Why does everyone want to get rich from Cryptocurrency?
Why does everyone want to get rich from Cryptocurrency?
You could buy an Apple or a Microsoft stock and wait for around 5 years, chances are you'll make two to five times your money. This was considered a risky investment 15 years ago. Your great grandfather wouldn't invest in such stock and would invest in gold or real estate. Ironically, nowadays, investing in those stocks compared to cryptocurrency is a relatively safe investment.
The million-dollar question is: why are people wanting to make a million dollars with cryptocurrency?
Let's talk about the first vital factor: speed. Time is our most important nonrenewable asset. I've lost a couple of seconds writing this sentence, that I won't get back. Money is one of our needs, no matter how you look at it; whether you need it for shelter, food, or other reasons. There's such a thing as too much money of course. An average human being needs money to survive, which is different than wanting money for other purposes.
Humans are flawed, we're imperfect and we know it. If drugs are addicting millions of people around the world, then the money is addicting billions. Here's when it went wrong.
A person in this world told someone else that she/he made money without doing anything. That person saved years of work, compared to the listener who's still to embark on all of those hours. In other words, this person will live longer. This person purchased our most important nonrenewable asset, time. Truth is, work consumes time. The world is vast and the nature of humans is full of curiosity. Imagine if the world decided tomorrow that everything is available for free. You're able to travel through the whole world and explore without paying a dime. You're able to experience all the sensations that you could dream of. Simply, you could play the game of life till the end, instead of being stuck at level one.
More than one person has made money with cryptocurrency. Some made hundreds, some made billions. Some of them made money by just being courageous to risk their savings with this investment. So you're thinking "Am I not as brave as this person?"
Let's back up.
Before cryptocurrency, gambling has always been there. There were always people who would sit at a blackjack table and risk thousands, and make hundreds of thousands. However, the only difference in this scenario is the odds involved. You don't hear of ten thousand gamblers making millions in a single year. You don't hear the celebrities promoting gambling.
Person: "How the hell are you comparing investing in cryptocurrency with gambling! It's not the same, Al."
Myself: "Alright, I'll play your game. It's my bad. What's the difference?"
Person: "Well, gambling has a chance that we can calculate and it's quite low, the probability of winning in blackjack is quite low and risky!"
Myself: "It's 42.22%. Those are your odds of winning at blackjack."
Myself: "Do you want me to tell you your odds of winning in cryptocurrency?"
Person: "..."
Myself: "It is unknown. You're investing in the hopes that the world would accept this form of currency. Your bet is not against the casino. Your bet is against 7.7 billion human beings."
I'll have to pause here and do a clarification. I believe cryptocurrency has fantastic opportunities in the future for us as a species. I'm personally an investor in those currencies. Yet, I know the risks, and I'm not looking into making billions tomorrow morning.
So why are people psyched and acting differently towards investing in cryptocurrency?
You have $10,000 and you want to "risk" them, why not consider blackjack? If I tell you that cryptocurrency has a 40% chance of success, you would probably be very happy about your investment. You won't feel the same with blackjack. Introducing the second factor in the game: Society.
It's wrong to gamble. But it's okay to invest.
It's wrong to lose at blackjack your whole money. But it's okay to get a loss on your crypto investment of up to 80%.
Truth be told, this metaphor aims to look at cryptocurrency from a risky investment perspective compared to gambling. We can't treat cryptocurrency investments as straightforward as gambling. There are thousands of cryptocurrencies. Our human evolution might have one of those coins in the future. The reason for the metaphor is stressing society's view of what's risky and what's not.
If you're investing in cryptocurrency, you have to be aware of the extreme risk. You have to be aware that you're now considered a "risk-taker".
Similarly, a blackjack gambler is, whether you like it or not, a risk-taker. The odds of loss are different, but the odds of winning are actually currently on the blackjack player's side as they're at least known.
Should I be intimidated and not invest in cryptocurrency?
You are not ready to invest in cryptocurrency if this article intimidates you. Any crypto investor out there knows that she/he might receive a message of bitcoin reaching $5,000 or $200,000.
It's unlikely that you would get the same message from your bank that your savings depleted 90%.
So, why does everyone want to get rich from Crypto?
Because we, as humans, are naturally risk-takers. If we were not, we would've not evolved. Similarly, we would've not excelled. We would've not built what we built. So yes, we're gamblers. The only difference is, we know that jumping from a cliff is not a good risk to take.
Finally, what one could do is assess and learn. Invest in cryptocurrency. Then, go play a couple of blackjack rounds. Most importantly, understand the odds in each option, and decide accordingly. You might decide that it's vital that you would take all your life's savings into a blackjack table. Alternatively, You might decide to put them in cryptocurrency or you might decide to leave them under your bed.
Some of those are not smart decisions to undertake, but if you're unaware of which is which, then you're not ready to invest. If so, go back to your books and learn how to do this right.
This article is intended as a brain tease and by no means should be considered financial advice.
I’m Al, a business consultant in Zurich, Switzerland. I believe in the power of delivering value to you, the reader. I’m focusing my content to be more and more on Medium, and Linkedin. Hence, follow me on both channels to keep in touch and connect.