Another Friday, another day of red. This is getting to be a bit of a trend isn't it? March has been pretty rough. I saw some news this morning that the SEC has dropped their case against Crypto.com, but apparently that is a sell the news sort of event. As I have said in the past, I haven't really been watching the markets as closely lately. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the growing consensus that the bull market might not really happen this cycle like we thought.
Somehow, memecoins haven't totally lost their lustre and new ones are getting listed every day. Even worse, people are buying them. It's a bit maddening to say the least. In addition to that, I've had some big projects at work that have been keeping me busy anyway. This is one of those times that I am overjoyed crypto is more of a hobby for me and not something I rely on for my regular income.
It is time again for another Finance Friday/Friday Finance. This is a series I started where I talk about random bits of financial stuff that I have seen, gathered, or experienced during the week. I hope as a reader you find it informational, entertaining, or both. I also hope it can generate some good discussion and edify the community.
ā-----------------
As my account inches closer to the 100K staked HP mark, I have been thinking more and more about curation. It's going to become more important for my growth in the future. I may need to start adjusting some of my votes so I can make my power go a little further. I will give updates on that in the future.
It appears I have slid down to the #77 position as far as node operators go. I don't think it will impact my earnings too much, but it is still a bit disappointing to see that I have slid down the charts. My guess is it is more likely others have jumped above me, but there really isn't much I can do about that.
I was checking my email this morning and one of my colleagues from a public school district in the southern part of the state posted a question to the group listserv that we are all part of. He was asking if anyone had materials or resources for running a crypto miner (strictly for educational purposes). It's going to be interesting to see what kind of response he gets to his question.
In my past experience, this group of people have been pretty anti-crypto. Similar to the gamer community, it kind of blows me away. You would think this group would be pioneering this technology and excited about it. Back in the day, these guys were running their own fiber and creating small campus networks just because they could and they wanted to learn how it all worked.
Now, a new technology like crypto comes along and they join the masses mocking it, shunning it, and spreading the FUD. I might reach out to the guy and see if there is anything I can do to help though I haven't really done much mining myself.
I was having this conversation the other day via email with a person I work with and he was saying part of the reason he was looking at a particular hardware wallet was because it came with a card you could use like a regular debit card.
That got us talking about the other services that offer cards like that and I was telling him that I had used BitPay in the past to buy some precious metals off APMEX. At least that's how I remember it. I can't seem to find if that is an accepted payment method for them now, but I did notice they take various forms of crypto. I'm curious, are there other places like APMEX where you can buy precious metals with crypto? Feel free to drop me some thoughts and ideas in the comments.
As I sit here and continue to watch the prices tumble, it's hard not to think about what things are going to look like later in the year. I was telling 
It's crypto though, so who really knows!?
All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or 
