Lambda Piece

Today, I will be discussing the implications that the crypto boom of early 2018 has had on myself, as well as my own thoughts on how it has the potential to affect newcomers.

To start all of this off, let's jump back to early 2017. It was at this point in time were I was first introduced to crypto, or more specifically Bitcoin. I go more into detail on this part in my first Coil post, which you can find when you look at my profile on Coil. With that said, the gist of it all was this: some friends tell me about Bitcoin. I, being skeptical, don't really see the appeal. Bitcoin begins to break new records, and it is at this point where I finally start paying attention.

But, you see, I was a college student at the time. Disposable income was very hard to come by, and even though Bitcoin was breaking new highs, I couldn't justify putting my hard earned cash into it. And so I mostly forgot about crypto, although the nagging feeling of missing out always followed me, and still does to this day.

Now we move to the peak of they crypto boom in 2018. It was a few days after the ATH of many coins, and I decided that I had to get into this cryptocurrencie craze. Alas, I was still broke, but the coin XRP caught my eyes. It was (relatively) cheap, especially when comapred to Bitcoin at the time. Ripple, the company behind XRP, seemed to be making bold claims when it came to cross border payments. And as someone who has struggled with said payments, it caught my attention. And so, I dipped into crypto, with a small bag of XRP at my side.

Now, I tell you all this so that I can better explain what I want to get at. And that is the dream of financial freedom. It should be noted that this dream of having financial freedom is not something I can say that all of you have experienced, or that it was the catalyst for what made you want to invest in crypto. All I can do is make an assumption that most people who are currently invested in crypto have experienced this.

And so, looking back at my own experience with crypto, it's hard to ignore the fact that the sole reason I invested into it (or more specifically XRP at the time) was because of said dream. I saw the numerous headlines, seeing the insane numbers Bitcoin had reached. And then I thought about what my friends had said, and I told myself:

“If only you would have listened to them. You'd be rich right now!”

However, like the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20. And so there I was, convincing myself to get into crypto, because of this huge “what if”. What if there's another boom? I don't want to miss out on another boom!

The dream, the hope.

I'd like to take a closer look at this phenomena, this “dream” that I can only assume others felt as well.

Greed is a fickle beast. In most cases, especially in modern media, it's portrayed as a negative trait. And while I agree that greed can become problematic, if not outright dangerous, we must not forget that this is a part of human nature.

With this in mind, it's not unreasonable to think that greed is what has fueled most people to turn to crypto. The possibility of making money will bring flocks of people. This alone is what fuels gambling, although that's a topic for another time, and one I'll touch upon in a future article about CasinoCoin (CSC).

And so we are left with this dream, this hope, eating inside of us long after the last bullrun has ended. And people become restless. All you need to do is go to your crypto forum of choice, and you'll find countless users describing their feelings of unease. It's important to note that we should put these users down. While many of us still remain optimistic, I feel it important to empathize with others and their situations. And, sure, it's easy to dismiss these claims by labeling them as FUD, but even though some may have that intent, I still urge us all to look at them from a different perspective.

As an example, let's create a fictional character. We'll call him Joe.

Joe's an average dude, has a family, a steady job, etc. He's your average citizen. Joe hears about this crypto thing before the boom, but decides to not invest in it. Again, Joe's an average guy, he has no need to invest in this obscure coin, because there is no history behind. And so he dismisses it, and goes on with his life.

As time passes, Joe suddenly begins to hear the sudden hype surrounding said coin. It's going up, and up, and up. But Joe is still not entirely certain this is a smart move. Again, there's no history to back it up. Just theories and speculation. He thinks to himself that if he were to invest in something, he might as well put his money in the stock market. That market has a long history, and all he has to do is look at some charts and he can come to the conclusion that, yeah, the stock market has a good chance of bringing me more wealth. But he doesn't, and so goes back to living his life.

At this point in time, the crypto boom has come. Joe looks at his news, and sees a repeating pattern. This thing keeps breaking new highs. And sure, in hindsight one could say that the “repeating pattern” was over the span of a couple of weeks. But in that moment, Joe figures that this amount of information is enough for him. And as such, Joe makes his first investment in crypto. Only Joe would not see another bullrun, and would begin to see his investment fall in value over the course of years.

