Why Gen-Xers Should Own at Least SOME #Crypto Today
Bitcoin has been making the mainstream news again, just as it did a little less than a year ago. Unfortunately, it’s for conflicting reasons. A year ago the once arcane decentralized digital currency started making multi-millionaires out of early adopters, leaving many kicking themselves for not having jumped on board — hindsight is always 20/20. The story is reversed this week, as cryptocurrencies across the board took a spectacular nosedive, and are threatening to fall even further. It might seem an odd time to suggest that newbies enter the space right now, but it’s actually probably a really good time to think about adopting crypto, even if you’re not a tech enthusiast.
It’s Not About Investing Per Se
Before I jump in to all of this, I need to be clear that I’m not talking about investing in one or many or any particular cryptocurrency. Don’t mortgage your home and never buy more crypto than you’re willing to lose. Tokens don’t work like shares, even though they do, which is very confusing, but that doesn’t matter at this point. What I mean is that you should be getting ready to adopt the technology into your everyday life. Nothing I’m about to say should be taken as any sort of investing advice. Think of it more as lifestyle advice — adopt today, and you’ll save yourself some pain in the future. The best way to adopt crypto is to own a bit of it so you can get familiar with how it works in an experiential way.
Stay In the Game or Get Left Behind
As those of us in the tail end of Gen-X start to enter our 50s, we’re getting to that psychological period where new technology begins to baffle us. I’m writing particularly for us because no one ever cares about us as a demographic, even though we’ve actually functioned over the last decade and a half as the de facto interface between digital natives (i.e. Millennials) and Boomers. Yet as crypto becomes more and more a force to be reckoned with, we’re actually at risk of losing that role and being left in the dust. A decade from now, crypto will be as ubiquitous as the Internet, smart phones and Facebook. Now’s the optimal time to take on the steep learning curve, because once you’ve wrapped your head around it, the whole thing is pretty intuitive.
You Know You Wanna
Interestingly, I felt compelled to write this because so many of my friends are cavalierly handing over their email addresses and passwords to a curious thing that is circulating on social media right now called Initiative Q. I’ve been rather nonplussed as people who dismiss Bitcoin as some sort of Ponzi scheme have been more than happy to hand over their digital footprints to a completely unknown project with an indecipherable agenda. I do sort of get it. After all, if it walks like crypto and quacks like crypto, it must be crypto! Except it’s not crypto, and that’s why the chain-bros hate it — or are at least wary of it. The project may be presenting itself as a digital currency, but so far it looks far from being a decentralized cryptocurrency.
Of course, if you don’t understand any of this, then it all looks the same. Initial Bitcoins sold for only pennies a piece and there’s plenty of jokes about how early adopters spent $30,000 on a pizza in today’s values. It’s definitely confusing, but you need to understand why these things are different, not only to avoid scams as you age, but so you can keep abreast of how this technology will intersect with our quotidian lives.
Getting Started With a Couple Keywords Thrown In
Over the next few posts, I’ll flesh out some of the important aspects of entering the cryptospace, focussing on the words I’ve bolded. They’re all easily Googled in the meantime. You’ll come across terms like KYC and AML (Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering), which basically means you need to have your identification duckies in a row before you get started. Hardcore crypto enthusiasts hate these things because it means you’re not completely anonymous on the blockchain. Crypto is a potential revolutionary relief for the majority of people in the world who are “unbanked” (can’t access bank account), but it also has a reputation for allowing nefarious activities like enabling illegal trade and funding terrorism. The exchanges you’ll be dealing with will require valid ID to participate in order to comply with their country’s laws. You can still fund your account and trade anonymously, but you won’t be able to liquidate to fiat if you don’t go through the KYC process with each exchange you trade on.
Wallets
You’ll need to open at least one wallet — and you’ll want to explore cold storage or perhaps keep a “paper wallet.” It’s basically a long string of code that is your unique address(es). For instance, if you think this article is really valuable and you wanted to send me a little donation in bitcoin (BTC only!) :D you’d send it to this address: 13WD466mBJRNHtByaNszTYAcd9nSoL1wQp. It’s one of my public wallets that allows me to accept payments from your private wallet, which will look the same, except only you know what it is — unless you share it with someone, and don’t do that. If I were to send you some BTC, you’d see it had come from this public wallet, but I would access my funds from a code-string that no one else can see.
Confirmations/Consensus
Once you send or receive crypto to a crypto wallet or exchange account, you need to wait for the blockchain to confirm the transaction. My wallet requires six confirmations, but the exchange I use only requires three. That means there’s three different computers operating anywhere in the world that have reached consensus that my transaction is legitimate. Speed varies, and you pay a small transaction fee. If you need a faster transaction, you pay a slightly higher fee so that the chain prioritizes your transaction. The blockchain is basically a giant digital ledger that tracks every transaction and guarantees that you have the funds you’ve agreed to pay and that you haven’t spent your currency twice or more times. So it’s like a cheque but better because it’s faster and irreversible, so the receiver knows the funds are really there. It’s actually even faster than a credit card and safer because of its irreversibility.
The Currencies — Entry Is Not Expensive
Obviously, the cryptocurrency that everyone knows is called Bitcoin. Like Kleenex and RollerBlades, it’s the brand name that gets used generically for cryptocurrency, and it’s considered to be the value holder in the crypto world — a bit like the gold standard used to be. But there’s hundreds of them available to buy, and they all aim to become the value holder — it’s part of the Oedipal ethos of the crypto world to attempt to commit patricide (I use this male term, because the space is 98% male dominated still). The top ones right now are Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), LiteCoin (LTC), Dash (DSH), Doge (DGE) and lots more. It changes daily. And of course, there’s Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which is experiencing a hard fork, which is being blamed for the overall crash on the crypto markets.
Even with last week’s crash, Bitcoin is trading at just over $CAN 6,000 as I write this. That’s a bit steep if you’re just wanting to dip your toe into the water, but remember you can buy at 9 decimal points. One of my wallets has CAN $3.55 in it right now. On the other hand, the one cryptocurrency that showed a bit of resiliency over the past week is XRP, which is aiming to play nice with mainstream banking systems. It’s trading at CAN $0.59 as I write this. Again, I’m not offering investment advice, but if you’re wanting to check out what this whole crypto thing is about — and I think you should — don’t dick around with fake play money like the Initiative Q stuff which is just so passive and does nothing to help you learn about what’s going on. Get yourself a wallet and join an exchange or two and splash around a bit. The entry is actually low and you’ll thank yourself in the future.
Let me know what you think in the comments. Do you agree Gen-Xers need to get into the crypto market today?
