This evening I was browsing 
It was weird. It caught my attention. I've known Joy for around 6 years now, we even met once (twice?) in Poland and probably Thailand for HiveFest 3 and 4 respectively. I can't remember how many times we met because life on chain mixed with half drunk fests do not mix well together, especially after attending three of these events.
It struck me as weird because I've known Joy for a while and I know she's invested a lot of time, effort and money into making Hive a better place and I am familiar with the kind of content she usually puts up.
There are many ways of providing value to an ecosystem. Most people focus on the monetary value to measure how much goes in and how much goes out to balance a user out. I get it, it's the main metric and the easiest to assess because all the others are biased an opinionated to various degrees.
I noticed a few downvotes in most of her recent posts, and then, after poking around because I am a sucker for drama as most of us on Hive - and those in social media, and the whole world for that matter - and it was quite clear why the downvotes got unleashed. I also noticed 
Funny, after Galen pointed it, I realize it wasn't him who downvoted her posts and I mixed situations after following downvote rabbit holes. So Edit: It was my own Mandela effect that allowed me to make the links and reach my own conclusion, lol.
I thought Joy, being a 6-7 year old veteran, would just shrug the downvotes off as most of us have in the past, and definitely will in the future. Downvotes are part of the game, and anyone who's been part of Hive for a while knows this. The worst thing you can do is overreact or start a war for this. I went off to keep Sunday working because the hustle never ends and didn't thought much of it.
A couple of hours ago I was setting a new pair of curtains and browsing the tag leofinance when I found a post by 
You see, the reason why I tagged the users was not to get their attention, but to give more flavor and context to my intro - yes, this is still the intro, I still have it in me to make long ass posts. Because if I didn't put out this context, it would look weird that I'm writing about a very, very niche and specific story that I have nothing to do with, and I would just come off as a stalker to anyone reading.
I don't know why writers on Hive do not tag other users when they are talking about negative situations that revolve around them to a degree. Perhaps it is common courtesy to not tag and point everyone to the issue, something I am doing right now and which would put me in the wrong. Or maybe it is to keep others with their own anonymity although we are on a blockchain and everyone can see what happens. Either way, I do the same, I usually don't tag other users unless the story or the post is completely positive and puts them in a fair position. I don't think this story puts anyone in a bad position except for Joy. But there's a reason I am mentioning her, and a reason why I want her to read this post of mine, even if it ends up being too long.
Anyway, I read the post, saw the comment section section and long story short, Hive bananas ensued. I got to finish setting up those curtains that proved to be a mightier task than what I expected. But during this setup, I had some time to think and prepare this post in mind.
Of course, the post sounded way better, much more articulated, and a ton more impactful than what I'm writing right now, but that's how freewrites work I guess. I should know, I only freewrite, so shrug.jpg.
Bagholding to the moon and back
Man, around a year ago I bought a token early as fuck. I think I was the 3rd wallet to buy it, but I knew that the project was gold even though I found about it in a freaking chat forum where schizos, psychos, scammers and jeets roam at all times. But this place specifically is also where you find the dankest memes and the alphaest of alphas in the realm of alpha. It's a place where I've made more than 100k in profits thanks to how early things get shared there.
Too bad I lost it all in a boating accident, dear government office.
Anyway, I found this project, bought a couple million tokens out of a 100M total supply, spent 400 bucks and then decided to baghold and follow the project closely. I knew it was going to fly once more people heard about it.
I was right.
Long story short, I bagheld to the moon and back. I didn't sell when my $400 was worth worth around 80k USD - liquidity was shit so I would've never been able to sell it all, maybe a few dozen Ks but still - because I knew the project was still in diapers.
According to my rookie assessment, the protocol was worth at least 1B market cap, putting each token at $10. I wasn't going to sell at $10, I'm not stupid, I'm just a bagholder.
The founder was a genius, the concept had no match, the foundations were great. The tokenomics were shit but who cares, I got in early as hell, right?
Around 40c per token, the founder came out and resigned because of outside factors, calling the current scenario of the token too much to handle without more funds (my take is that he got a late night call from a three word letter agency telling him to stop developing such a project that risked to turn the tables in what privacy coins can and cannot do, and how much power it gives to crypto holders, so he decided to raise the white flag).