I'm sure many of you have heard of similar stories, wherein people frantically invested large amounts of money into crypto right after the bullrun. It's safe to assume that many of those same investors never left, holding onto the belief that their holdings would go up in value sometime in the near future.

Again, I don't have hard numbers on this. These are all assumptions based on things I've read and heard. But let's suppose, for the sake of argument, that these assumptions are real. If that were the case, many of those users who share their feelings of stagnation relating to the crypto market could be seen in a different light. Like I said before, empathizing with them can help us understand them. Just put yourself in Joe's shoes. You bought at a high price, and markets have been falling ever since.

Would you not also share these feelings if that were the case?

With all of this being said, what I essentially want to say is that the dream of having financial freedom is a common one, something many of us share. This dream never dies, and as such can leave us feeling dissapointed with the way the current market is acting. But the future is unkown, and it's this unkown that keeps the dream alive.

Stay safe out there, and thanks for reading.

All images used in this article were taken from Unsplash

The subject of XRP and it's use in the banking sector is something that has been touched upon before. In today's article, I won't be focusing on the technical aspects of ODL and banking, as there are plenty of users and articles out there that do a great job in explaining this.

Instead, I'd like to focus on a specific area within this revolution. An article I wrote a while back focused on XUMM, a wallet application developed by XRPL Labs. In said article, I focused mainly on my excitement for what is to come, and today I wanted to touch on that on a deeper level.

As many in the XRP community are aware of, future releases of XUMM plan to incorporate banking accounts on the application itself. I'm not aware of any current roadmap, but let's suppose a future in which this becomes a reality, for sake of argument.

In this future, you'd have your XUMM application on your phone. Not only do you have access to countless cryptocurrencies, but you have access to your own bank account as well. Let that sink in for a moment. Instead of me, the user, having to resort to a banking app to transfer funds to another account, I will have the option to send funds directly within the XUMM application. Some may think that this step is unnecessary, since one could do the same thing within the main banking application.

The difference here is that XUMM will effectively act as a sort of intermediary of sorts, allowing you to send funds through many different branches. All within a single application, with near instant payment processing.

One would be able to send funds to many, many different users. Be it your buddy with his traditional bank account, or your partner's crypto wallet. It does not matter if they reside in an entirely different country, or are sitting next to you. The payment is instant, with low fees to boot.

While the speed of the XRP network has been talked about time and time again, I feel it's important to look at the psychological side that this type of technology can bring.

In today's current day and age, users across the globe have a certain preconception when it comes to money transfers. Most people will not bother with online transfers since, for the most part, they are a hassle. So instead of sending that buddy of yours those couple of bucks to pay for the dinner you had a couple of nights before, you'll resort to talking to them and telling them that you'll pay for the next meal you have. While mobile applications such as the Cash app have tried to mitigate this issue, the user base of such applications is still fractured for the most part, and is limited to which country you reside in.

But with a 'universal' banking app, such as XUMM, this issue is solved swiftly. With a couple of taps, you are able to send the funds instantly. No worrying of when the other user will recieve them. A simple tap, and then you can go back to your day.

This is where the “Internet of Value” comes into play. While I personally believe we are a couple of years from this reality, the concept of having value being transported across the globe through the Ledger instantly will be, when the time comes, a game changer.

A comparison I like to make is that of the library, or rather the concept of having information stored physically in several locations. This concept works fine, as it has in the past, but with the invention of the internet the way we consume information has changed drastically. We have access to infinite information at our fingertips. Without missing a beat, we are able to access this information instantly and without fail. This has allowed us as a civilization to move towards a more information dense culture, giving nearly everyone access to it.

The move to a future with Internet of Value will be of similar impact. Funds will be seen less as a static product, and more of a dynamic product. With money being able to freely move across the internet, without any friction, will allow us as a civilization to step into a world of payments that are moving across millions of people. Micro-payments themselves have an opportunity to drastically change the way we process salaries as well. No more waiting for that next paycheck, worryin about wether or not you can spend current funds without altering your future balance. The information will be there in an instant, at your fingertips.

