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I know. I'm retired thanks to crypto. I'm glad I eventually saw how HN was wrong and learned from my mistakes. It did cost me bit of time-opportunity, but ther

by 1996 6y ago

I know. I'm retired thanks to crypto. I'm glad I eventually saw how HN was wrong and learned from my mistakes. It did cost me bit of time-opportunity, but there's a point where you have "enough" and it's not worth chasing more money anymore.

seibelj 6y ago
I considered retiring but it’s too boring so I just keep working in crypto. I’m a workaholic by nature. Not having a boss is great though as it allows me true freedom and the ability to work strange hours.
- 1996 6y ago
  Same thing here: I don't have to work anymore but I chose to, with a bit of VC on the side. There are many interesting projects, and having full freedom is priceless! I try to favor project that only take crypto, not fiat, and price their products in crypto. I see that as an indicator of "understanding" the new wave.
- Drakim 6y ago
  I kick myself over not putting more effort into getting bitcoins when I was first reading up on it. While I don't think I would retire, it would be nice to have the financial security to work on more meaningful but unprofitable projects rather than grinding my daily job.
mrpopo 6y ago
> I'm retired thanks to crypto. I'm glad I eventually saw how HN was wrong I don't understand this argument. Becoming rich doesn't prove you right. A technology becoming popular doesn't make it good.
- DSingularity 6y ago
  Really? Historically the consensus position on HN was that BTC and crypto is a short-term bubble for an asset class with no fundamental value. Seems to me that people becoming rich because the value of BTC has been going up forever is good enough proof that OP is right in swimming against the HN-current.
  - mrpopo 6y ago
    BTC going up doesn't mean it has fundamental value. It's a speculative asset with more and more people getting on board. Hedge fund managers are rich. TV personalities are rich. Many PhD students are poor. This is not people making the right decisions. This is concentration of money because of economy volatility.
    - DSingularity 6y ago
      What do you consider fundamental value? Seems to me that people are willing to pay 50,000$ a BTC and companies are willing to hoard it. How is that not evidence that it has value?
      - dodobirdlord 6y ago
        Productive capital. Financial speculation is fun and all but it has to remain a sideshow to the real economy, since we fundamentally rely on individuals and companies investing in the creation of more productive capital. If it ever came to pass that hodling Bitcoin was actually the best use of money because it somehow became a universal deflationary currency, then the government would have to step in and deploy its monopoly on violence to abolish Bitcoin to protect the broader economy. Speculative hoarding of deflationary gold caused the great depression and the governments of the world at the time couldn't escape the trap due to gold-backed currencies. These days we have a better understanding of the relationship between inflation/deflation, currencies, investments, and productive capital, and something like the great depression is not going to be allowed to happen again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_(economics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_(economics)
        DSingularity 6y ago
        Overall a good answer but I wonder if this direction of thought applies to something like BTC or can even be broadly applied in general. It seems to me that it is difficult to measure the productivity of a decentralized asset like BTC. Maybe it’s even harder to compare it to asset classes which produce physically consumable products as we are talking about a new way to define value in the digital era. There is some truth to the meme whose idea is that — in the end — you won’t care what the dollar value of BTC is. What happens when .25 BTC becomes a model s? To churn a profit in this trade Tesla needs to acquire the materials an labor for less than .25 BTC. Full stop. This is a paradigm shift because this has never happened before for decentralized, algorithmically sound digital money. I’m just a lay person but that is, to me, the fundamental value. Who knows, maybe this will have a broad effect across industries the same way that the internet came and effected everything.

by 1996 6y ago

seibelj 6y ago

I considered retiring but it’s too boring so I just keep working in crypto. I’m a workaholic by nature. Not having a boss is great though as it allows me true freedom and the ability to work strange hours.

1996 6y ago
Same thing here: I don't have to work anymore but I chose to, with a bit of VC on the side. There are many interesting projects, and having full freedom is priceless! I try to favor project that only take crypto, not fiat, and price their products in crypto. I see that as an indicator of "understanding" the new wave.
Drakim 6y ago
I kick myself over not putting more effort into getting bitcoins when I was first reading up on it. While I don't think I would retire, it would be nice to have the financial security to work on more meaningful but unprofitable projects rather than grinding my daily job.

mrpopo 6y ago

> I'm retired thanks to crypto. I'm glad I eventually saw how HN was wrong I don't understand this argument. Becoming rich doesn't prove you right. A technology becoming popular doesn't make it good.

DSingularity 6y ago
Really? Historically the consensus position on HN was that BTC and crypto is a short-term bubble for an asset class with no fundamental value. Seems to me that people becoming rich because the value of BTC has been going up forever is good enough proof that OP is right in swimming against the HN-current.
- mrpopo 6y ago
  BTC going up doesn't mean it has fundamental value. It's a speculative asset with more and more people getting on board. Hedge fund managers are rich. TV personalities are rich. Many PhD students are poor. This is not people making the right decisions. This is concentration of money because of economy volatility.
  - DSingularity 6y ago
    What do you consider fundamental value? Seems to me that people are willing to pay 50,000$ a BTC and companies are willing to hoard it. How is that not evidence that it has value?
    - dodobirdlord 6y ago
      Productive capital. Financial speculation is fun and all but it has to remain a sideshow to the real economy, since we fundamentally rely on individuals and companies investing in the creation of more productive capital. If it ever came to pass that hodling Bitcoin was actually the best use of money because it somehow became a universal deflationary currency, then the government would have to step in and deploy its monopoly on violence to abolish Bitcoin to protect the broader economy. Speculative hoarding of deflationary gold caused the great depression and the governments of the world at the time couldn't escape the trap due to gold-backed currencies. These days we have a better understanding of the relationship between inflation/deflation, currencies, investments, and productive capital, and something like the great depression is not going to be allowed to happen again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_(economics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_(economics)
      - DSingularity 6y ago
        Overall a good answer but I wonder if this direction of thought applies to something like BTC or can even be broadly applied in general. It seems to me that it is difficult to measure the productivity of a decentralized asset like BTC. Maybe it’s even harder to compare it to asset classes which produce physically consumable products as we are talking about a new way to define value in the digital era. There is some truth to the meme whose idea is that — in the end — you won’t care what the dollar value of BTC is. What happens when .25 BTC becomes a model s? To churn a profit in this trade Tesla needs to acquire the materials an labor for less than .25 BTC. Full stop. This is a paradigm shift because this has never happened before for decentralized, algorithmically sound digital money. I’m just a lay person but that is, to me, the fundamental value. Who knows, maybe this will have a broad effect across industries the same way that the internet came and effected everything.