Maybe I'm stupid, maybe I'm a gambling addict believing if I believe enough I can get one dice to land on 4 and the other to land on 3. Maybe I just don't fully grasp the wealth potential of bitcoin.
On one side, I contemplate the flaw of the African in history, the tenants of a land so rich over abundance became his curse.
The great Mensa Musa traveled with presumably all of africa's gold, awakening a world of hungry eyes to the wealth of africa.
Is it in my blood to give away gold? Or am I truly just a gambler that understands the slot machine that pays out gold is the better slot machine to play?
On the other side, I am moved by those in regions of the world, who've discovered that bitcoin is their way out.
Stories like this, a message I received from a young woman in the Philippines who uses the bitcoin she wins (for free) in my
Grabbit game to buy diapers for her young ones,
or playful gracious thank posts like this from a player who used his winnings to buy lunch
are creating an enormous battle of voices in my head.
My voice of reason screams out "STOP GIVING AWAY YOUR BITCOINS YOU FOOL!" vs the voice of ambition that says my user acquisition cost is $0.50 per user, an industry super low as dozens of players will rush to the site to win $1 in bitcoin.
Versus my do gooder voice that loves the fact a game I made is feeding folks thousands of miles away and could clear less what the other two voices have to say.
In the early days of crypto, it was a do-gooder environment. I remember receiving 10,000 in doge from Joseph Poon (co founder of the lighting network) and thinking to myself... "WOW that is really cool". He encouraged me to download the doge wallet and just like that, he showed a generosity no one had ever shown me with the dollar.
To this day, I carry the do-gooder gesture however other do-gooders have moved on. Maybe their voices of reason won the battle... profit, savings and the seemingly ease of a no physical work future requires you keep your bitcoins to yourself.
Or maybe the bafoonery of Joe average, who is more likely to lose the introduction crypto given to them by the crypto do-gooder made it an easier decision to stop giving away their precious digital gold.
My gamblers instinct maybe right, downloads of grabbit are up, traffic is up... even when I pause the game, players visit the site often waiting for the game of Grabbit to start again.
It is part of the startup game after all, I'm going to spend somewhere. I'll spend on facebook ads, I'll spend on google ads or I can give the money I would have spent to the people.
Is the advertising middle man the next to go? Steemit doesn't have ads and may never need ads at all.
If I silence all the voices and listen to the math... $0.50 user acquisition fees is the loudest voice of all.
BUT there's also the math of bitcoins going up. Had I not giving away 2.2 bitcoins and put it into ripple for example.. I'd have $30,000 in bitcoin. Did I add $30,000 in value to the grabbit? possibly, my gamblers voice tells me I could sell this for $1,000,000 by years end by giving away 10 more bitcoins over that time. But that's "could" and that's coming from the voice with an addictive tick that rarely considers the life impact of rolling snake eyes, or the dealer perfectly landing on 21. It's the voice that tells me to raise on the river card with a flush pending. It's also the voice that tells me to double down to get the girl.
Looking back, it seems to be the only voice I listen to.