Cryptocurrencies - Your Key to Financial Freedom AMA

I've been tracking the crypto space since Bitcoin was invented and bought my first Bitcoin in 2013 and has been using every cent of my savings to buy cryptocurrencies ever since.

I can now comfortably retire. Which other investment allows you to do that in less than 10 years.

Ask me anything about the cryptocurrency space, there's no such thing as a "silly" question. I think this goes without being said, but I'm going to say it anyway. None of what I say here is financial advice, I do not hold an AFS license, you should seek advice from a licensed professional before making any investment decisions. If you are making investment decisions from some random guy on the internet without doing your own research and due diligence, you should stop immediately!

There's all these controversy about property prices "surging" or becoming unaffordable, not for me, if you invest in the right asset, property is actually getting cheaper and cheaper. Property prices in Bitcoin terms has been decreasing and will continue to as Bitcoin increases in price at a faster pace. So to me, property is progressively getting cheaper and cheaper.

Update:

For those who would like to find out more about cryptocurrencies and why I think Bitcoin is here to stay and will be more valuable in the future, head over to hope.com and watch some of the videos. This site was set up by the CEO of MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor who's company bought an aggregate of approximately 90,531 bitcoins, which were acquired at an aggregate purchase price of approximately $USD2.171 billion and an average purchase price of approximately $USD23,985 per bitcoin, inclusive of fees and expenses as of 24th Feb 2021.

To those who think that I "got lucky" and was "fortunate", that's very far from the truth. I saw this coming, I knew that with rampant money printing by central banks, fiat currency is going to zero and it has been doing so for centuries. All fiat currencies have gone to the zero, in history, there has not been any fiat currency that didn't go to zero. So Bitcoin's rise is inevitable to me, hence I bought it. I didn't go as far as that family who sold everything to buy Bitcoin, but I did use nearly all of my savings to buy cryptos.

Common criticisms of Bitcoin

  • Its just like Tulip mania
    Bitcoin is nothing like Tulips, Bitcoin is a decentalised and censorship resistant network which enables values to be transferred across the internet at very low cost. The value of Bitcoin is the strength of its network and the fact that it has never been breach or hacked, which means unless someone steals your private key, your coins are safe.
    Tulips has none of these qualities. The only thing which Bitcoin and Tulips have in common is the fact they both went up in value very quickly. Even then there are differences, Tulips went up and crashed all within 3 years. Bitcoin has gone through at least 3 cycles where it has smashed its previous all time highs and never dipped below the starting point of the cycle.
    Bitcoin has recorded a higher year on year low every single year since its existence except for 2015.

  • The Bitcoin network uses too much energy
    This is just market supply and demand. People mine Bitcoin because it is profitable to do so. The Bitcoin network do not require so many miners, in fact it started with just one miner. The network can continue with just one miner, it adjusts as more miners enter and leave, this is built into the network. The high energy used by Bitcoin is a sign that it is valuable and people are willing to make the effort in participating in the effort in securing the network and be rewarded for it.
    Due to the profit motive, the energy sources used by Bitcoin miner are increasingly from green energy sources reducing its impact on the environment.

  • It is used for criminal activity
    Fiat currencies are used on a much much larger scale by criminals. Banks launder money for criminal, there's been so many scandals, and those are just the ones which make it to the media, I'm sure a lot goes undetected.
    Bitcoin is actually very bad for criminal activity, this is why they quickly moved onto privacy coins like Monero and Zcash. The Bitcoin blockchain is public and all transactions remain there forever. If a drug deal is done with cash, unless there's a recording device there at the time of the transaction, that drug transaction is untraceable. If you do a drug transaction with Bitcoin, that transaction will always be on the blockchain, all it takes is for law enforcement to tie one address to a real person, and the entire web unravels, so its not very smart using Bitcoin for criminal activity.

