Let me start this off by saying that I 100% believe that cryptographic digital assets are the future, and blockchain technology (or some variation of it) will change the world as we know it. However- we are failing this revolutionary technology and the companies behind it every day. Why, you might ask? Because of sheer ignorance and greed.
It's not really our fault though, right? When talk of "mooning" and "lambo gains" is dangled in front of everyone, why wouldn't we be focused on strict monetary reward? Not to mention "those lucky bastards" (who we constantly hate on by the way) that invested in the space before June of 2017 and held a little Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, and Litecoin- they certainly are sitting on some very nice gains in their portfolios. Why can't we have that? I saw Tai Lopez (moron) talk about "crypto Bitcoin" and pizza in the same video so I put $10k in it, why isn't it worth $1 million yet? I'll give you a clue- ignorance and greed.
Unfortunately, we have turned a highly advanced technological space into a raving joke filled with greed, stupidity, and lack of experience. It may sound harsh, but it's true! How many people do you know who have invested in cryptocurrency and can even begin to explain blockchain, proof of work, cryptography, mining, or even could tell you what a public key is (Crypto Nick)? There are certainly people trying to learn, but there are far too many people who just want to sit back and count their millions and who are enamored by the latest "cheap, hot alt coin" to invest in.
I get it. Really, I do. As soon as someone logs onto coinmarketcap and sees some cryptocurrency up 25% in one day or more, insanity begins. Said person quickly scrambles all the money they can muster up, frantically Googles "how to buy (insert cryptocurrency here)", and dumps it all in with a smile on their face, imagining how in 3 months they will be able to retire and just live off their genius investment income. The problem is- that doesn't happen to 99.99% of the people who invest in cryptocurrency. The overwhelming majority have hardly broken even, with a large percentage of those people incurring significant losses. Regardless, the greed associated with the lingering "100x gain" takes control and decisions become reckless.
Greed and ignorance alone would hurt anyones investment portfolio, but guess what? There are people who want to exploit your greed for personal gain. It's bad enough that most people aren't educated enough in the space to identify a good project from a bad one, but scammers identified this and came in droves to take your money. Think of all the scams in cryptocurrency that walked away with millions of dollars, and laughed all the way to the bank only to probably scam you again. The likes of BitConnect, Prodeum, OneCoin, BitBase, Davor, Laser, RibbonCoin, Confido, and many others have scammed the cryptocurrency space out of millions and millions of dollars- and they aren't going to stop until it stops working. You know what would stop these scammers? EDUCATION.
This isn't a stab at any one person, and is certainly not meant to discourage you from investing if you don't understand everything about cryptocurrency. What it IS meant to do, is challenge you to LEARN. No one expects the whole population to be able to write code on the bitcoin core development team, but I think the space would be VASTLY better if we simply took the time to learn a little bit about the space we so passionately invest in. A good tip? Find a good, educational source (you can find mine here) either on Steemit, YouTube, Reddit, CoinDesk, or any other blog site and dedicate a couple hours a week to learning more about the inner workings of cryptocurrency. After a few weeks, you will find yourself more intelligently evaluating projects, and mid to long term your investment portfolio will make significant strides.
If you are educated in cryptocurrency- SHARE IT! The more we can help the collective unit that is interested in the space, the better off we all will be. We can all make it through this- but we have to do it together, and intelligently. Take that feeling you have after reading this, and apply it to gradually educating yourself about this technology that will shape the future of our society.
-Danny Yelverton "Crypto 99"