Question: Cryptos — Which ones, and when?
Answer: Two, and right now
Waiting for the (painfully slow) transfer of funds from one Bitcoin wallet to another — both my own, in order to be able to buy Stellar Lumens with Bitcoins (since you can’t buy Lumens directly with fiat paper currencies, it being too new) I have the painfully clear demonstration of exactly why Lumens are superior to Bitcoin: because nobody wants to wait for hours for a transaction via Bitcoin when they can have it done and complete via Lumens in seconds. Case proven — and I have not yet even purchased my first Lumen.
Recommend to buy in modest amounts: Bitcoins (BTC, on Coinbase) (still, because they are still going to be valuable for quite some time, and will almost certainly rise much higher in value yet, especially if Amazon announces it is going to accept Bitcoins, as it now seems probable they will); and more importantly perhaps, Lumens (XLM, on Binance, using Bitcoins transferred from Coinbase). I would do both before Monday, if I were you. Think small investments, for long-term hold.
Note that while Bitcoin is down 30% over the past month from a peak in December — which makes it a good time to buy — it is up 1,000% over the past year. And the big money has yet to pour in, and is about to pour in.
As to Stellar Lumens, it is a new generation of crypto-currency, which will likely do as well or better than Bitcoin, for a number of reasons. Among them: it is faster, processing exchanges in seconds rather than hours; it is specifically designed to be a platform for global currency exchange; and it has the backing of more than one corporate giant. And Lumens are trading today for $0.62 — and will probably rise to the December highs of Bitcoin, of over $20,000, and then go higher.
There are over 800 crypto-currencies in existence now. According to the best analysts in the field, most of them are worthless, or simply scams. Bitcoin and Lumen stand out as probable candidates to survive the long term, and not only hold their value, despite the inevitable fluctuations of new currencies, but greatly increase their value over the long term. Long term investment in wisely chosen crypto-currencies should be the focus. And these are the two I would recommend.
Two important tipping point events are highly probable this year, with regards to crypto-currencies and their widespread adoption. Both of them could happen by Monday; the other by Tuesday. Investment after these tipping points will still show good returns, but the biggest returns will quite possibly be over be over. You decide how to handle that information.
Sorry for the short notice, but while I’ve been following crypto-currencies for over three years, I just learned about these two potential tipping points, or triggers for mass adoption, over the past 36 hours.
But, in any case, I would recommend that you either risk a small amount based on my word — a very small amount — or better, dig into some research for yourself, and then invest, and maybe with a slightly larger, but still modest amount. (If you go above $100, be sure to do your own research — naturally.)
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I won’t repeat the reasons here, again, why crypto-currencies are not going away, and why, like the internet, they are not a fad. If that is not yet understood, then you should dig deeper, and do your own homework. But do note this: Bill Gates has recently said that crypto-currencies are, “the future of money” — as did James Altucher, the leading crypto-investment analyst, before that.
I will only address here two points: what crypto-currencies to invest in, if you are going to invest in any; and whether you can afford to invest at all. The first question I just answered.
As to the second: If you go out for meals, eat take-out food, fast food, junk food, donuts, buy new clothes, beer, wine, or even coffee at a coffee shop — ever — then you can afford to invest $50 each in Bitcoins and Lumens.
It’s an investment, which means it involves risk. Only death is certain. Nothing else is guaranteed. But, as the saying goes, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”. And if you’re going to blow 50 bucks on frivolous superfluities anyway, why not take a chance with a tiny investment on something that could potentially pay off big? As Virgil said, “Fortune favours the bold.”
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Let me make it perfectly clear. I’m not interested in get rich quick schemes. I’m not interested in getting rich at all. If I was interested in getting rich, I would have been a stock broker — I certainly wouldn’t have devoted three decades to philosophy, social and political analysis, and writing. I’m interested in helping people. Period.
Certainly I’m not motivated by power, riches or fame — clearly, or I wouldn’t have become a philosopher and a writer of philosophy: which is a virtual guarantee for poverty and obscurity, in this society, if there ever was one. I may as well have chosen to be a floor sweeper, for all the riches, power and fame that writing philosophy and social commentary would bring.
