When I started investing in Bitcoin ( BTC 0.26% ), I had the preconception that I must also learn to trade. It took me three years to learn that this is not the case. Not only am I not a trader, but I am a really bad trader. Anytime I've tried, it has ended somewhat catastrophically because I let my emotions govern my trading decisions.

Any professional trader will tell you to write down a system of trading rules and abide by them. Even though I had the right advice, applying the advice properly was an entirely different problem. Eventually, I settled on the conclusion that I shouldn't trade.

Image source: Getty Images.

Part of what I found stressful about trying to trade Bitcoin was the short-term volatility. I was too pessimistic about downtrends and too optimistic about uptrends. In other words, when Bitcoin was going up, I thought it was going to the moon. When Bitcoin was going down, I thought it was headed straight for zero. Although I think I'm through this phase of navet, I still think my emotions have the ability to affect my decision-making skills if I were to try trading again. This is why I've opted to keep a long time horizon with respect to investing in Bitcoin.

In some sense, I started with the understanding that Bitcoin is a long-term investment. When I first bought Bitcoin in 2015, I said I would never sell it as an experiment to see how large that investment could grow. I never imagined that the investment would do as well as it has. Now I have the same outlook on Bitcoin's future today at $40,000 as I did in 2015 when Bitcoin was $500. It is at least a decade-long investment, and Bitcoin investors are still early. I don't need to take the risk of trading Bitcoin in the short term to increase my gains because my gains will be large enough to satisfy me if I simply wait long enough.

I hold the belief that everyone investing in Bitcoin in 2022 is still early. This is because I also believe we're early to today's version of internet itself. So what then does the future hold for Bitcoin? What is its potential for growth in the future?

Admittedly, it wouldn't make sense for me to consider Bitcoin a long-term investment if I didn't think it would be around 10 or 20 years from now. I first had to convince myself that Bitcoin was here to stay. After looking into how it was designed, built, maintained, and run, I haven't been able to articulate a reasonable set of circumstances in which Bitcoin falls apart. So there is sound logic behind why Bitcoin will be around in one capacity or another in the future.

Given that the cryptocurrency network on which Bitcoin resides is here to stay, where does the price go? Is it in store for more parabolic growth? Or is the growth going to be more modest from here on out? The third option is that Bitcoin slowly fades into obscurity throughout the coming years. I think the more likely scenario is that the number of people using Bitcoin around the world will continue to rise. As the user base grows, so will demand. Since Bitcoin's supply is strictly limited to 21 million tokens, a brief analysis of the supply and demand suggests that the price of Bitcoin is likely to increase in the future. I think there is a solid case to make that Bitcoin rises to at least the market cap of gold, which is $12 trillion, from today's $800 billion. Beyond that is anyone's best guess, and investors will have to take it one block at a time.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis even one of our own helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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Why I Don't Trade Bitcoin in the Short Term - The Motley Fool

Coming off the Bitcoin 2022 conference, you might feel a little down from the high of meeting and spending time with Bitcoiners. I've also found that going to these events leaves you with an additional sense of urgency to do something more, or to become more involved somehow. One way to do that is to participate in Bitcoin projects or work in a Bitcoin job. At Bitcoin 2022, I spent time at the Bitcoiner Jobs booth hanging out with some fellow Swan employees and Bitcoin-job-hopefuls. Here are a few insights:

There are a few main reasons why people work in a Bitcoin job:

When working directly in a Bitcoin job, you work with other like-minded individuals on a shared cause. It feels great to have that shared vision about what's wrong with today's fiat world and to work together on building out the new world of tomorrow. When you work together with other Bitcoiners, you feel less need to self-censor than in a fiat job. You feel more connected and as though your work is making a difference.

Working at a Bitcoin company can give you a similar vibe to attending Bitcoin conferences and meetups.

To be clear, this isn't for everybody. Some people are just earning too much at their fiat job to think about giving it up. In these cases, it's chop wood, carry water. Keep stacking that fiat and converting it into bitcoin whether you are purchasing, earning or mining.

Taking a Bitcoin job would be trading off on income for those with specialized skill sets. It is similar to the trade-off of working at a FAANG company for the high pay and stock options versus the higher risk play of working in a small tech start-up where you get some equity and have more upside if the start-up gets bought out.

