about.
Support open and uncensored human communication and exchange of ideas on #nostr.
I like coldcard and bitbox02.
I have a ledger as well, that will still make a decent “warm” or decoy wallet.
I don’t trust any single company as centralization (like closed source) of any kind is antithetical to #Bitcoin.
That’s great!
I wish you and your kids the best. I really do. They say having kids is a transformative experience after all.
But you are correct that my perspective is dark when it comes to the future. As a species we are very prone to over-estimating our happiness (evolution would certainly select for optimism) and reproduction is probably our most basic instinct. These two factors combined lead me to mistrust any “rational” reasons for having children (other than the selfish ones). I’ve taken care of too many sick/injured/dying babies/children born of parents with the best of intentions to believe in fairy tales anymore.
I’d plead with you to please protect your kids but sadly that’s sometimes just not possible. Humanity as a whole is the best example of survivorship bias there is.
Best of luck though, and sorry to be a downer. The good news is that my genes that made me this way won’t get passed down just like the many throughout history who have shared the same view. :)
Not caring about Fiat price is the inevitable result of understanding #Bitcoin.
Unlike land, #bitcoin has permissionless and borderless transfer, absence of annual taxation, portability, fungibility, and inability to confiscate if properly self custodied. It’s an absolute no brainer except for land you intend to use personally or in a business.
So this will be controversial, but here IMO are the most common traps laid before us in the modern age:
1. Using fiat money (instead of #bitcoin)
2. Believing in political dogma (hint: they’re all the same and none give a shit about you at all)
3. Believing that the longest life is the best life (sure some remain independent until 90+ but for most, life after 70 is pretty unpleasant)
4. Having children (puts both you and your child squarely under the thumb of your government and drastically restricts your ability to exercise personal freedoms)
5. Blindly following a religion (most religions are systems of control, nothing more)
6. Materialism (wasting what little resources you have on garbage because you think it will make your life better-hint: very few material possessions will improve your life and most will actually end up owning you)
7. Living in urban environments (living in close proximity to others encourages group think)
8. Bad relationships (we are taught nothing about the true nature of successful marriage and instead are filled with bullshit notions regarding what we are owed by our spouses-hint: happy people don’t spend as much so the goal is to keep you as unhappy and with as unrealistic expectations as possible)
9. Financial illiteracy (related to belief in fiat and materialism, but we are taught nothing about what things we should actually value and how to set ourselves up for independence)
All of the above lead us to be obedient little slaves who will blindly go on producing yield for our masters well into old age. Until we collectively abandon the mindset that leads us into these traps, humanity will remain doomed.
I’m happy for you but babies and children make me sad. I could never take such a risk with someone else’s life, especially in this world of debt and wage slavery.
Granted, #bitcoin does finally provide some hope.
Self sufficiency and creativity never go out of style.
Owning Bitcoin is more dangerous than owning zero.
More dangerous to the global elite that is.
Lot of nonsense on here still as the ecosystem develops.
Happy to trade ideas with you though until the space matures.
Good advice.
Fiat based wealth is an illusion however.
It’s only true as long as you follow the rules set by your rulers. Ie: do something they don’t like or fail to tithe with taxes, and they’ll take what you have away using men with guns.
#Bitcoin wealth is unconfiscatable and borderless. It’s what real wealth looks like.
I appreciate your frustration but you can’t prevent others from making mistakes.
Just live your truth, and set an example for people to follow. If it makes sense to them, they will figure it out in time.
The cool part is that real change doesn’t happen quickly. It does indeed take time.
So be suspicious when people jump on the #bitcoin bandwagon too quickly. This is a breathtakingly novel concept that should take several years to materialize.
Be glad if you’re already there.
Thanks for the reminder… :)
Don’t buy bitcoin if you are only hoping to have more Fiat someday.
Buy bitcoin to one day never have to deal with filthy Fiat again.
If you’re talking about fiat price, #Bitcoin doesn’t only go up. It swings wildly. Its Fiat price is heavily manipulated because fiat price is the only aspect of it that can be manipulated by the legacy financial system who has an infinite fiat money printer at their disposal. Fiat price is therefore meaningless.
Soon though, you won’t be able to trade Fiat for Bitcoin. I, and many others, already don’t accept it. If I own just one Bitcoin, then there only needs to be at most 21 million other people like me out of the 8 billion humans on earth for my plan to work.
If you want my Bitcoin, you’re going to have to provide me with a tangible good or service. I won’t trade for garbage disposable stuff either. It’s going to have to be a made well product that lasts a long time or be of high quality. If no such products or services exist, I’ll just continue to make do without them, but I’ll never trade my Bitcoin for fiat.
The end result of this is that Bitcoin ends up in the hands of people like me, who buy it religiously, every day in fact, despite meaningless changes in the Fiat price with any excess fiat that I earn.
People like me are admittedly zealots, and I truly believe I am at war with central bankers. I don’t buy Bitcoin to make more Fiat or get rich. I buy Bitcoin to break the current corrupt system and burn the money printer along with those who control it.
The coming Bitcoin economy will be very different from the one we know today and the incentives will be completely different.
Why bother with any of this you may ask? Well, we all have choices to make and only one life with which to make them. As long as I can wake up everyday in a comfortable bed, exercise my brain and my body in some fashion, and spend time outdoors or with the people that matter to me, I know I will be happy.
I see so many others struggle with life caught in the vicious cycle of materialism, debt, bad relationships, wage slavery, etc that I want to do something about it. #Bitcoin is the peaceful protest anyone can join, and unlike other forms of protest, I don’t need to burn down my city or assault my fellow plebs in law enforcement/the military to do it. Even more importantly though, a vote for Bitcoin is a vote that actually matters.
When you take the fruits of your labor out of the hands of the Fiat debt slavery cartel, you actually make a difference. On your own, the difference is small. But together with others like me, we break the wheel.
Happy hunting.
Shitcoins can claim many things. But they can’t claim scarcity.
If there can exist any coin other than #Bitcoin, then there is, by definition, an infinite number of coins.
This is why being first was everything. This is why Bitcoin will be the only truly scarce digital asset to ever exist.
If Shitcoin X can come along, there will always be shitcoin X+1 to follow suit.
There can only ever be one Bitcoin. So if it isn’t built on top of that base layer, it’ll always be just a steaming pile of shit(coin).
Sorry Vitalik. Sucks to be second place in this race.