It was hard to focus at work today with the many things happening in the Crypto world. I had been reading the EOS Telegram Chat early this morning and all the craziness of people trying to get in on the first period of EOS token distribution. It was a frenzy!
There were easily 50 posts being made per minute on the chat. I just sat back and enjoyed the show, or at least I was trying to enjoy myself. Initially I was only somewhat conscious of a sense of despair that had begun to sink in and was growing with each second.
I still haven't decided whether I should try to get in on this first five day period of EOS token distribution. I may have a mental and/or emotional block when it comes to things that are getting so much hype and attention.
I heard there are numerous scams out there with fraudsters sending messages and setting up websites, trying to get you to send them Ether they say is for EOS tokens. I think Daniel Larimer and Block.One have done their best to inform the community of those scams when they surface. In my opinion, investors need to be very careful and only submit their token purchase request through the official EOS.IO website. Hopefully that way they will be okay.
I do not believe Daniel Larimer is out to scam people out of their hard-earned money. I think he has good motivations and intentions. He has really put himself out there. He has made it clear his intentions are about "securing life, liberty, and property for all." In my opinion, he is embarking on a very long and ambitious but admirable and honorable mission.
For all intents and purposes, I should be there along with everyone else investing my money in EOS today. But here I sit with my fork in my mouth still contemplating.
Here are a few of the thoughts that are running through my mind today:
Fear or failure. - I can't really explain it very well but I am afraid that something is going to go wrong. I'm afraid I am not smart enough to figure out how the whole process works. I'm afraid I am going to invest hundreds of dollars and then somehow I am going to lose it all. This fear really started to set in when the white paper came out, for no reason I can fully explain. I didn't even finish reading it. I did read through some of the documentation on GitHub and that was mostly over my head. I have a hard time believing that non-developer types can understand the source code well enough to feel they can make an investment.
I am beginning to see a pattern here. I was fully aware of and willing to participate in the initial Ethereum sale, but the complexity of participating turned me off. Then, I actually purchased some Ether on the markets after the DAO incident- having observed the Bitcoin market as it went through the Mt. Gox fiasco, and subsequently recovering. I knew Ethereum would recover, and it did. I held my Ether for a while and then lost patience and sold it. I had better ideas for my money. I wish I had that Ether now, as it would be worth over $4,000- not enough to make me wealthy by any means, but definitely not an inconsequential amount of money.
Steem's Hard fork 19 - On top of these feelings, I still have the fresh taste of Hard Fork 19 in my mouth and the excitement of my increased voting power tingling my brain. I have been seriously considering putting the rest of my crypto investments into Steem and Powering Up as much as I possibly can to increase that voting power. I look at it as a way to protect myself from myself. I can't sell on a whim when my investment is locked up on Steem Power- a brilliant component of the Steem design.
Today's Market Took a Major Nosedive - Then, when I took a look at the market today, I saw that it was taking a major nosedive- therefore not a good time to pull out my other investments for any reason. I think the worst part about these market-wide drops is that most of the coins go down at equal rates. There was no advantage of selling today to liquidate my funds.
Legal Issues For US Residents - It appears that US residents can't legally participate in the EOS token distribution (I know there are ways around that but not sure if I am willing to risk it). To be totally clear, I do not know specifically what US regulations allow or disallow investment in ICOs. I just know that if potential investors are blocked from participating on the actual EOS.IO website based on a United States IP address, it is a red flag for me. In a comment on a recent post of mine Dan himself admitted that he does not make the regulations, alluding to the fact that some regulation is prohibiting my participation with a US IP address. That being said, it does give me some comfort knowing that I have a year to get in on the sale if I choose. I have plenty of time to read the white paper and figure things out. This is all by design. Some people (I think people with a short-term mindset) have complained about the time frames but I am actually thankful for the extended time. I also believe that at some point before the year-long distribution period ends the tokens will become available on the exchanges. At that point, I am sure that I will feel more comfortable with my ability to invest.
The Virtues Of Patience And Wisdom - In the crypto world time really flies. I mean, news and information from a week ago seems ancient. I think this makes patience, combined with wisdom nearly priceless. If a person employs a little patience and wisdom in this fast-paced arena better decisions can be made.
Other Goals - This is also a factor for me today. I have a time-oriented investing goal that I am holding out for (don't want to get into specifics right now), when I think my current non-Steem crypto investments will increase in value, providing me more capital to invest in other projects like EOS.
Timing - For me personally, the timing of the first day of EOS token distribution was not the best. Not complaining, just sharing my perspective. It came a little sooner than I anticipated, and on a Monday no less. My only free days are Saturdays and Sundays. I was kind of wishing I didn't have to work today so I could really study things out. On top of that, I get paid in fiat from my regular job once a month, at the beginning of the month and all of my available funds are tied up on my crypto investments at the moment. And, even when I do get paid it will take a week to exchange my fiat for Ether to invest with.
OracleChain token ICO - Another positive note is that in a way I am already invested in an EOS related project- OracleChain Token or OCT. This was a Chinese ICO that launched on the Bitshares Dex a couple of weeks ago. I was lucky enough to pick some up at a decent price. I do plan to hold on to these tokens for at least a year. We shall see how they do in the long term.
Conclusion - All in all, it is somewhat therapeutic to put my thoughts and feelings into words. I may yet decide to participate in the early Days in EOS. I do feel that it is a great long term investment as EOS is going to be a revolution to the revolution.
I will be surprised if many of you made it this far with me. Throw me a comment if you did. How are you all feeling about EOS and the markets today?