I heard the news 40 minutes too late. I had only 2k worth of the token once I decided to pull out. I also lost half a bitcoin in liquidity provision because impermanent loss fucked me raw.
Lessons. But man, such a bagholder, literally to the moon and back.
Bagholding Hive
I can't really tell how much I love and hate Hive.
I love Hive because well, it's been home since 2017. I have no idea what I would do without Hive to a point where I think that just like old men that retire from a job they love and die three months later, I would feel lost if I was driven away from the ecosystem or I decided to fuck off.
Hint: There's no fucking off, not for people like me. I'm doomed to be here forever, for good or worse. Hive is too engraved (wink) in me by now.
I hate Hive because man, I think I've poured around 50k USD of my own money over the past 6 years. That's a ton for me, I am not a crypto gazillionaire that uses Hive as a playground to feel powerful.
I hate Hive because every single time I think fuck it, Hive has never 20x'd and the only time it kinda mooned, I was such a rookie that I bought more instead of taking profit and buying back later. Fuck it, I am leaving Hive and buying real moon tokens, Hive has never made me rich and I've been here forever!.
Of course, this is just a temporary glitch in my brain, because I end up buying more. I think most of those reading this will relate. Don't forget it, we are here until forever. That's what Hive does to people once we've been here long enough. The community makes you fall in love with them, the passion gets you involved, the commitment from others makes you want to go balls deep.
I've never felt like a bagholder. I feel more like a long term (perhaps reaaaally long term) visionary. Eventually Hive will get adopted and we will change the dynamics of web3 and social media in general. The revolutions are coming, yes, two of them:
- The monetary revolution driven by cryptocurrency, mainly Bitcoin and Ethereum, where we only have one shot at breaking the status quo, because if we fail, the next product will have the corpo and the establishment's claws so deep that us the people will stand no chance against them
- The technological revolution, where the upset of centralized technologies and social media will play a major role in how things settle afterwards, and Hive will be at the center of it.
That is why I am part of Hive, and why I am here forever.
I haven't been able to publish as frequently as I used to, but I am able to (still) buy every once in a while. My Hive Power doesn't reflect it, but that's on purpose.
I've been here too long, and if you have been as well this will resonate with you, to understand that Hive's transparency is a blessing, but it is also a curse if you are a doxxed-as-fuck-on-hive family man who settled down in a 3rd world country, where anybody and everybody can look into your bank account balance.
And yes, I feel comfortable posting about it, but not having it there where everyone can see it with a couple of clicks
But that's not the only reason. I also understand that there will always be judgement from others.
Why did you sell at this time?,
Why are you powering down?,
Why don't you have [arbitraryAmountSetByCritic] Hive Power after [arbitraryNumberOfYears]?.
Instead, and for the reasons above, I've been slowly moving funds around, powering up here and keeping liquids there. Hell, each of us has their own investing strategy.
I don't feel like a bagholder. I am sharing these numbers not to flex - I'd be stupid to call it a flex considering we're in a crypto environment where a couple hundred k are lunch money for people - but because I felt like giving context to this whole post.
But I'm rambling already, and this post is probably 10 times longer than what the average content consumer can handle even here on Hive where we are known for creating and consuming out-of-norm-and-length content, so let's call it a day, my fellow bagholders.
The Market hasn't responded yet to all of our joint efforts to make Hive the ecosystem it deserves to be. But hey, we have time, and apparently I'm not nearly the only one who still has drive to keep building and keep pushing Hive and Leo to the masses.
In the meantime, are you getting ready for the Revolutions?
If not, get your ducks in a row, we are in for a wild ride, frens.
Joy, the reason why I tagged you is to let you know I understand how you feel, but this is no reason to burn all your bridges and throw 6 years of networking and effort to the trash.
If you want to take a break, do so, but don't get angry and name call people who are simply protecting their investment.
I know you and you are not a shitty person, and I know you understand how Hive works. I know the other parties who downvoted you to a degree to be confident that if you fall back into reason this whole matter will be forgotten.
So think about it, will you?