My Crypto mistakes and other pitfalls

I want to go over some of the ways I lost money in crypto over the years so maybe you can learn from my mistake

  • Scam websites
    In 2014, there was a website called Bitcoin savings bank, which promises 9%pa interest if I transferred my Bitcoin there. Very similar to what Crypto.com, Blockfi etc offer today, except they are scammers. Unfortunately, I didn't do my research and I believed them. I transferred 2BTC to their "savings account". Never saw it again.
    Nowadays, these sites are very obvious, they promise hourly returns, like 10% every 2 hours. This is impossible to consistently do, they are all scams, don't fall for them.

  • Double your coins scam
    This is quite famous, there are many variants, but essential it just entails you sending your coins and double or some very good return percentage will return. Its a scam, you will get nothing. Fortunately, I have never fallen for these.

  • Pump and dump groups
    These are almost always scams, there are more losers than winners. Yes you may win one time, take it and walk away, but most likely you will lose. I lost more than 1BTC in this. I'm still part of the groups to monitor, but I never participate anymore. Neither should you. They also have these VIP or "inner circle" groups, where they promise you early notification of the coin to pump for a fee. Don't fall for this. They might also have an inner inner circle group or VIP+, where they promise to take your Bitcoin and buy the coins for you, to maximize your returns. These are definitely scams, they will take your Bitcoin and then block you on telegram.

  • Fake wallet apps
    These apps emulate popular wallet apps and asks you for your seed phrases and private keys so they can steal your crypto. Treat your seed phrases and private keys as private. NO ONE should know, not even staff members of the hardware wallet company. Its like your online banking password, no bank employee should ask for that. If any app do, delete it IMMEDIATELY.

  • Leveraged trading
    I lost around 1 BTC (worth around $5-6k USD at the time). I tried to pick the bottom during the 2018 bear market, the Bitcoin price was quite stable and stagnant around the $5500-$6000k mark, so around Nov 2018, I thought that was the bottom and went in with a leverage long. The market went off a cliff dropping down to $3500. I got liquidated, lost the 1 BTC I deposited. I never touched leverage trading again. Its very hard to pick tops and bottoms, so now I just dollar cost average and periodically buy and hold. You don't need to worry about being liquidated if you do this, it will help you sleep better at night haha.


Mod Note: The user is not associated with TechLead YouTube channel.

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Comments

  • Gm fam,

    The time to take your Bitcoin of CEX was yesterday, last week, last month, last year.

    "You have the freedom to control your money", @MartyBent educating millions about #bitcoin and the importance of holding your own keys.
    https://t.co/pvrIHyhlkp

    Not your πŸ”‘, not your Bitcoin.

  • +1

    Yesterday, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice sent us a Mareva Injunction, ordering us to freeze and disclose information about the assets involved in the #FreedomConvoy2022 movement.

    Here is our official response. https://t.co/iuxliXhN5y

    • It demonstrates the power of the decentralised nature of Bitcoin. I'm supportive of that.

      I'm also supportive of the need to stop funds going to terrorists. The Canadian government should follow the money on the blockchain and if they try to cash it out, via a centralised exchange or bank, then freeze the funds.

      If its a convoy, it should be moving, it should go somewhere not occupy the streets, infringing on the rights of a majority of Canadians. Those occupiers are just a very noisy minority, they don't have majority support in Canada.

      I love that last paragraph haha, so true, all fiat currencies go to zero, its a given.

    • Looks like these road blocking shenanigans have arrived in Australia, do you support this?

      https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/news/protesters-cau…

      They got dragged off. Did the police violate their "rights'? What about my rights to use the road?

      • +1

        I'm indifferent to protests.

        What I do support is sovereign property rights, censorship-resistant, seizure proof, anti-discriminatory and cross border monetary networks. Networks that don't judge or care about their users. Networks that can't be sanctioned by anyone or anything just because the people that use them have different beliefs.

        • +2

          I agree with that.

          That's why we are in crypto. The response from a non-custodial wallet to the judge in Canada is boss level. That's why writing to a Bitcoin developer asking for a Bitcoin address to be frozen.

  • Looks like dip is on. I'm holding off dollar cost averaging. I think Russia will attack, when it does, shares and crypto will fall.