You could find a Bitcoin open-source project to contribute to, take a job in a Bitcoin company, or even start a company serving the industry. If you're an enthusiast closely following the industry, there's a good chance you can spot gaps or unmet needs perhaps you could build out a product or service to help? Contrary to popular opinion, you don't necessarily have to be a developer to contribute. You could be a writer, work in customer service, have transferable skills from the energy industry, or perhaps work in sales, design, operations, or many other roles.

Bitcoin has a thriving ecosystem, much of it screaming out for the right talent to join. If you want to get into Bitcoin development and contribution, look into organizations such as Blockstream, Chaincode Labs, Spiral, MIT DCI, HRF Bitcoin Development Fund, and Brink. Various exchanges and Bitcoin companies sponsor developers. There are programs to support and train Bitcoin and Lightning developers, such as Qala (see my interview with Abubakar Nur Khalil) and Summer of Bitcoin. Theres also Base58.info by Lisa Neigut of Blockstream, and Programming Bitcoin by Jimmy Song.

Finding A Bitcoin job

So what does it take to find these kinds of jobs? You can search on platforms like BitcoinerJobs.com and post your profile there. You can network and meet people at Bitcoin conferences, events, and meetups. Having open-source contributions or prior Bitcoin company experience is a plus.

Building up your portfolio of work in the space and becoming known for a specific thing will help in any job application process, and it might even help jobs find you. In some cases, a person does a job in the area for free but later gets paid to continue doing that work, or at least something related. In other cases, I've seen people create their own jobs by starting or contributing to a side project that later becomes a full-time business.

For example, some individuals start by producing educational content on Bitcoin, Lightning, security, and/or privacy topics and later get hired by a Bitcoin company to continue creating this material in-house or working as customer technical support. Others start consulting services to teach these concepts.

Building Up Your Profile

There are various ways to support Bitcoin and open source projects, as you can make contributions in multiple ways:

If you want to hear more about making contributions to Bitcoin open-source projects and how this can dramatically improve your Bitcoin career prospects, check out my interview with Rockstar Developer and Pavlenex of BTCPay Server.

Make the most of Bitcoin conferences and events, especially if you meet Bitcoin company leaders or staff and outline how your skills or enthusiasm will help in a particular role.

Generally, Bitcoin companies benefit from hiring Bitcoiners. You get more passionate and motivated employees who genuinely care about the cause. Sure there'll be some Twitter shitposting while on the job, but this will be more than made up for by the reduced need for training on Bitcoin. Bitcoiners as staff will also help you recruit other Bitcoiners to the team and help create the right kind of company culture too.

If you've just got this background feeling that fiat job life isn't for you, definitely look into taking a Bitcoin job. I know people who have taken pay cuts to work in a Bitcoin company who did not regret their choice. It allowed them to work on something they were genuinely passionate about with a team that shared a similar purpose. Whether you want to contribute to Bitcoin open-source projects or work in a Bitcoin company, best of luck out there, there is a lot of work to be done!

This is a guest post by Stephan Livera. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

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The Why And How Of Getting A Bitcoin Job - Bitcoin Magazine

He and others also argue that Bitcoin isnt as much of an energy hog as it first appears. Because Bitcoin miners can rapidly turn on or off, they are stabilizing the electrical grid in places such as Texas by throttling back when other demand is high and cranking up consumption when other demand is weak, advocates argue. Some of the electricity that Bitcoin uses is from energy resources that nobody else can easily access, such as overbuilt hydroelectric power plants, they say. (Theres some truth to this, but Bitcoin mining still contributes to global warming.)

Another Bitcoiner argument is that its proof of work method is more secure than proof of stake or other protocols. The open question is not whether proof of stake is secure but whether its secure enough for a global form of digital gold. Bitcoin is, said Ryan Selkis, a co-founder and the chief executive of Messari, which builds data and research tools for crypto. (Backers of proof-of-stake cryptos respond that their systems are just as secure as Bitcoins. Theyre literally being attacked by every hacker on earth, constantly. And theyre holding up, said Larsen.)