Stay safe out there, and thanks for reading.

On Monday, May 2020, the Bitcoin halving took place. A historical event that many within the cryptocurrency space were waiting on for years. While it’s impact might have left us feeling disappointed, it’s important to take note on why this is the case.

There is no denying the fact that all of us invested in crypto wait with anticipation for such a major event. It does not matter if you take the side of Bitcoin itself, Ethereum, XRP, etc. No matter what coin you are a fan of, denying the impact that the halving has had in the past would be foolish. While the actual effect of the halving is usually felt gradually and within a longer time span, the build up towards such an event grows regardless. Once the event reaches us, however, this build up dies down. Crypto users far and wide begin to voice their disappointment, with their expectations being crushed after the event has unfolded.

Over the years I’ve personally tried to stay away from these expectations. They are not inherently negative, but I do believe that they can cause unrealistic expectations on the future of the crypto market. With this being said, the future is unknown, and it would be foolish of me to say with full confidence that future halving’s will follow this trend. But even though I’ve tried to stay away from these personal expectations, accomplishing this is far harder in reality.

While I’ve known that the halving would be coming, it’s not something that I ever actively thought about. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago that I stumbled across countless articles discussing the 2020 halving that I began to think about this event with more frequency. Even though I knew, deep in my mind, that the effects of the halving wouldn’t be felt until months had passed, I slowly began to create this expectation in my mind. An expectation where, once we had reached the halving, Bitcoin, along with the rest of crypto, would increase in value overnight.

It’s easy for us to ridicule this mindset, especially with hindsight on our side. And while I’d wager that not all of us had this expectation, I’m certain that most of us did. It’s a pleasing expectation, especially when you consider the monetary value it would bring. While I’ve discussed this in the past, I feel that it must be repeated: I got into crypto because I saw the possibility to become financially stable, even financially rich. Wether you are from the lower, middle, or upper class, this is a sentiment that most, if not all of us, share. Financial freedom is something many of us are searching for. Wether that be through a job promotion, investments, etc. The dream of this financial freedom is what keeps many of us motivated, and it’s this motivation that helps to keep us moving forward.

The saying ‘Money can’t buy happiness’ is as widespread as a saying can get. On a superficial level, this statement is easy to agree with. You could make the argument that, yes, money can’t buy you happiness. It’s the other things in life that bring happiness, be it your family, job, hobbies, etc. What many fail to mention, however, is that money can make things drastically easier. Many of the stressors many of us deal with daily could be eliminated, or at the very least drastically reduced, if one would have the financial means to deal with them. This is were expectations, especially those relating to cryptocurrencies, come into play.

Expectation vs. reality

While this article will be focusing on expectations and crypto, most of what I touch upon could, in a loosely manner, be applied to the stock market, as well as other markets that run on cycles. However, there is one major difference that I would like to get into, and this is regarding expectations and the stock market.

In your typical stock market, one could say that it runs on cycles of sorts. While I won’t pretend to fully know the full inner workings of said cycles, I’ll give my own general view on them.

In general, one could say that the stock market acts within a cycle that is, generally speaking, predictable. While there are obvious outliers to this, looking back at the history of stocks one could say that, more or less, your expectations of your investment come true, or at the very least are very close to what you expected.

This is thanks to the long history the stock market has had. Decades of information can be looked through and analyzed, giving the trader valuable information for what’s to come. The saying ‘history repeats itself’ is thrown a lot, especially in today’s economical climate, but I believe that this saying has some truth to it. But again, nothing is absolute. But you, as a trader in the stock market, stick close to the information that has been gathered over the decades. Why wouldn’t you? It’s helped you financially, so there is no reason not to follow it.

Cryptocurrencies, on the other hand, do not have decades of information and analysis to back it up. We have barely breached a decade of having crypto hit the market, and a decade is not enough time to be able to gather enough information. So while in a stock market you have these expectations that are built on top of decades of information and past performance, crypto has its expectations built on top of a single decade.

Ah, but there’s that one outlier, right? The crypto boom of early 2018 shook the world to its core, bringing itself to the mainstream media. I believe it’s at this point that the general expectation of the whole ‘crypto mooning’ started taking roots.