    I have liquidated all of my exchange balances into stablecoins last week. I'm sitting tight with my hodl position though.

  • "A massive leak from one of the world’s biggest private banks, Credit Suisse, has exposed the hidden wealth of clients involved in torture, drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption and other serious crimes."

    https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/feb/20/credit-suisse-s…

    So much for crypto only benefiting the criminals

    • +1

      What fuels criminal enterprise the most? It ain't crypto. lol

      Every day fiat (USD, AUD, GBP etc) is just in criminal enterprise way more than crypto.

  • +1

    First πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦ truckers, now πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦ resistance fighters.

    Bitcoin donations to the Ukrainian military are soaring as Russia invades
    https://twitter.com/CNBC/status/1496951697524113408?t=fiS9sI…
    https://t.co/gTdOv8OD4W

    It took 13Y to get here but the wait was worth it.

    • Russia will also use Bitcoin to bypass sanctions.

    • I hope you bought the dip, I did when Russia invaded and all the weak hands sold. I have no idea why they'd do that. Crypto will only go higher as Russia will turn to it to bypass sanctions.

      Russia has actually built up a huge reserve, they planned to do this for a long time, so sanctions are not going to hurt it. It hurts Europe more with higher gas prices.

      • So you have a Looney who has lost his risk/reward attitude of the past with his nukes being called to high alert .
        Now more than ever the chances of people seeing what happens to cryptos during EMB is on .
        Wait for my call of the real true dip and you will be surprised the price it will be hehe :)

        • Its just posturing. We have seen the worse of it. Don't get left behind. Those calling for $20k Bitcoin are still waiting haha.

      • +1

        TSLA and LUNA.

        • +1

          Nice, Bitcoin and cryptos are decoupling from the stock market now

        • +2

          I've heard of the first one but I can't find the second one on any listings.

          • @CrowReally: Try CMC.

            • +1

              @rektrading: I play the shell game every now and then at a carnival, but it's like, one dollar, two dollar stuff.

              Thanks anyway.

  • hope.com

    LOL

    • Its very educational

      • Saylor, like most maximalists, is a little bit nuts.

        • He's a lot richer than all of us combined, so he must be doing something right.

          • +1

            @techlead: Lots of rich people are also douchenozzles.

            • @Zorlin: True, but they don't care and they are not affected by what others think. Its a popularity contest. They are not rich because they are likeable.

              • @techlead: Pity nobody with actual noble goals owns hope.com. What an awful waste.

                • +1

                  @Zorlin: As of 2019 in the US, the top 10% holds 70% of the country's wealth while the bottom 50% holds only 2% of the country's wealth. I think it would be alot lopsided now. Covid has benefited the top greatly while the bottom has been very negatively affected.

                  That's how it is. That's life

                  • @techlead: What a normal and not-at-all-non-sequitur reply. Bravo.

                    • @Zorlin: We live in a democracy and this inequality is still happening. Don't know what the solution is. Its above my pay grade

            • @Zorlin: So what? What's your point? I don't think they care.

              I don't consider myself "rich", to me that's like $200+ million, but if someone thought that about me, I couldn't care less. My wealth or happiness has no bearing on their opinion. They can think whatever they like.

              • -1

                @techlead: Coming back months later just to reply, huh? Not at all sad. Totally normal. Completely fine. Lmfao.

                I'm glad to see I live rent free in your head.

                • @Zorlin: lmao

                  I was replying to a comment below and just scrolled up and saw your comment. I don't comment very often on OzB, I've got other stuff to do.

                  • -4

                    @techlead: Normal, fine, completely okay. It's okay, buddy, it's going to be alright.

                    You'd already replied to my comment months ago, why the need to make another inane one?

  • -1

    First πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦ and now πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦?

    I'm asking all major crypto exchanges to block addresses of Russian users.

    It's crucial to freeze not only the addresses linked to Russian and Belarusian politicians, but also to sabotage ordinary users.
    https://twitter.com/FedorovMykhailo/status/14979225884917923…

    Why do governments think that they can steal money from people that are different from them?

