Cardano has for a long time been my favourite altcoin, and I have stacked a substantial amount of ADA since watching Charles's famous whiteboard video in 2017.
I have now come to a phase in my journey where I truly and unequivocally understand that Bitcoin is the only money that can exist, and why altcoins, no matter how fascinating they sound, remain experimental projects that will, in best case scenario, hopefully, find valid use-cases in society, but will never be able to compete with Bitcoin as money.
I don't buy the web3 vision anymore. I think it's silly, deceptive, and easily exploitable by bad actors. I believe 99.9999% of tokens are a waste of time, resources, energy, and focus. Extending the current Internet with Bitcoin/Lightning makes more sense and is more practical. To quote the excellent essay “Only, The Strong Survive”:
"The core philosophical issue at play rests on the answer to what was left dangling as a rhetorical question: do you need a token for that?, which seems to be, no, you do not. Because “that,” whatever it is, is not money, hence it will lose the fight for liquidity, it won’t sustain endogenous value, nor will it sustain endogenous security." (Allen Farrington & Big Al, Only the Strong Survive)
I now understand why it is risky to store such a large portion of my crypto wealth in something other than Bitcoin. My decision to stack ADA was purely based on greed and short-term thinking, fueled by the hope that the price would go to the moon quickly so I could dump my stack and quit my fiat job.
It has now occurred to me that I was living a central moral and philosophical contradiction: how could I claim to value ADA and have fiat in contempt, but at the same time plan to trade my ADA for fiat to quit my fiat job? (I'm currently working on a fascinating side project that, God willing, will help onboard thousands of Africans to Bitcoin by the end of the year.)
I have now decided to sell all my ADA and stack more bitcoins. I wish the Cardano community well, but here ends my journey with them. I love Charles; I've learned much from him on Bitcoin, crypto, and beyond, and wish him all the best.