So no, I’m not in it for dreams of riches. I’m interested in cryptos and invested in cryptos, to some small degree, with my extremely modest means, for the same reason that I write philosophy and political/social analysis and commentary: because I am interested in helping others, and in sowing the seeds for a better world for all.
I’m interested in crypto-currencies (an unfortunate moniker that is, but it has stuck) for three reasons only. And they all boil down to that same one thing: helping people.
Firstly, a very small investment in select, well-chosen crypto-currencies early on — and it is still early on, because the public is not yet involved, and only one person in ten thousand has any investment in Bitcoin, for example, which is the leading crypto at this time — can provide my family with some small degree of security in an increasingly volatile and unstable, insecure world.
Actually, to be more precise, there is no such thing as security: so let’s talk about resilience — the ability to weather a storm, or hard times. Anyone who talks about security doesn’t understand life or the world. Security doesn’t exist. Security is an illusion. Nothing is secure in this world. And chasing after security is a sure way to destroy your quality of life, hollow out your soul, and possibly destroy your health and your relationships in the process. But resilience is something to strive for. Resilience is simply a matter of being hardy and adaptable — and those are two qualities which will always do us well. And certain things, or certain actions, can bring us greater resilience.
What then, brings resilience?
Investing in yourself, your health, your mind, your spirit, your learning, your personal development, your relationships, your community, your social bonds of love and reciprocity, and your skills: these things will increase your resilience in very real and important ways.
On a much lower level of priority, come things like investing in land for a simple home and garden, open-pollinated seeds, tools, off-grid solar and wind power, and other material investments such as these which will enhance and increase our ecological resilience, and also our economic and psychological or spiritual resilience.
And on a third and lowest tier, we have money and financial assets — which are the least important and least reliable of all, in terms of things that can protect and provide for us and our family, in good times and bad, and increase or enhance our resilience. But nobody scoffs at putting money away in the form of savings. It’s still a good idea, despite its limitations, of course.
Fiat money, or paper currency, “isn’t worth the paper it’s not printed on”, as the world’s leading trend analyst, Gerald Celente has said. And money in the bank is no longer money in the bank, because neither banks nor paper money, fiat currency, have any reliability anymore. But financial savings in smarter forms, can be very useful, and are very wise.
In terms of money as a form of security, I would advise first and foremost, not to rely on it. That would be a recipe for disaster. I’m talking about paper money, or fiat currencies. Canadian dollars, US dollars especially, Euros, Yuan, Yen, Rubbles, Pesos….or any other paper money or fiat currency: if your savings, investments, pension plan or family’s security rests upon fiat paper money, then you have no security. Dump it while you can, before it becomes worthless, which it will.
But investment in terms of money of other forms, such as gold, which is one of the oldest and most secure forms of money, or silver — or select, well-chosen crypto-currencies, which are soon going to replace some or all fiat paper money — are extremely shrewd, and wise investments, which can provide, if not real security, since there is no such thing in the world, then at least, some very real, and considerable degree of resilience, which will help you in good times, and can be literally life-saving, or at least life-changing, in bad times.
So, firstly, as a start — not an ending point, but a beginning point — I’m interested in taking care of my family, and in increasing my families resilience, or ability to weather hard times. And that is the number one reason why I am interested in crypto-currencies: because a small, smart investment in select, well-chosen crypto-currencies can provide that, and be a very real “game-changer” for my family. I don’t care if I am rich, or if my family is rich — it’s irrelevant to me. But I do care, and care deeply, that they are well. And therefore, I care about their resilience. And for that reason, I care about intelligent, well-thought-out, strategic investments. And certain, select crypto-currencies are, at this time, among the best and most intelligent investments anyone can make.
Secondly, I’m interested in crypto-currencies because of their power to potentially be socially disruptive in positive ways: that is, I’m interested in crypto-currencies because they have the potential to aid in the urgently necessary task of unseating the banking elite from power, and to drive positive social change by reshaping and redistributing power — economic power, which always translates into political and social power — in more democratic and equitable, free and equal ways.
Like the internet, crytpo-currencies are not going to produce paradise on Earth. But do they have the power to be socially disruptive in positive ways — which is to say, to change long-established patterns of power, and to redistribute power in more democratic, equitable, and broadly empowering ways? Certainly. Absolutely. And for that reason, I am very interested in them, as potential catalysts for very urgently needed social change.
