Bitcoin bombed today, or so I hear.
Naturally, STEEM fell again... or at least I expect it did. Actually, it seems to fall off a cliff quite frequently. And oh well to that.
The thrill of the chase.
I think I have finally reached that point where the gamification of the blockchain is far more important and meaningful to me than any actual appreciation of value in the near term.
What I mean by that is that after 20 years of investing in individual stocks, the one thing I found to be true was that my own concerns about trying to trade my way into value often led to my own missteps. Taking profits too early, ignoring warning signs too late, etc.
But what kept me going at it in the end was the thrill of the game of possibly becoming a self-made man and finding that one underappreciated company all others ignored in the moment.
I'm doing fine investment-wise, don't get me wrong, but the real value in all this to me ultimately became the pursuit of the hard research and daily interaction in the world of financial markets that broke up my 40-hour mind-numbing work week chained to a cubicle. It was much less about winning it all right now, but more about the flower-filled path of discovery alongside the road to do just that.
And so we come to STEEM.
In many ways, STEEM is the exact same as the former, but cranked up 10 notches on the volatility scale.
The main difference though, is that you can't play with your stocks. You can with your STEEM.
If stocks are basketball cards, STEEM is the video game 'NBA Live 19'. I can actually do stuff with my STEEM and the ecosystem its providing. I can be playing blockchain games, writing about it, and earning STEEM-derived BATTLE tokens for example. How amazing is that.
So at the end of the day some many years from now, I might make some dough here - that'd be awesome. Could also lose it all too.
But what I know is that I frickin' love this place and the stuff I can do here every single day. That in itself is worth the several thousand dollars I have poured into this ecosystem.
And for that, the thrill of maintaining my stake in it is becoming more about daily doing stuff rather than only trying to make a pile riches out of it. If that comes one day in the future, great. But until then I will be mentally ready to turn out the lights for all y'all should that day never come.