Theres also some bad blood between the Bitcoin community and Larsen, whose company, Ripple, uses a security system that isnt proof of work or proof of stake. In March, Selkis called Larsen a Judas on Twitter. The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Ripple, Larsen, and another Ripple executive in 2020, charging that its sale of $1.3 billion in crypto tokens constituted an unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering. In an interview, Larsen said he thinks the S.E.C. is wrong because Ripple is a virtual currency and is thus exempt from securities regulation.

Make of those arguments what you will; the important fact is that theres no evidence that the key players in Bitcoin are interested in making the big switch to energy-saving proof of stake. It wouldnt benefit the miners, who have invested heavily in specialized computing technology that would go to waste. And theres no groundswell for it in the other key interest group, the operators of nodes computers that keep up-to-date digital records of crypto transactions. The node operators collectively decide whether each new block of transactions should or should not be legitimized and appended to the blockchain. Some fear that moving to proof of stake would diminish Bitcoins decentralization, which they value.

Its possible that some Bitcoiners will decide to switch to proof of stake. That would be what the community calls a hard fork, as in a fork in the road, where people have to choose which direction to go. But even if there is a fork, that fork will eventually fail, and it will have zero or close to zero economic value, said Daniel Frumkin, the director of research at Braiins, a Bitcoin-mining software company that operates a network of miners called Slush Pool.

For Bitcoin to change direction would require almost like a constitutional convention of sorts, said Selkis. Inertia usually wins.

OK, but what if the European Parliament does ban proof of work someday and the United States and other nations follow suit? Thats the nightmare scenario for the Bitcoin community, which has a strong libertarian streak. Bitcoin would not be a trillion-dollar asset if the European Union and the United States were doing their jobs of maintaining sound money, Selkis said. Thats the real reason they dont like it. It exposes their underperformance.

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Opinion | I Spoke to the Experts. Bitcoin Isnt Going to Change. - The New York Times

Illustrative image of two commemorative bitcoins with a green background.

Artur Widak | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Stripe will allow businesses to pay their users via cryptocurrencies, starting with Twitter, in the latest sign of how large financial firms are warming to digital assets.

The $95 billion online payments company said Friday it will start offering merchants the ability to make payouts in crypto through the stablecoin USDC, which is issued by crypto firm Circle. Stablecoins are tokens that are pegged to fiat currencies to maintain a stable price. In USDC's case, as the name suggests, the cryptocurrency is backed by the U.S. dollar.

Twitter will be the first company to integrate the new payment method. Starting Friday, the social media platform which has been the subject of much talk lately over a potential takeover by Tesla CEO Elon Musk will let a certain number of creators receive their earnings from its paid Ticketed Spaces and Super Follows features in USDC.

It's Stripe's first significant push into crypto since dropping support for bitcoin four years ago. The San Francisco-based start-up stopped accepting payments via bitcoin in January 2018, citing the digital coin's notoriety for volatile price swings and a lack of efficiency in making everyday transactions.

But the firm has since warmed to crypto amid hype over "Web3," a movement in tech that calls for the creation of a decentralized version of the internet based on blockchain technology. Stripe last year formed a team dedicated to exploring crypto and Web3. In November, Stripe co-founder John Collison hinted the firm may soon offer crypto support again.

"While the 'store of value' aspects of cryptocurrencies typically receive the most attention, we view the prospect of 'open-access global financial rails' as being at least equally compelling," Karan Sharma, product manager at Stripe's crypto unit, said in a blogpost Friday. "As a result, we've been exploring ways to use cryptocurrency-based platforms to unlock broader access."

The company's crypto payouts feature will run on the Polygon network, a so-called "Layer 2" solution that sits on top of the Ethereum network to handle transactions faster and at a lower cost. Bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies have faced criticism over sluggish transaction times and high fees.

"We plan to add support for additional rails and payout currencies over time," Sharma said.

Stripe isn't the only company opening up its platform to digital currencies in fact, the company is arguably late to the party. Visa, Mastercard and PayPal and other major payment processors have all announced moves of their own in the space. That was back when digital currency prices were still rising.

More recently, several major cryptocurrencies have slumped sharply from record highs, with bitcoin, the world's largest, down more than 40% from a November peak of nearly $69,000. Bitcoin was trading at around $39,724 on Friday, according to Coin Metrics data, off by about 6% in the last 24 hours.