Thirdly, I’m interested in the potential of crypto-currencies to ease the financial and economic burdens, and the life burdens, of the struggling middle class and poor, who are the great majority. As I say, I believe that every indication is that crypto-currencies will in whole (probably eventually, and not too long from now), or at least in part (and very, very soon), replace fiat paper money. When that happens, and that mass adoption will reach a tipping point sometime very soon, over the next few years, and quite possibly over the next few months, or even days, the widespread adoption and use of crypto-currencies as simply another valid form of exchange or payment — like debit cards or credit cards, gold, silver, Euros or Yen — then billions, and trillions, of dollars (and other currencies, of course, the world over) will pour into the select crypto-currencies that have proven their worth by their usefulness, and they will soar in value, a thousand-fold, ten-thousand-fold, and beyond.
That means, that a very small investment in select, well-chosen crypto-currencies now, before the tidal wave of mass public adoption hits, could bring a small fortune — certainly enough to retire on — in just a few short years, or less.
This could help at least some among the vast majority of people on Earth who are in the lower 80–90% of the income scale, and who are struggling, to finally find some small degree of security, or better put, resilience, and some much-needed and much-deserved peace of mind. And that will help people to free up their time from mere survival and money concerns, to focus on higher, more useful things — like music, art, literature, history, spirituality, philosophy, nature, family, friendship, community, creativity, personal exploration, the life of the mind, and action for the healing of our very troubled world — and something beyond mere treading water, which is what most people are doing now. And most are sinking, by the way, make no mistake, or barely hanging on.
So, I am interested in my family’s resilience and well-being. I am interested in anything, short of violence, which I abhor and strongly oppose, which has the potential to be a catalyst for positive social change in the direction of greater freedom, openness, transparency, accountability, democracy, social justice, peace, and/or ecological sanity and stewardship. And I am interested in helping the more than 80% of the world’s population who are the poor or middle class, and who are struggling, to have more security or resilience, to have more peace of mind, and to be a little more free from mere material concerns, so that they can focus on the things that make life truly meaningful and rewarding.
I believe that there are a few crypto-currencies out of the more than 800 that are now in existence which have the potential to fulfill all three goals: to increase my own family’s resiliency and well-being, to catalyze positive social change, and to turn struggling middle class and poor people into millionaires, through a very small, timely investment that is wisely chosen, or at least to ease their burden, and free up some space for something beyond running on a treadmill, like a rodent in a giant cage.
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So that is my advice: buy small amounts of Bitcoin and Lumens now, immediately, and hold the investment for the long term. If their value goes up 10,000-fold, as I think it will, with what I would estimate to be a very high probability, then take 50% of the gains as profit, and leave the rest for future growth, while diversifying your investments. Until then, leave it alone, and forget about it.
But, in anything and everything, I must say again, remember Virgil:
“Fortune favours the bold.”
Not the mousy. Not the fence-sitters. Not the ever-gloomy cynics, who perpetually paint themselves, and everyone around them, into a corner. Not the spectators — and most people are now spectators in life. But the bold.
J. Todd Ring,
January 28, 2018
PS:
I’ve recommended Bitcoin and Lumens as smart investments. And they also have the potential to disrupt the banking system and the banking elite — which is a very good thing, and is much-needed. But I’d like to note that a small investment in PressCoin, as well, for reasons of supporting something virtuous with great potential for social change, as well as for rewards, would also be a good and wise thing to do.
Can you risk a total of $150 for the sake of catalyzing and empowering social change, helping to dethrone the banking elite, and potentially raising a fortune, or at least, a good little nest-egg and handsome return on investment for your family? Can you afford not to?
One last final note:
When the internet was first introduced publicly, many people thought it was a fad. It wasn’t. They simply didn’t understand. Now it’s ubiquitous. It’s everywhere. Cyrpto-currencies are the same.
When the internet quickly became widely adopted, and the public accepted it, then came the period when people were scared to use their credit cards on the internet. They didn’t understand that it’s just as easy, and in fact easier, for someone to take the paper receipt of your credit card transaction out of the cash register till, or the carbon copy (remember those?) out of the garbage bin, and use your credit card number to steal your money, than it is to hack into a computer network to steal your credit card information. But very quickly, again, that changed. Mass adoption of online payments occurred, just as mass adoption of the internet occurred, within less than a decade. The same is about to happen with crypto-currencies. Mass adoption is near at hand.
