 The one thing you have to appreciate with cryptocurrencies is their new technology, right? It's disruptive innovation that's coming to play and it's only had a short history, okay? But it's a very powerful history. This is Cheechul. Welcome to my channel and welcome to our continuation of our discussion regarding personal finance. Now what I wanted to do in this video is give you my perspective on cryptocurrencies, because I've had a few people ask me about what my take is regarding cryptocurrencies and where I think that stuff is going and I've had some history with cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin specifically, so I'm going to give you my take on it, okay? And it's sort of a continuation of our discussion on personal finance because if you will follow in that work as you know, we've put out a video talking about five of the things we should keep in mind when it comes to investing, when it comes to taking a look at a system and deciding to participate in that system. We put out a video sort of expanding on one of those topics which was taking into consideration your timeline, your time frame, and then we kicked that off directly into how computer power, how technologies playing out in our current economic system specifically related to automation, right? And what we're going to do in the next video is continue that discussion sort of in-depth and try to create some visuals as how we can think about our current economic system as it relates to currency and the types of systems that we decide to participate in and invest our time, energy, or funds in, right? And in that video, in the next video, we're going to do specifically focus on different types of trade, different types of commerce that can take place specifically related to currencies, right? And we're going to create a visual for that. And in that discussion, we're going to talk about cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, but I didn't really want that video, the next video, to be hijacked by that discussion because it is important, but what we have to keep in mind is that's just one option available to us, right? And since a lot of people have been asking me for me to give my take regarding cryptocurrencies, I thought I'd put this little short video together. Now, I'm going to give you my disclaimer again, right? This isn't financial advice. So, you know, take whatever I say with a grain of salt. I've just had some history with Bitcoin and I've written, I put out two articles in the past giving my perspective on Bitcoin, okay? So I thought I'd follow that up with a sort of a video, short little video discussion on it, okay? As far as the disclaimer goes, my history with Bitcoin is basically, I did a little bit of mining in 2010-2011 and I followed the progression of this disruptive innovation really, because as we've talked about in one of the ASMR videos, ASMR math videos, disruptive innovation is sort of technology that comes into play that shakes up a certain, shakes up different systems, right? And cryptocurrencies is something that's coming to play and it's really shaking up our current economic system in a big way. And it's going to continue to do that in a big way, okay? For those of you who think cryptocurrencies might be thinking cryptocurrencies are short-term thing. They're not a short-term thing. They're going to be around for a very, very long time, okay? So I did a little bit of Bitcoin mining in 2010-2011 and I followed the progression of Bitcoin. And in 2013 I put out a little article and I titled it The Bitcoin Bubble or Is It? Two charts historical price movement and the conspiracy, right? And in 2013 was the first time, well, that wasn't the first time, but it was if you're talking about the $1,000 mark, but it was, Bitcoin did a huge move up, right? It went, and in that article I sort of copied and pasted sort of discussions that I found on different forums to preserve those things as part of history because there are, the internet sort of being scrubbed of certain types of information, so I wanted to preserve two little bits of info that I came across and I gave my perspective as an introduction, right? So in 2013 when Bitcoin hit 1,200 plus, right? It made a huge move up for a number of weeks and the chart looked crazy on a log scale, it was exponential growth, right? So I put out a little article mentioning that now that Bitcoin had hit $1,200, I was recommending that people liquidate, sell their Bitcoins, right? And I mentioned in that article that this wasn't sort of a critique on how a valid Bitcoin is as a form of currency, it was just my take that Bitcoin had reached bubble, the price had reached bubble status, and in most bubble, whenever something reaches a bubble status, it's not, you know, if you're active, it's not a bad idea to sell, right? Because usually when it hits a bubble level, what you can do is wait for the bubble to pop and then you can buy at a lower price, right? So that article is actually, that piece is well worth reading, right? It's just a little short intro on why I was, why I gave the recommendation to sell and I found something for online that I thought was worth preserving. So I preserved those two bits of info in that article as well. One of them was basically the price movements and I don't agree with everything that was said in the text that I preserved in that piece that I put