The Level Playing Field (Part 1)

Cryptocurrency. As a new asset class, there's a lot that can be said about this new technology. Some people think it's a great investment. Others think it is a hedge against inflation. And yet others still, see it as a way to obtain true financial freedom. Whichever way you decide to view blockchain and all the digital currencies that come with it, one thing is for certain - we are at an inflection point. Think of it like the first time people saw a mobile phone. The first time people saw the internet. The first time people saw a flying plane or a riding car. This is exactly the point we are at now with blockchain and cryptocurrency. When something with so much potential to disrupt by creating new industries (and destroying them) arrives on the scene and confuses the people. It's so new, they don't know how to make heads or tails of it.

However, just as with the internet, mobile phones, cars, and commercial airplanes, some early adopters believed in what it could be and invested. Imagine if you were one of the first people to invest in Apple, Google, Ford Motors, or American airlines when they took their first steps out into the world. Imagine if you were one of the first people to invest in bitcoin when you could get 50 of them for under $1. Just like these revolutionary products I listed before, I firmly believe that blockchain and cryptocurrencies are the next big disruption the average person like you and I can get our hands on. Big opportunities like this tend to come only once every few decades and then what's more, is that there's only a small amount of time before it's out of the reach of regular people like you and me. Why?

Because with time, the government and corporations will seek to control everything.

It's a sad reality, but the truth is, due to greed, financial survival is increasingly a competition between citizens and the people that rule over them. Those that are in charge and the big corporations who "donate" to them (via campaign contributions, personal donations, favors, special discounts, lobbying, etc) do not want to lose their status, so they will do everything in their power to prevent something new. If that is not possible, then they will try to control it. Hopefully, you see by now how this connects to cryptocurrency. As nobody got the chance to ban blockchain and cryptocurrency while it was still young, now corporations and their people in the government have no choice but to try and control it.

Though, let me tell you something cool: they're going to need time before they get that control. It is precisely during this time that you need to invest if you truly want to be on a level playing field.

The Two-Headed Monster

If you've read my prior post about big traditional banks getting into cryptocurrency behind our backs, you will understand this next point. One head of the monster, corporations, need time to control markets because they are often regulated by the second head of the monster: government. Whether filing patents to protect their way of being the only supplier of something, to lobbying for government regulation that'd make them the only legal or preferred supplier of something (like Sam Bankman-Fried tried to do with FTX), it's a lengthy process. When a corporation or corporations try to control a market or industry, it usually goes like this:

• Identify Potential Market Profit
• Analyze Market Mechanics
• Test Pilot Small Market Projects
• File Patents To Secure Their Way Of Moving Into Market
• Lobby Government Officials To Secure Their Position In Market
• Support Regulation That Restricts Outsiders From Moving Into Market

Once all of these steps are accomplished, that market/industry becomes controlled and stable, which is exactly what governments and corporations need to thrive. Which is exactly why they can't wrap their heads around cryptocurrency. It is anything but stable and controlled. A project could be a top 10 token in one year and vanish the next. A coin could easily lose 50% of its value in a matter of days. If you lose money investing in a project due to fraud, there's very little chance you will get all of your money back.

Right now, cryptocurrency is the Wild West and it's that volatility that keeps any corporation or traditional government away. The people in it and the market they make up is what makes it all go. It's probably one of the industries still left whose market movements are still controlled by you and me, "the people". Sure there is over-the-counter trading, whales trying to manipulate prices, and corporations purposely putting out tons of negative information, but the thing is, any one of them could lose money.

No matter how rich a whale, business savvy a hedge fund manager, or connected a corporation, crypto is resistant to all that.

• FTX liquidators lost thousands trying to figure out how to get money out of Decentralized Finance.
• Millionaire Kevin O'Leary not only got tricked by Sam Bankman-Fried, but lost millions investing in FTX too.
• BitBoy and countless other crypto YouTubers have had their funds stuck in bankrupt platforms like Celsius and Voyager.
• One of the biggest cryptocurrency Venture Capital Funds, Digital Currency Group, owes Gemini ( a crypto exchange) close to 1 billion dollars.

Whereas in some places like the stock market, where it's mainly the average person like you and I losing money playing options, in cryptocurrency, everybody sucks. Any one of us, big or small could get wiped out. There is an opportunity here to be on the same starting line as everyone, fighting to run the same distance as everybody else. As I try to limit my blog reading time to about 5 minutes, I will end this topic here and pick it back up in a future post.

What I hope you get from this is an understanding of where we are in the two-headed monster control cycle. We are clearly on step 4. If you want to beat the corporations and governments trying to control cryptocurrency, the time to get in is now. If you want to make money with this new opportunity, the time is now. And hopefully, with enough of us, we might not even have to give up control at all.