    This demand won't go down well with the Bitcoin community.

    • +1

      Yea, that request should be ignored.

  • lol

  • Alt coin season now?

    • +1

      It's best to be in #Bitcoin when stonks are selling off.

      • +1

        Definitely, right now, its either Bitcoin or just fiat is the best.

        Buy the dip, that's what I've been doing. I put my buy orders at the resistance levels and just let the market go down to it.

  • For those following, the UST peg has been broken which is causing LUNA to dump. This goes to show the risks associated with so called β€˜stablecoins’.

    https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/terrausd/

    • +1

      It's an arb opportunity.

      Load up on UST and wait for it to peg and convert to USDT for 65% profit.

      • What about LUNA? I bought speculatively at $30

        • Nice buy.

          I was busy when it damp to $26 because of liquidations.

          • +2

            @rektrading: I was in a meeting when it went to $23 USD, but I was able to buy after the meeting at around $26-27. I had $300k USDT staked in Binance, I used $200k of it to buy Luna. Its a steal at these prices.

            I'm apologizing in advance to those who had to sell Luna to me at those prices. Very sorry for taking your profits.

            • @techlead: Nice snipe.

              I can remember the same thing happening to MakerDAO when the market nuked in 2020.

              The πŸ₯¬ πŸ™Œ damp Ether while the πŸ’ͺ πŸ™Œ bought it up.

              • +1

                @rektrading: I'm loving these bargains atm. I have plenty of dry powder, if it drops more, I will buy more.

                This is the perfect time to be buying, not when BTC and the alts are at all time highs. If you liked Bitcoin at $69k, you should love it at $30k.

                • @techlead: My limit orders at $30,000 #Bitcoin didn't get hit.

                  I know some CEX went to sub $30,000.

                  😑

                  . #BTC could come down again to catch some of the missing orders. 🀞

                  • +1

                    @rektrading: It did go below $30k, Kucoin went sub $30k. I had an order at $29888, it got hit. So happy.

                    • @techlead: It must've been the spread.

                      • +1

                        @rektrading: It was chaotic I think. People panicking doing market sell orders. I love these. That's why I have orders ready, its the luck of the draw of course.

            • @techlead: Ouch. How confident are you for a recovery?

            • @techlead: I hope you're bullshitting dude.

              • +1

                @TheKas: Bullshitting about?

                I did buy Luna, along with a whole heap of other alt coins. All of those buys are up, with the exception of Luna which has turned to dust of course.

            • +1

              @techlead:

              I'm apologizing in advance to those who had to sell Luna to me at those prices. Very sorry for taking your profits.

              wow, usually stuff like that takes a while to look stupid in hindsight. Literally world record pace on this one. The hubris is stunning.

              • +2

                @cloudy: Haha, I admit I got Luna wrong. Not a life changing mistake, unlike what some people are saying in Twitter and telegram, learn from the mistake and move on.

                Crypto is here to stay, this debacle with Luna is not going to affect the rest of the crypto market in the long term. Short term, there will be some volatility and contagion.

              • +1

                @cloudy: Just did a quick calculation, the gain from my dip buying for my other non-Luna coins is more than what I have lost in Luna. The market is pumping at the moment. It could be a relief rally, it could be the start of a new bull run, time will tell, I know that the crypto industry will survive, so I'd rather be in the market than try to time it or sit on the sidelines.

                I took a punt, made a bet that Luna would survive, I lost, I was wrong. In hindsight I should have seen it go to zero due to the relationship with UST. Live and learn.

                • @techlead:

                  st did a quick calculation, the gain from my dip buying for my other non-Luna coins is more than what I have lost in Luna

                  Wow nice, what did you buy and what prices if you don’t mind sharing.

      • Not really an arb, you are taking a hopefully calculated risk.

        • A stablecoin losing its peg is an inefficiency in the market orchestrated by big players.

          Follow CT in the next few hours/days for reports on who did what to depeg it.