out, but one of them was basically did a good job of showing how the price of Bitcoin had fluctuated over the last few years up to 2013 and, you know, it gave, it mentioned that, you know, this person who had posted this information would hold until Bitcoin had, you know, he mentioned that Bitcoin still had lays and it could go up to 2000, 3000. For me, 1200 was the peak and I mentioned that it was recommending that people would sell and people, there was a fair bit of comments and stuff that I got and a lot of people were saying that it was crazy that Bitcoin was going to go to a move, it was going to be a million dollars and whatnot. And it was still a possibility, but to me I explained why I thought I had rich bubble levels and why it was a good idea to sell, right? And then there's a little bit of other info that I found online in a forum that is basically related to conspiracy of what Bitcoin is and what cryptocurrencies are and where the technology came from and it's worth reading if you want to know that part of, I don't want to say history because it's not set in stone yet, but that part of the game and in that person also, you know, all three of us basically, my info, the two people that I've cut and pasted or took their info and preserved the information, all three of us were in the mindset in that piece that Bitcoin is not going to go away. And then in 2014 I put out another piece mentioning that I titled it The Fragmentation of Bitcoin Community begins after the collapse of Mt. Gox and second markets Wall Street exchange proposal. And at that point Bitcoin had come down to, I believe it was around $500 or so, $550. And I mentioned that I had recommended that people sell when the price was at $1,200 plus. And in this little piece, I mentioned that if people were interested in playing the game again, that if I was into buying Bitcoins, I would have bought Bitcoins at $500, $550. I mentioned that I would buy two Bitcoins at $500 or $550. And I mentioned that I'm not going to be participating in that market. And I gave my reasons, well, some of my reasons. So as far as the disclaimer goes, those are two articles that I've written that if you're interested in cryptocurrencies, you should take a look at because it preserves a little bit of history and it gives you my take on what's going on. So that's part of the disclaimer. The other part of the disclaimer is as of right now, mid-July 2007, I'm not holding any cryptocurrencies. So I'm not here to hype anything. I'm not here to promote anything. I'm just here to give you my take on it. So there is no conflict of interest from my part trying to convert people to be cryptocurrency users and take some of their funds and put them in a different basket. Because it's pretty important to have your funds in more than one basket in these times. And that's something we're going to talk about in the next video. So long-winded discussion on cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies are basically a way that we can conduct business. Transfer wealth from one location to another location with privacy and securely. So cryptocurrencies are just basically, I don't want to say I use the term banking. Because I'm pretty sure banking has some legal definitions associated with it. But cryptocurrencies are disruptive innovation that have come into play that have solid mathematics behind them, which makes them secure form of communication. And it's a way to transfer wealth to send funds from one location to another location to do business. Globally, with anonymity, with privacy. Because what's happening right now, since I guess 2000 really, that's when things really started to play out in our current economic system where the cracks in the system were really showing themselves. And then one of the cracks broke in 2008. And when 2008 happened, a huge part of the business community did a double take. Huge part of people that were invested in our current economic system that is transparent. As transparent as it pretends to be. Or we think it is. All of a sudden people realized that there was huge cracks in the system. So there was a mad scramble to provide alternate forms of finance. Alternate forms of doing business. And cryptocurrencies is one of these systems that has come into play. And digital currencies, I can call them digital currencies. Historically you can read off some of the history on it. It's pretty transparent. But there is, cryptocurrencies have or digital currencies have been in play for a couple of decades now, two or three decades now. But it's just recently that because of networking, we've been able to come up with systems where they're decentralized which is the key to cryptocurrencies. It's not one location that controls the flow of information. It's a network where different nodes are in play. And copies of copies of copies of basically, it's a technology called blockchain where it's sort of a system mathematically where it's code where fraud has basically been eliminated in transactions, in the ledger system. So Bitcoin is a ledger system where it keeps track of where funds are being transferred from one location to another location where both parties or more parties can maintain their anonymity and maintain their privacy. So if I wanted to sell you something and I didn't want to do it where there was a paper trail of you buying whatever it is that you're buying