HODLing is waiting. It's watching countless people, including friends and family go about their lives, not knowing anything about Bitcoin. it's not discussing Bitcoin with the large majority of friends or family (especially family) and then when 'crypto' does indirectly get brought up (say through a book in your house or something on the news...)
Family members who are otherwise smart and educated are like 'ya a lot of people lost money on that'.
And you don't say anything, you can't say anything.
And then there are a few people you let into your world at least a little bit... the occasional friend, maybe even someone you work with and the topic of investing and markets comes up, and you mention Bitcoin as something that's interesting...
And still the overwhelming response from 'normies' - and these are smart, educated people - is to laugh, roll their eyes, or just look confused.
Let me say that again, the vast majority of people I've mentioned Bitcoin to just laugh, roll their eyes, or look confused. One even got hostile ("I don't do that" he said. As if I asked him if he sold drugs.)
- It's very rare when you come across someone open-minded enough to at least have intellectual curiosity, to be open enough to something they haven't experienced or don't yet know.
And then there's the BS. The endless BS about worthless tokens, most of them unregistered securities, that people think are 'crypto'. The news stories about pig butchering where some rando sends some other rando 10s of thousands in stablecoins... to get rich quick... and then realizes ('all of a sudden') that it's a scam. Shocking I know. Of course had they 'made money' with their crypto token (which didn't actually exist) they wouldn't have said anything...
"But how are you supposed to make money in crypto?" they say. And then you are reminded that Human greed and stupidity have no end. But they have to end eventually, you think and somehow...
There are the news stories.
The news, especially financial news, doesn't really mention Bitcoin at all except to describe either scams, FTX, or short-term price action:
"When does it hit this price"
"when does it die"
"here's how much you would have made"
"here's what Elon thinks " and so on...
It's overwhelmingly bull**** and says nothing about the value, tradeoffs, or risk-management of holding Bitcoin. Types of self-custody, how to self-custody, why Bitcoin is different, or even what Bitcoin could be in the future. A means of saving, an alternative to credit cards, a hedge to government-credit risk... 402 payments on the internet.
Yes I know IN THE BITCOIN BUBBLE we talk about these things all the time but normies DO NOT. I would wager that 'most people' have no idea ALL OF THIS is going on. It's a revolution and most, if not the vast majority of people are like "what"?
It's paying in fiat and wanting to pay in Bitcoin but... you can't. At least yet.
It's the lightning wallets that no-one else seems to have - and yes ask your Uber driver if they have a "lightning wallet". When you find one who has one... let me know because I haven't yet.
It's just all noise.
A few years ago I would have looked at a nice car (and there are nice cars out there) and wanted one. Now it's just... not that important. I would much rather people get Bitcoin and start to use it for payments, keep it for savings, embrace lightning... so we can build something and make the world a better place.
Bitcoin is a value proposition, it's value added that fiat is... probably not. And people will eventually flock to that value.
But apparently... it's not today. So I HODL sit and wait and it sucks.
In the meantime I'm proud of my little Toyota, a very modest little car it has so much class.
And I'm waiting on a better world. I'm just glad Stacker News is here in the meantime to know I'm not alone.
It makes the very slow progress more tolerable, less painful and one day, when everyone gets Bitcoin our dreams will come to fruition and the world will be a better place.