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Fintech giant Stripe jumps into crypto with a feature that lets Twitter users get paid in stablecoin - CNBC

In early 2022, in a short period of time, Canadian truckers went from being a fringe minority to being so dangerous that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked emergency powers for the first time in half a century with the specific Emergencies Act being declared for the first time since its creation in 1988.

The rarely-used emergency powers allowed Canadian authorities to ban public assembly, restrict travel, and maybe more importantly, freeze bank accounts without the need for court orders. This announcement was already following the blockage of more than $10 million by GoFundMe. Also preceding this extraordinary measure was a Canadian judge issuing an injunction for another $9 million in donations given via the GiveSendGo platform. With over $19 million dollars obstructed from people who were peacefully protesting, bitcoin was the only money (besides cash) that could make it directly into the hands of truckers and other protestors.

Bitcoiners from all over the world banded together to raise over 22 bitcoin for the Canadian Freedom Convoy protest. The outpouring of donations was so overwhelming, the organizers of HonkHonkHodl shut down the donation page and some even briefly deactivated their Twitter accounts out of emotional distress and/or fear of government retribution. So how were people able to donate to this cause when the Canadian government announced plans to freeze protestors corporate and personal bank accounts? With the aid of Tallycoin, a noncustodial crowdfunding platform (and bitcoin of course!)

Tallycoin has been around for many years and allows projects to raise bitcoin for various purposes. The projects range from documentary films to books about the Lightning Network to raising money for beers for a bitdevs meetup. It wasnt until the Canadian protests that the platform experienced a massive popularity boost in a short period of time.

With the Canadian government having frozen accounts of people with views which were deemed unacceptable, Bitcoin took the spotlight as a way for people to receive value from donors around the world without the possibility of being stopped. That didnt mean truckers and those fielding the donations are in the clear. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) issued sanctions against 34 crypto addresses (29 of which are bitcoin addresses). At least some of these addresses were directly tied to organizers of the Tallycoin fundraiser.

Fortunately, the Bitcoin network doesnt know nor care about sanctions. The owners of the private keys from blacklisted addresses could still send those illicit funds to any other Bitcoin address and chances are, the transaction would get confirmed in the next block (as long as the fee is set accordingly to the going market rate). Getting those funds onto an exchange in order to sell that bitcoin for fiat is another story.

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As the cofounder and CEO of KrakenFX exchange, Jesse Powell, explained, regulated exchanges must comply with judicial orders. Any trucker who receives bitcoin from one of those 29 addresses and then tries to sell it for Canadian dollars (CAD) on an exchange will have their funds frozen and may also risk further legal action since their personal information is almost definitely stored in the exchanges database due to Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws. The issue of freedom to control ones own money was discussed with Tucker Carlson when he questioned Marty Bent about Bitcoins ability to be used in such an adversarial environment. In the clip, Carlson asserts that people will most likely lose faith in banks if governments dont approve of how they use their money and Bent assures him that the promise of Bitcoin holds true, so long as users hold their own private keys.

Truckers are limited in the use of bitcoin for the purpose of cashing it out for CAD, but would they face the same challenges putting this donated bitcoin to work in a circular bitcoin economy? My guess is no. But most truckers werent going to protest with the plans of being forced to adopt Bitcoin or even choosing to fall down the Bitcoin rabbit hole (also known as getting orange-pilled). Learning about Bitcoin wasnt on the agenda when these protestors headed to Ottawa to make their voices (and horns) heard. Spectators around the world began noticing the frightening trend of the government freezing the assets of those with dissenting opinions and the observers who were savvy began to realize that it might be their opinion that gets them locked out of their bank account next.

There were numerous discussions around how the HonkHonkHodl team should distribute the donated bitcoin. Many people, including myself, were curious about the transparency of how the bitcoin would be used and allocated to protestors. After some of the notably reputable and public organizers deactivated their Twitter accounts for fear of government retribution and general stress, one Twitter user, who has established a reputation of a controversial nature amongst many prominent members of the Bitcoin community, became extremely vocal about the lack of immediate action to pass out bitcoin to the truckers, going so far as to threaten legal action. This same person then offered their support by joining the organizers in strategizing how to proceed, which led to a deeper conversation around Bitcoin privacy and best practices due to the questionable privacy practices the team chose in handing out donated bitcoin.

