What I Learned About Ego, Opinion, Art & Commerce: My First Two Weeks as a ChainCoin Hodler Inside the Crypto Community
I want to preface this article by stating outright that this is not an endorsement for ChainCoin or any other cryptocurrencies but rather my personal experiences with this new age movement as a whole. The point of this post is merely to share my experiences to those on the outside looking in. This isn't about how you should invest your money or how you should live, but an opinion piece with simple observations about the human experience. I wanted this article to be short and sweet, but explaining the human experience is anything but that. If you're looking to get lost and find your way, come along this journey with me.
Part II - Welcome to the Future
It was a hot sunny day in early July and I could remember the rays of light beaming through my window creating a glare on my screen when I first stumbled up on a website that was telling me to embrace the future. Amidst all the hype surrounding each new ICO (initial coin offering) that had been going on for the past several weeks, I was feeling frustrated. Not because of the myriad of new possibilities of where to place my bets, as if I was at the roulette table, but rather being denied admission to participate due to my residency in the United States where the regulations prevent such involvement. Despite it being early into the movement, looking back in hindsight, this may have been fated for the best. There have been a multitude of reported scams with these ICOs and have even drawn the attentions of hackers and digital terrorism where millions of dollars of the coin Ethereum were stolen from hard working people looking to gain independence from their current financial state. Had I been able to invest in any of these new opportunities I would have depleted my personal funds and prevented myself the chance to become part of something greater.
This is the part where I get high..on coins. I had heard from my crypto community of this coin that been resurrected and had started a revolution. Being the skeptic that I am, I used the resource that I turned to the most and started researching what my crypto authorities had to say about this Chain Coin. I was almost sold before ever hearing the name Max Lee. I decided to tune into his YouTube channel entitled HighOnCoins. Aside from my own FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) with the price having jumped up from the first time I briefly saw the price without giving it a second thought, there was something different and special about what I had just found. There are a few moments in your life where you find something and know that it is immediately. There's no rhyme or reason as to why, and even if you can't explain it just yet you know you just found something great.
I watched a few of Max's most recent videos and was blown away by the pure charisma of this man. My entry point into this movement was on the third day and already his viewership continued to skyrocket. What lent him more credibility in my eyes is that he is also the mastermind of the YouTube channel HighOnAndroid, now renamed under his personal account, where he has a much larger following of over 380,000 subscribers. As someone that works in the tech industry this spoke volumes to me. He is an authority on android while being a major enthusiast. I could easily tell that this was a light hearted individual with passion and drive. He was inspiring to watch while providing great comedic value with his casual lackadaisical nature.
I could see other hopefuls tune into his live stream chats, eager to try this new experiment and just enjoy conversations regarding all these new investment opportunities. However, it was not just the potential promise of money that pulled me in, but the new budding community that was on the verge of blossoming into something greater.
Now I wasn't just sold yet. ChainCoin seemed great and it had all the makings of a great investment. All of these new digital currencies had the ultimate monetary function of being valued at strictly what they are worth per coin based on market value. ChainCoin has a specific feature that not many coins have. The ability to create something called a Masternode with owning 1000 of these coins gave one the ability to start producing more based off of transactions fees of having run this Masternode. To explain it simply, the masternode acts as a a hub in a network for these digital transactions to take place. As an owner you are paid a small transaction fee in the form of ChainCoin which averages at 2 per day which you can then sell for a monetary value. This was a literal money making machine! Now at this point one ChainCoin was trading from .70 - .90 cents. This isn't too much of a gain, but there is another coin in existence that already does this, Dash Coin.
Dash is something I've heard about before but never really looked into it. What I did know is that Dash reached an all time high of around $200 per coin and used a similar technology to Chain Coin. Not wanting to miss the boat as well as feeling the burning desire to take a risk, I found myself opening up an account on one of cryptocurrency's smaller exchanges, cryptopia. It wasn't just the promise of being able to build a better life with my earnings that drove me to such a seemingly impulsive decision, but also the cummulative wealth and knowledge of people behind this movement, their fearless leader, and above all else...their master plan.
My entry into this community was buzzing the moment I made an account for their team chat platform known as slack. Within seconds of logging on I see the soldiers of the movement excitedly shouting the words and phrases like "HODL!" and "To the moon!" Now they were only just typing in all uppercase letters or adding exclamation points but you could feel how electrifying it was to be a part of it, especially having just bought my 1000 coins and watching the price shoot up after making my investment.
Now if you haven't heard of the term "hodl" before, now is as good a time as any to define it, despite it being in the title. Hodl became a slang into the crypto world from an internet post from an individual, who not unlike many that are uninitiated to the volatile swings of the market and day trading, decided that holding your coins may be the better recourse for higher potential gain in the long term.
Well the master plan of these ChainCoin hodlers is based simple market rules: supply and demand. If they continue to buy and not sell their coins, the available supply will slowly decrease, which drives up the price, which then in turn drives up demand and the cycle repeats itself. Seems like a simple plan and it seemed to be working! I felt secure because I had my already secured my first masternode. Now the hard part would be learning how to program my new money machine. This is where I learned the true value of what I had just found. It wasn't this coin, the masternode, and wasn't Max Lee. It was something greater. Something deeper and to its core what will be the true fuel behind this Hodler movement. It is the community. They are the driving force behind it all. Even if they don't know it yet...
If you're looking to dive deeper into the rabbit hole...
This video entitled, Story of My Life, gives you a deep insight on the character and background of the face of this movement.
And just for fun...