After this historical event, the average crypto investor had a past indicator to compare the future to. And a massive indicator at that as well. This expectation of a coin making massive gains was not a pipe dream anymore, as all you had to do was point to that chart of 2018 and say “Look at it. There’s your proof.”

As such, all of us here keep holding onto this expectation, myself included. How could you not? Again, all you have to do is look at that chart, and your personal bias is once again confirmed. We then look towards the future, and while we can never be certain for what’s to come, we know that it is, indeed, a possibility. As the saying goes, history repeats itself. Right?

Closing thoughts

I don’t want you, the reader, to think that this piece was written as a coping mechanism to calm the uncertainty that crypto faces. In fact, I urge you to face this uncertainty head on. Ask questions, even if they seem to go against what you yourself believe in. Be open to the ideas of others, even if they seem to go completely against your own. I say this due to the fact that the community surrounding crypto is split to such a degree that some have begun to compare these small groups to cults. And these groups can be found in most, if not all coins. As soon as someone mentions a coin that is not theirs, heated discussions are started. And while discussion is a healthy and necessary thing to have in any part of life, it starts to become a negative aspect if these discussions are turned into actual hatred.

When I first started to get into crypto, I was expecting to find a giant, helpful community. A community wherein you would be accepted regardless of what coin you decided to put money into. At the end of the day, no matter which coin you decide to back up, we are all here for the same exact reason.

While my initial expectation of the crypto community as a whole was wrong, I hope that one day we can all converse and discuss together as a group, giving those newcomers who may enter this space in the future a gift. Not of expectation, but reality.

Stay safe out there, and thanks for reading.

The images used in this article were taken from Unsplash

I want to preface this by saying that this article will not be focused on the technical side of Xumm. While I am personally excited about this project, as well as future projects related to it, I am by no means an expert.

For those of you wanting a more in-depth view on Xumm, I highly recommend that your read Hodor's article on it, as it's a wonderful written piece on the software.

Now, as some of you reading this may know, Xumm is a wallet (ish) piece of mobile software developed by Wietse Wind and was released to the public not too long ago.

I myself had already heard of Xumm, through Hodor's blog post that I linked above. While I was excited about it at the time, I didn't really give it much thought. To be honest, I was just happy seeing all of these big projects being built on top of XRP. It was like seeing that new, modern building being built in your tiny, humble town. It makes you feel excited for the future, for what this still-maturing infrastructure can bring us.

But, finally, Xumm has been released. And while it's not fully featured (yet), I thought I'd write my thoughts on it. Specifically, I'd like to discuss one seemingly simple feature.

Currency exchanging.

Before I go on I'd like to clarify that, even though I've been in this space for a decent amount of time, I do not feel comfortable talking about the technical aspects of XRP, ODL, the DEX, etc. Other's have done a much, much better job than I could ever dream of, so I suggest you look up information regarding these terms on your own. A single article would never be sufficient to get into it.

Instead, I'd like to focus on the more “consumer” side of Xumm.

Once Wietse announced the release of the app, I was flooded with memories of what I had read about it. Without missing a beat I proceeded to download it.

Once the app was set up, I began to feel a bit lost. While the UI is simple and easy on the eyes, I still felt like I didn't know what I was looking at. I was so used to the convoluted mess that most other mobile wallets are that I was expecting the same mess. But we got something else.

A clean UI, fluid animations, easy to read color palette. It's all good stuff.

And while I felt lost in the beginning (the only suggestion I have for the app is a proper in-app tutorial), once I got the hang of it the app really is a breeze to use.

But, again, I'm not a technical expert on this. I didn't download the Xumm app to try out all of that fancy mumbo-jumbo that I barely understand. I downloaded the app because of the excitement surrounding projects being built around XRP. With this in mind, I didn't really expect to get much use out of the app. It's like the computer or mobile software you read about somewhere online. The talk surrounding it is amazing, and you feel the need to check it out if anything just to satisfy your curiosity.

And so you download that software, mess around with it, and then leave it behind. Because at the end of the day, you don't have any use for it.

This was my expectation when I went into Xumm. The product is amazing, I was excited for it's own future development, but I never really thought I'd get use out of it.

