(made with a canva.com pro account.)
It's been just over a month since I left this comment on @Steevc'spost.
Since then I have moved about a 1/3rd of my holdings into Hive with the intention to move more.
When I did this I was as sure as I had ever been.
What I did directly after however, that was definitely a mistake. I informed my friends about it. These friends are people who've witnessed my entire journey into the cryptocurrency sphere with growing pessimism. As my passion grows, so too does their disdain for the very idea, and no matter what I present their conclusions remain steadfast.
Why do I do this to myself you might ask? Might be that I just don't have many friends. For the most part I left them all behind back in Australia.
Anyway.
As a result of this, the only opinions I ever receive are negative. They pay attention to media and negative price action without delving any further. They choose the 'spoon-fed' approach to attaining information, and because of that I only hear about criminal activity, and never about the innovations and successes in the space.
DeFi? Not a word.
Twitter scams? They'll talk to me about it for hours.
As you could imagine, when I signaled my intent to invest in a rank 120-140 coin on Coinmarketcap, you can bet their reactions were borderline hostile.
Any positive thought I expressed was mercilessly smothered, though not entirely out of malice. I had to keep reminding myself of that. This knee-jerk rejection is performed, I think, as a result of the natural instinct to fear the unknown. If we can not conceptualize it, if we are unexposed then we can not understand it, and that is a scary thing.
Usually I find that this attitude comes from a place of good faith; but the opposite also exists, albeit on a smaller scale.
People love seeing their conclusions supported and their ideas validated, even if that comes at the cost of others, sometimes even their friends.
I know who those people are after many years in this space now.
It's days like today that reveal the good faith from the bad.
Today fellow Hivers
I answer a question that has been asked to me again and again.
Did I make a mistake?
Has this been the worst financial decision of my life? In the face of a double-digit % drop, am I nothing more than the living embodiment of this guy?
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For the most part, this has been asked by traders that I speak to as well as my friends, so my answers will be addressed to them.
I can't really speak for anything beyond my own experiences, so those are what I draw upon. I can't answer if you have made a mistake, all I can do is see your concerns reflected in myself and ask myself the same question. Our circumstances aren't the same, but I suppose they don't have to be.
So I asked myself, again on behalf of my friends and my trader buddies.
Simon - did you make a mistake when you decided to invest in Hive?
For traders it's an easy answer:
To the traders I follow I am committing the greatest sin known to mankind; hodling. 'Hodlers die while I eat the pie' is a phrase I've heard for months now, and even though I agree to an extent, here I am violating the edict.
Realistically I'm an insignificance to the greater market. However, in regard to the confines of my own little reality inhabited by my family, my pets, and our combined vision of the future, what I do carries great significance. I want the best for us and to create a sustainable foundation to build on, which we can proudly hand down one day.
Trading as a building material isn't something I'd use, especially to create a strong sustainable foundation. How can you call it sustainable if it is at the mercy of market forces? Well you have to be good, something I doubt I'll ever be in regards to trading.
So I don't consider it the strongest avenue for myself.
So what's my answer?
It's not a mistake, stop carrying on. I don't fear the fluctuations of the market because what I seek isn't only attained by 'buying low' and 'selling high'. I have the ability to really grow on Hive, and to truly explore things I never thought I would. I'm beginning a journey and I consider myself in it for the long haul.
In that sense I also don't consider myself a true 'hodler'. I'm using my HP to grow and accumulate more, I'm staking it and backing it up with Proof of Brain.
To them I am exposing myself to risk pointlessly and because of that I deserve what I get.
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'Dumb money' I suppose.
Even on the bloodiest days where I should feel gutted by losses... But I don't feel much.
To me the pain is dwarfed by the frontier of opportunity birthed by this innovation, and my commitment to it has only grown.
Traders' arguments fall flat in the face of my intentions and ambitions.
For friends it's an easy answer:
They think I'm wrong because they simply don't understand. I know that sounds pretentious, but it's just the case. This is a new generation of technology that isn't easy to understand for everyone. Unless you've got a pretty open mind it's almost impregnable.