          • @rektrading: Not really much to it than supply and demand.

            You can't create 14 billion tokens without having a place to park them, aka a demand for them.

            https://i.imgur.com/tkaQrTj.png

            A ratio of 720mil :31 mil is incredibly lopsided.

            The same way those in power print $ and markets miraculously jump higher. The item doesn't have more value, there's just more $ chasing the same (or fewer) items.

            • @idjces: Scared hands have been selling UST at a -25.0% to -40.0% discount.

              The users on the other side of the trade buy UST and burn it for LUNA which then props up the yield reserve.

              • @rektrading: What needs to happen for UST to regain its peg? And how likely is it?

                • @El-Rhi: UST will repeg when users stop overreacting and start buying it again.

                  The best thing to do is to claim down, take a πŸ’Ί and ⌚ the market.

              • +1

                @rektrading: and then sell the luna to get back their starting funds…

                only what, another 1 billion in ust > luna to be dumped on the market 🀣

                • +3

                  @idjces: Luna is here to stay, the peg may be broken for now, but once the market settles, it will be back.

                  People are panicking right now, which is amazing. I love panic, this is what I've been watching for. When people panic, I buy and take their profits.

                  • @techlead: What are you buying at the moment?

                  • +1

                    @techlead: |Luna is here to stay

                    That's a pretty confident statement considering you had similar confidence in BTC which is now 40% lower than when you started this thread ~14 months back.

                    Not throwing stones or anything, just saying i'm yet to see anyone's confidence in market outcomes ever end up being remotely accurate.

                    • +1

                      @idjces: -40.0%, is that all?

                      Pull up $AMZN and have a πŸ‘€ how it did to make Jeff Bezos wealthy.

                      People that vomit after -40.0% should sell now. They don't deserve a seat on the way to the top.

                      • +1

                        @rektrading: Have people checked the Facebook (down 35.87% YTD) share price?

                        I bought some Tesla when Elon was dumping to pay for Twitter, just a small position

                        • +1

                          @techlead: Got $TSLA under $800 on Monday.

                          Waiting for the man to call a stonks split at the next meeting.

                          • +1

                            @rektrading: I don't think he is splitting under $1000. Either way, Tesla will do fine.

                            I'm starting to see alot of Teslas on the road, despite a crazy luxury car tax, people are still buying them.

                    • +1

                      @idjces: If you bought in when I did, you'd share my confidence. If you truly understand how Bitcoin works, you'd also share my confidence. 40% down is nothing. I've held Bitcoin from $19900 down to $3300. Many have said what you said to me at $3300, and I just confidently bought the dip.

                      You can see how that worked out. The market may continue to fall, who knows, I can never time the dip, but I don't need to. If it drops more, I will buy more.

                      What's your definition of "accurate"? I don't make any time bound predictions on price. When Bitcoin was at $1000, I told people, it will be $10k and beyond some day and they all laughed in my face. The few that didn't are very happy today. The few that didn't AND held onto their Bitcoin are very happy, as some of my friends got cold feet after a "30% crash" at around the $2k level lmao. I told them, if you can't stomach the rollercoaster, get off the ride, go into debt and buy some property or put your money in a term deposit (not financial advice).

                      I will make a similar prediction now, Bitcoin will be $100k and $1 million each some day, when? I don't know, but it will happen some day.

                      • @techlead:

                        If you truly understand how Bitcoin works, you'd also share my confidence.

                        im pretty confident I understand how it and most crypto works, since I spend so much time following it. Its fascinating, at best I can probably just say its a fairer system.

                        I dont share your confidence in which way the price will move. People think theyre geniuses until "what always worked" … doesn`t

                        • @idjces: I guess only time will tell. :D

                          Sit back and watch the popcorn. Were you following all the Tether FUD before? What came of that? Let's see how that plays out. I have a sizeable position in USDT, but I also have other stablecoins too.

                          • @techlead: haha yep

                            Was watching some guys trying to hold hedged short usdt positions, eventually borrowing rates on usdt soared and all the large dex markets were lopsiding a lot.