But, you see, there's this one feature. This one seemingly tiny feature that blew my mind.

Once you setup Xumm on your device, you'll find yourself with your homepage. Standard stuff. But towards the bottom half of the screen, a label reads: Other currencies.

An add button sits besides it. You tap on this and are presented with a list of exchanges. You tap on one of the lists, and are then presented with a list of currencies.

The moment I saw this while playing with the app, I felt this weird sensation. Yes, it's not that big of a deal. Yes, this can be acomplished on exchanges on your desktop or dedicated phone app.

But this is sitting, all bundled together, in one application.

Not only that, but it is blazing fast. I can quite literally exchange currencies on the go, with no time delay.

I can exchange currencies on the go, with no freaking time delay.

Maybe I'm missing something. I don't see anyone talking about this. I don't see anyone pointing out, that, with future development, this could become an invaluable tool of the future.

I'm aware that this post was, to a certain extent, slightly disjointed. And for that I apologize. But I felt it necessary to express my excitement surrounding this project.

To Tristan, Ali, and Wietse at XRPL Labs: Congrats, and I hope to be able to experience your future projects.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers!

It's 2020. You're sitting through the COVID-19 pandemic, holed up in your room. You browse your usual sites for news regarding your cryptocurrency of choice. You stumble upon headline after headline of amazing news. Nothing happens.

It's the next day. You're sitting through the COVID-19 pandemic, holed up in your room yet again. You browse your usual sites for news regarding your cryptocurrency of choice. You stumble upon headline after headline of amazing news. Nothings happens.

I'm sure many of you can agree to have experienced this from time to time. It's seems that no matter what coin you follow, no matter what the economical situation is, there is always “amazing” news coming to you from every source imaginable.

This is something that I've been meaning to address for a while now, but it wasn't until I started practicing social distancing that I truly noticed how bad it has gotten.

Now, I can't tell you if this has actually gotten worse over time, as I haven't kept an actual log of the many different culprits. It's just a feeling that I've gotten that these types of headlines have gotten far more prevalent in the last couple of weeks. It should be noted that this could be due to me simply being online more now. Because I now work from home, and stay at home, I spend more time browsing the web. In turn I am being exposed to more of these articles than I would have been in the past.

With that being said, I thought I'd dedicate my free time writing about this phenomena. It should also be noted that the “hyping” of things is not solely locked with cryptocurrencies. One could say that it happens far more agressively outside of crypto, but I again am basing this on my own personal experiences.

Before I get started, I'd like to preface this by saying that I am not an expert. I'm not an expert in crypto. I'm not an expert in anything. These are my own personal views, and as such they will be subjected to personal bias. Bias itself being something that I'd like to cover in a future post. But for now let's stick with crypto and how it's hyped.

In the above screenshot I've placed the definition of the word hype. In simple terms I'm confident in saying that hype is, essentially, aggresive marketing.

An example of hype could be that video game you saw announced some time ago. You saw the trailer, the gameplay, the headlines. It was being marketed and hyped like the world depended on it. Once it was released, and you actually sat down to play it, you may have felt a bit of dissapointment. It wasn't as good as you were expecting it to be. With all of the hype you were consumin over time, you were beginning to build your own image of what the game was going to be like. You combined your own personal beliefs and identity with what was being shown to you about the game. And since hype is usually shallow and without information, you begin to fill in these gaps with your own wishes. This is why people will usually feel dissapointed when playing that game or watching that film after feverishly digesting any and all news surrounding it. You build your own game or film in your head, separated from the reality that the actual media would become.

While this example cannot be applied directly to cryptocurrencies, I feel that there are similarities with the two, especially when you take into consideration that in crypto, people want to make money. And that desire to make money is firmly placed into peoples minds.

This becomes dangerous because unlike video games and films, being dissapointed in crypto can lead to actual losses. You see those headlines, the hype surrounding a project. And you, being a human being, see the correlation with this hype and the possible monetary gains that you could achieve. And so you proceed to buy, buy, buy.