What exactly are crypto-currencies? Crypto-currencies are two things, above all: as Jim Rickards has said, they are just another form of payment or exchange — like debit cards, which are relatively new, and credit cards, which are also relatively new; and they are forms of currency which can be used as payment or exchange, and also as an asset class, as a means to store wealth — exactly like paper money (except that they are more secure, not less), and or like gold and silver, land, art, stocks, bonds or commodities. When the people begin to realize these two simple facts, as the (slow-learning) financial elite and investment class is now coming to realize (and they are now just beginning to pour in their billions and trillions of dollars into cryptos as a result), there will be mass adoption of crypto-currencies as simply one more form of payment and exchange, and one more form of assets, or wealth storage and investment.
The key thing, from an investment point of view, as always, is to be smart, and to be early. Being stupid or foolish is never good, of course — you need to to your due diligence. But being too slow is almost as bad as being reckless or making foolish choices. Again: nothing ventured, nothing gained. Those with keen eyes and brave hearts always make the greatest gains. Those who are glossy-eyed or slow to respond, always lose out.
Over the next five to ten years, at least one crypto-currency, and probably more than one, probably a few, will have proven their worth in terms of their usefulness, sufficiently enough to become widely accepted and widely adopted. A tiny investment in the right crypto-currency now, before the tidal wave of mass public involvement begins, could yield truly massive, historic returns, because when mass adoption hits, and mass public involvement begins, the value of the surviving crypto-currencies will skyrocket, 1,000-fold, 10,000-fold, and higher.
With regard to some things, a “wait and see” approach is best. In terms of climate change, the war on nature, and the rapidly growing and escalating environmental crisis that we now face, a wait and see approach means certain death — slow death, painful death: the death, if not of the human species, then of our civilization, certainly, and the great catastrophe that would entail. Action is required, and now.
On a much lower level of priority, the emerging shift from fiat paper money to digital crypto-currencies (meaning, simply, that they are encrypted, and also, that they are open-source and transparent, and therefore more secure and democratic than state fiat paper currencies), is almost certain to happen, and to happen soon. Waiting to see what happens means losing historic investment opportunities. Playing it safe, frankly, is sometimes, quite simply, playing it stupid.
Invest a small amount now, I would recommend, in well-chosen crypto-currencies — certainly not your mortgage money, or your children’s college fund, but something small, that you can feel at peace with risking. If you lose a small investment, you can consider it a worthwhile risk taken, that didn’t pay off. But if you invest a small amount in the right way at the right time, the results could truly be massive and life-changing. As with action for environmental and social change, which is vastly more important, that time is now. The window of opening for enormous returns on investment in crypto-currencies will soon close. Mass adoption will come in five to ten years or less — but probably much sooner, and potentially this year, in a matter of months, with major tipping points coming any time, and literally, any day.
Rule #1: Don’t rely on the media.
The major media is filled with propaganda, half-truths, distortions, and outright lies — and when it’s not promulgating propaganda and distortions, it’s riddled with illusions and ignorance, and is supremely slow on the up-take. Smart money, and smart people, move faster. Don’t rely on the major media for anything. Nine times out of ten, they will steer you wrong.
Rule #2: Don’t believe the banks.
The banking elite are very threatened by the sudden emergence of crypto-currencies, starting with Bitcoin, in 2009. They see them as a threat to their power and their wealth — and rightly so, because Bitcoin and most other crypto-currencies cut out the banks. So, when you hear Jamie Diamond, as CEO of Goldman Sachs, say that crypto-currencies are a scam, it’s because his extremely fat salary is threatened.
Don’t believe the banks. That point should be obvious. The big banks are trying to find a way to not be completely shut out of a global shift in currency systems which they may no longer control. They would prefer to stay with the current global currency system, because they effectively control it. An even better choice, from their perspective, would be to demolish all currencies world-wide, and force a single global digital currency on the world, created and controlled by the IMF — which of course, in turn, they control .What they don’t want is to be left out completely. So, they are trying to find a way to stay in the game, and not lose all power and all profits, as the global nature of money changes radically, potentially leaving them out in the cold. But they don’t like this new currency set, because it’s not their baby — it’s a threat, and far from their ideal scenario.