                            So far every algo stablecoin seems to blow up in spectacular fashion… not going to make any predictions either way

                            • @idjces: This is why I don't touch leverage trading. Read my original post, the final section about leverage trading.

                              I only do spot now, and I sleep very well at night. I set my buy orders, wake up, if they are hit, that's good, if not, I re-assess and set more buy orders. All spot, no liquidation level, no funding rate no stress.

                              Let's see how UST goes. Temporary blow up, but if it survives, it could be huge.

                              • +2

                                @techlead: Still confident UST will recover? This looks like a complete crash to 0. I'm not about to panic sell but I don't have a great amount of confidence it can come back from this. Who would believe in this project after what's happened the last few days?

                                • @fLaMePrO: You heard the dude, it's here to stay. Why would he say that unless it turns out crypto is just a massive guessing game?

  • +2

    enjoy the terra dump boys

    more to come

    • +5

      There goes the $200k techlead threw in less than 24 hours ago. One -70% drop followed up by another -70% drop.

      Damn, sorry dude

      • wonder how this will affect the staking that terra offers

      • +1

        Hope he had a stop loss set

    • +3

      UST going to zero by the looks

  • Claim down.

    The VC will let this play out before picking up the πŸ’³.

  • So when is it time to go Terra shopping?

    • +1

      I've been buying since $26.

      • Never if this is Iron Finance 2.0

      • +1

        How can it recover? The peg is like 30 cents. Surely it will continue to get arbitraged into non existence?

        How do you see Luna recovering?

        Currently some whale feeding pump/ dump opportunity around the human psyche level of $1 (48% in 1hr). But the peg being out will ultimately continue to bring it down…i think?

        • -1

          $UST will repeg when it's finished burning for $LUNA.

          • @rektrading: But then everyone holding UST will dump it when it gets close to repegging. So Luna would have to go to 0.0000001 ..again..i think?

            • @tunzafun001: The protocol will burn $1 UST = $1 LUNA. It will repeg when it can't burn UST.

              • @rektrading: I have a longer term view, Luna at $1 is virtually at $0, so I need to have a position in Luna. I didn't before this crash, now I do and I will hodl it, its not a 1 or 2 day trade for me.

                The dust will settle. There's panic and fear at the moment. I love panic and fear, that's when I make the most money.

                • @techlead: Bro u just lost all your $200k plus more on Terra. Just admit it and move on. I still have respect for you for believing in btc and accumulating it. I'm gonna buy some more ftm, mana, theta, dot, vet, enj, egld.

            • @tunzafun001: My prediction (now below) turned out to be a pretty good prediction. Luna was trading at $5 at the time.

              I see people are buying it again.

              The LFG are a bunch of crooks. They knew exactly what was going to happen. Dont touch anything they are involved in EVER, or the crypto industry will never have any credibility… Looking at you PCB, PB, Mound…award winning project.. "Exploited" 4 times

        • UST is now back up to $0.68 USD. It can easily recover, its just going to yo yo around until the dust settles.

          • @techlead: Recover to what though? a fraction of a cent? I would think those who are holding bags of UST will be pretty worried and continue to dump it very soon, forcing more downward pressure on Luna.

            If it was 95c maybe i'd say its close, but 68c is still WAY off (especially with heavy selling still to come).

            What do you think the bottom is roughly? It surely has to at least go under a cent yeah? and how does Luna as an entity continue to operate with no liquidity?

            You guys are definitely way smarter than me and seem confident of a recovery?

            • @tunzafun001: LFG still has $150M in their reserves. That is more than enough to rebuild.

              Them showing that UST can repeg is the first step.

              • @rektrading: So what do guys think the bottom will be roughly for Luna?

                I read somewhere DoKwon was asking to increase the available Luna circulation so UST has more headroom. But means it can go lower.

                Is it safe to say dont touch Luna until it's close to repegging? Aa the protocol is sending it down, therefore the alternate must be true, so you could chuck some coin on UST as the protocol is pressuring it up!

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