Now, some of you may point out that hype can, in fact, create changes in a market. Just take a look at the stock market. Rumors of a company announcing a new product or service are a surefire way of increasing its stock price. Even if the effects of this only last a couple of days or weeks, its clear that the hyping of what they were announcing had a tangible effect.

The crypto market is different though. For starters, it's not had enough time to “mature”, as some like to call it. This creates a volatile market on its own, but coupled with the general public image that crypto has had since its inception, this creates an even more volatile market.

Not only this, but think about your own views towards these headlines. I'm sure most of you who see these headlines read them with skepticism. This leads to many people reading these articles but not actually acting on them, as most people would expect them to. You'd need to provide hard evidence to create that effect, something that is lacking when it comes to news articles regarding cryptocurrencies.

I'll leave it at that for now. The takeaway from me writing all this should simply be to be wary of what you read, and to always to your own research. This not only applies to crypto, but to everything you see online.

Cheers, and stay safe out there!

*Header photo by Verena Yunita Yapi on Unsplash*

It's hard to denie the existence of the recently announced pandemic that has struck the world. The coronavirus has brought the economical markets to its knees, and crypto has been no exception. And while panic has insued in all economical areas, I believe it's important to keep a level head and, if it's possible, to not back out so easily from our holdings.

(As a sidenote, here's a link to the World Health Organization for more info on the virus for those interested).

I'm sure many of you reading this were of the mindset that, similar to myself, this would all blow over in a matter of weeks. Sadly this has not been the case, and while I am personally not qualified to talk about the coronavirus in more technical terms, I thought I'd share my thoughts on the effect it has had on the financial market, specifically cryptocurrencies.

I first heard of the coronavirus around the beginning of February, and my initial reaction to it was that of dismissal. In my mind, this was just another mass hysteria going around. I was sure that, if the worst was going to come, it would be something of the likes of the Influenza disease of a few years ago, but with a lighter impact. And while it's still too early to tell what the full damage will be, I think it's safe to say that this disease has left its mark. Not only with its high mortality rate, but also with the negative impact it has had on the financial markets.

While many may be surprised to hear this, coming from a writer who is invested in the crypto market, I seldom check the price. I'm of the HODL mindset, as it's been known to be called. I do, however, use mobile applications to set price alerts, to at the very least stay in the know to a certain degree. However, I don't set price alerts for negative price actions. Something that I will be changing going forward.

So there I am, sitting in front of my computer, and I decide to check your typical financial website. And there I witness the massacre of the markets. While I consider myself to be someone who can keep a level head in dire situations, this caught me off guard. I was already starting to be cautious in general, due to the virus going around, but seeing the entire global market take a deep plunge made me feel uneasy, to say the least.

Checking cryptocurrencies gave me the same results. A massacre. And while a part of me is bummed out at all the losses, I suggest we hold on and wait out the storm.

This is not to say that things will be “all good” though. If most countries do not mitigate the risk that comes with such a great fall in the global economy, things will only worse over time. And many are veering into panic territory, thinking that this reaction to what is going on is the right reaction, while in reality it only worsens the situation.

I don't know what will happen next. No one does. All I can say is ride out the storm, and stay safe out there.

Cheers and best of luck to you all.

With the year coming to an end, it's easy to take a look back and feel a bit of dissapointment looming in the air.

2019 wasn't a particularly kind year to XRP (or other cryptos), and calling 2018 a banger year is a statement not many of us would agree with. Looking at the chart below, we can see that the two year performance hasn't been optimal.

With all this being said, the purpose of this article is a reminder that, while the general consensus is that of negativity and despair, the road ahead is one that no other crypto has before them. Ripple, the establishment behind XRP and the XRP Protocol, have been making large strides towards their involment in the financial sector. And while all the jokes about good news dumping the price are fun to look at, I sometimes like to take a step back and see how far we've come.

If you had told me a couple years ago that a company with a focus on using cryptocurrency to deliver transactions in the real banking world were to actually begin to make partnerships with said banks was something in our near future, I would have scoffed at you and walked away. I feel many of us would have a similar reaction to such a statement. It would have seemed like a far-away dream, an unachievable goal.

And yet here we are.

With 2019 closing in on us, the future has never seemed brighter.

A happy New Year to everyone out there, cheers.