So don’t trust the banks, or the major media. They will both fill your head with lies, falsehoods, distortions and illusions.
Who do you trust? Trust yourself. Above all, and in every regard, on everything: think for yourself. The whole question of crypto-currencies and whether to invest or where, is tiny by comparison. Above all, question everything, and think for yourself. Wealth will come, if that is important to you, and more importantly, good health and quality of life, if you do. Otherwise, you’re at the mercy of fate, and God help you.
Think for yourself, in this, and every instance, always.
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The Bottom Line:
James Altucher, who seems to me to be the best analyst in North America when it comes to crypto-currencies, who has been a computer coder for 35 years, and involved in investment, entrepreneurship, and Wall Street for more than 20 years — the person who said on CNBC, when Google offered a billion dollars to buy Facebook, and Facebook refused the offer, that Facebook was worth 100 billion, and was laughed at, but since proven right — rightly said that every new disruptive technology or disruptive trend follows the same pattern, and goes through the same three phases. If we want to understand what’s going on with crypto-currencies, then we need to understand this.
I’ll stick with examples from the tech sector, though we could just as easily list examples from other areas of society, including activism and social change. For example, we could point to Thoreau and the movement to abolish slavery, the Suffragette Movement, Gandhi and the movement for an independent India, or Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. Whether it is disruptive technology or it is a disruptive social trend — meaning, a technology or social trend which disrupts existing, established patterns, and creates new patterns — the same three phases apply, and seem to be universal.
In phase one, only the pioneers are involved. For example, in the early days of the internet, some of the pioneers were Microsoft, Apple, Google and Amazon. Some early pioneers didn’t last, but these giants clearly did. And yes, there is a crypto-bubble, and yes, like the dot com bubble, many crypto-currencies will collapse, and vanish — and their investors will hold nothing but dust. But there will be early pioneers and early runners who, as with Microsoft, Apple, Google and Amazon, will survive, and will become global phenomena. I don’t have a crystal ball, but Bitcoin and Lumen are two of the best bets at this time.
In the early days of the internet, even the “smart money” didn’t understand what was coming. Few people saw the trends that were emerging. The same is true now. And of course, early investors in Microsoft, Apple, Google or Amazon, have become millionaires, if not billionaires. Most people did not not. Pioneers, whether they are the innovators or they are among the very first to embrace the new (or newly rediscovered, in some cases) technology or trend, or way of doing things, are somewhere around 2% of the population. 98% of people are not pioneers. They follow the crowd.
Second comes the early adopters. They represent maybe 18% of the populace. We are now, with regard to crypto-currencies, just at the very beginning of phase two.
The early adopters include the minority of people from the general public who are open to new ideas and new ways of doing things, and who do not wait for the crowd to lead them.
Also among the early adopters are the minority of those people among the investment class — the millionaires and billionaires, and the institutional investors, such as the hedge funds which move hundreds of billions and trillions of dollars around — who are quicker in seeing and responding to new opportunities.
And the millionaires and billionaires and hedge funds are just now taking notice — ever slow on the up-take, they tend to be — and are just beginning to pour in: and to pour in hundreds of billions, and possibly trillions of dollars. This alone will push the price of select crypto-currencies like Bitcoin and Lumens up 1,000-fold, and higher. And this is just the beginning of phase two.
Phase three is when mass adoption hits. And that tends to come quickly, at an exponential curve, after the human flock — pardon my bluntness, but most people behave more as sheep than as human beings, because they conform too much and think too little — begin to pour in, in a tidal wave. This is when the price of select crypto-currencies skyrockets. And this could begin as early as 2018 — possibly early 2018, and quite possibly after a single tipping point event, which could happen this Monday or Tuesday, January 29 or 30.
(Note: If a tipping point event does happen then, and you miss it, don’t panic. It’s still early on. Just stick your toe in the water, at least, and soon — I would highly recommend.)
Almost definitely, mass adoption of certain select crypto-currencies will happen within five to ten years, and probably much sooner than that. You decide what you want to do with that knowledge.
These are the trends and opportunities as I see them. But again, above all, think for yourself — in everything, always.
JTR
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