According to a piece by Vice, organizers planned the distribution of funds publicly on Google Docs and destroyed devices used that interacted with the seed words for the truckers bitcoin. Based on the suggestion of this new person who added himself to the HonkHonkHodl team, truckers who received bitcoin would also be recorded on video as they received their donation in order to provide photographic proof that donations were being handled appropriately. After witnessing the severity of financial repercussions for participants of these protests, it is astonishing that the organizers were willing to put themselves on camera as well as the truckers to whom they donated the bitcoin, but that is exactly what they chose to do. Arguments have been made that the truckers are making no attempt to hide their identities while at the protest, but does that mean we should have put them on camera as they received those precious sats?

Since that time, one of the HonkHonkHodl organizers, Nobody Caribou, had his house raided and one set of private keys confiscated by a joint police task force.

Financial freedom and privacy are fundamental human rights. Many people who observed the Canadian governments response to protestors financial assets would be wise to think about what could happen to their own bank accounts should they choose to voice concerns about a decision with which they disagree that was made by the government. Bitcoin is an avenue for freedom as long as its used in a private and secure way. Its also a completely open and transparent public ledger, which is how the Canadian government was able to easily pinpoint 29 specific addresses connected with the protest. My personal thoughts about digital privacy are that it is a spectrum and users should be able to choose how private they intend to be. Choosing to be less private (or not even having the opportunity to make a choice about privacy, such as being filmed receiving donations) in this scenario with truckers could have serious livelihood and financial ramifications if these protestors are identified by entities looking to label them as an associate or participant in a targeted group. Filming truckers as they receive their first bitcoin ever does not provide those users with the same type of non-KYC opportunity as it could have had they received the bitcoin off camera.

Eventually, the Freedom Convoy was put to an end with pepper spray, stun grenades and tow trucks. In addition, some of the bitcoin donations were reportedly seized. Though bitcoin itself is an unstoppable monetary force, it is as susceptible to seizure as its users. This demonstrates the need for better Bitcoin privacy and mixing practices, but does not limit its utility and value. By making the donations publicly and on film, Nobody Caribou (or Nicholas St. Louis as hes been identified) made himself an easy target. Though the government eventually began lifting the asset freeze on more than 200 accounts, many people began waking up to the authoritarian capabilities of their government.

Before the gravity of the gross mishandling of Canadas use of the Emergencies Act for the purpose of freezing its own citizens accounts had time to settle in, Russia invaded Ukraine. Ukrainians were forced to flee or stay to fight. Banks continue to operate, but with no possibilities for getting more cash reserves. ATMs were overrun and electronic cash transfers were suspended. Ukrainians who left and had bitcoin were able to flee with at least some of their wealth intact. More than $4.4 million worth of bitcoin was donated from all over the world to the Ukrainian military. A week into the conflict, the G7 countries decided to freeze Russian assets that are held in their jurisdiction and the U.S. imposed unprecedented and expansive sanctions in order to bar Russia from the worldwide financial system.

Unlike the U.S. Treasurys, which can be seized at the blink of an eye or bank accounts that will be frozen if citizens voice an unacceptable viewpoint, Bitcoin cannot be stopped. No government anywhere in the world can effectively assert jurisdiction over a borderless, decentralized monetary network. That doesnt mean they wont try. Its up to Bitcoiners to educate newcomers and bring them on board the Bitcoin lifeboat in as private a way as possible. The decision by the Canadian government to freeze protestors assets is not a new strategy known by authoritarian governments. But now, people in constitutional republics are beginning to realize that its possible and maybe even likely that their funds are also at risk. Many people around the world are starting to see the importance and value of a digital asset that is seizure-resistant, censorship-resistant, borderless, and sovereign. Its imperative that we handle this opportunity with privacy and education in mind. Never before have we been on the precipice of orange-pilling the entire world. With the financial freezes of citizens in Canada and the financial freezes of an entire country (Russia), hyperbitcoinization might be closer than we think.

This is a guest post by Craig Deutsch. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

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Bitcoin, The Monetary Shot Heard Round The World - Bitcoin Magazine