I recall a conversation I had some years ago regarding Steem. Now this is a conversation I must of had about dozens of times and although it varied, these questions seemed to pop up in one way or another.
"Wait, how can a thing that doesn't exist have value?"
"Wait, how can 'coins' be created from nothing?"
"But it's not real though."
"Someone will hack it though."
I've answered these questions many different times in many different ways but to no significant avail.
They just don't get it. Well, I mean some do. For the most part it just seems weird.
I explain as simply as I can that for value to exist all you need is demand. Therefore, for Steem / Hive to have value, all you need is demand for it.
WOOSH
"BUT IT'S NOT REAL, SIMON"
Oh my sweet lord.
"World of Warcraft gold isn't real, yet you spent hundreds of dollars buying it."
Even so the concept remains totally foreign. Maybe deliberately so.
When they see me using real money to invest in a space they see as inherently worthless, they call it a mistake.
You know what I noticed though?
It's wasn't a mistake when Hive went through a 20% run not a week or so ago. I didn't hear a word from anyone then. But you know what happened this morning?
Messages telling me of the price fall. People feigning surprise in order to support their pre-established conclusions formed from ignorance years prior.
I feel the result of their confirmation bias, but when I'm sending them proof of my gains or rewards, I hear nothing.
It's interesting how that works.
It honestly makes me wonder if there is a degree of jealously at the fact that I am willing to even take a risk like this while they sit safely without any risk at all.
I like to think that's a jab at objective observation rather than ego projection, it's literally what I see.
In addition to the media inspired fud, I feel ideas of personal agency and responsibility are frightening on their own. Being unable to access your account if you lose your password is a reality I don't think many are prepared to face. Personal responsibility as a prevailing sentiment has been subverted for the time being.
Sayings such as 'be your own bank' aren't empowering to these people, they're terrifying.
This is what I have picked up on from my pessimistic friends. These are the glasses they wear when they ask me the question.
So what's my answer?
Dude, don't even worry about it. Do you worry about the price of Facebook stock when you use that? There's stuff on here I know you'd like to see. I don't think it's a mistake, and I'm committed so just relax.
It's possible to ease people in to Hive.
Personally, the cure is nothing more than exposure therapy.
Once they see the platform and the new generation of technology being normalized, then after time they will warm to it. Eventually their curiosity will be sparked and this way they will come.
Conversion is a thing that should be organic and on the terms of the convertible.
Seeing us be normal and thrive will only ease that along.
When @Pommom woke up this morning to her first 15 % drop in the price of her newly acquired assets, how do you think she reacted?
She bought Starbits from 
Speaking of which, today she cracked this.
Price has as much immediate significance to her as it does to me, so for our family who are not shaken: let me make myself clear -
This is not a mistake.
For us, our long term goals are fully set and the resolve needed to reach them was established long ago.
As I said, characterizing our choice as a mistake falls flat before our ambitions and intentions.
Simply put; this is a platform where profit and mental effort are synonymous with one another. Sure you can seek to trade the Hive token and profit from its appreciation in the normal way, but for me, its native incentive structure creates a frontier of possibility that I feel uniquely suited to leverage.
(made with a canva.com pro account)
Proof of Brain is a natural function of the human condition and replicating it as a means of distributing block rewards is nothing short of sheer genius.
When you think about it it's something we use for almost everything. We see effort and talent applied to things we're interested in, and the cream rises to the top - so to speak.
This is the place I will commit myself to for quite some time, whether it be 5 cents or $5.
My next #Hive goal is 10,000 HP
I hope to get there by the end of the year.
To all my other hive dwellers who may be rocked by the storm we find ourselves in.
My advice is - Focus inward on the things you have control of, the things you can improve or command directly. Give yourself a sense of grounding, and being hands on with something immediately is a great way to do that.
Don't think about the past or the future for a while, focus on something here and now.
Anyway thanks for reading. If you are anxious about what's happening, I hope this has enabled you to focus on something productive, instead of dwelling on the destructive. Something creative instead of something corosive.
To the people who want to see me sell, I have but one thing to say to them.
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Thanks for reading again.
Take care, stay safe and stay strong!