and me selling whatever it is that I'm selling, then we could definitely do it through cryptocurrencies. And this isn't something novel. This isn't something new. People have wanted to be able to do trade, to do commerce privately forever. If you ever bought something on eBay, eBay gives you the option to have the option listed as a private option where people can't see who's bidding on them. I've participated in some of those auctions as well because sometimes you don't want to see who are the participants who are the people bidding on those items that you're bidding on. So privacy is a huge issue in our current economic system and our current political system because after you've taken care of everything that you need to take care of in your society, in your community with whatever system is in play, whatever governing system is at play then everything you do personally, privately should not be under the lens of the government or any corporation so they can take it apart and see exactly what it is that you're doing if it is none of their business. So that's where cryptocurrencies come into play. I'm sorry if I'm not going into the mathematics of it because I would have to do a lot more research and read a couple of books and really get into the code behind the algorithms of blockchains and how this is done. And there's a lot of different cryptocurrencies at play. It's not just Bitcoin. Look this up. When I was first getting into it, there was a handful of bitcoins. Right now there's like 700 plus or there was a handful of cryptocurrencies. Right now there's like 700 plus cryptocurrencies. And some of the cryptocurrencies offer certain type of ledger systems which are certain types of codes, certain types of conducting business that is not available through Bitcoin, right? There's a couple of them that are coming out or more than a couple coming out. They're specifically geared towards companies doing business, right? Not on an individual basis, but they offer contractual agreements. I haven't looked into this too far. I've just read the headlines and read some articles. So there are different types of cryptocurrencies at play. Bitcoin is not the only one. It just happens to be one of the first one that was able to implement it in a rapid way where it got a lot of users. And it was basically rolled out in a way where it became the dominant form of cryptocurrency for a while now. That's being sort of challenged right now. There's secondary tertiary and multiple other cryptocurrencies at play. So as far as cryptocurrencies go, they're not going away. They're embedded themselves within a short few years. Like really within the last 10 years, less than nine years, eight years, they basically embedded themselves within our current economic system and their market cap is going to continue to grow. There will be hiccups along the way, both legally and technically because there are some technical issues associated with cryptocurrencies with different types of cryptocurrencies. And there is a lot of legality associated with this as well because certain places in the world are looking at regulating cryptocurrencies as currencies. Certain places are regulating cryptocurrencies as if you're making any gains profit in trading cryptocurrencies, they're looking at that as capital gains. And they're coming to play even in countries that are trying to eliminate cash within their system. And as soon as cash is eliminated from any economic, political system then anonymity is gone, right? Privacy is gone. If there is no option of doing things with cryptocurrencies, right? If you get rid of cash within a society and there is no other option than to use banking systems and systems that are totally transparent to any government or corporation then you have no privacy. And when you have no privacy, that's a road that leads to very, very, very dark places, right? Because the first thing we have to appreciate and that's one of the reasons cryptocurrencies are taking off in a huge way, huge way and they will continue to be a major player in our, not just economic system but our political system and our societies is because we need to have privacy because privacy is directly related to liberty, freedom, to anonymity to doing whatever it is you want to do as a human being as long as you're not hurting anyone else, right? As long as you're not forcing your opinions on anyone else, okay? So for all of you who've been asking me to give you my take on cryptocurrencies there isn't really much to say other than cryptocurrencies or form of transactions that are going to be around, right? For those of you wanting to know when you should buy in, when you should sell cryptocurrencies I can't give you that advice, I can't, you know, I'm not here to give you financial advice on a short-term basis I'm here to give you my perspective on how I think our current economic and political system is playing out The one thing you have to appreciate with cryptocurrencies is their new technology, right? It's disruptive innovation that's going to play and it's only had a short history, okay? But it's a very powerful history, right? They will be around, okay? They're not going away but there are obstacles on play and the other thing you have to keep in mind is irrelevant of whatever system you think is a valid form of transaction valid form of economics, right? Valid form of business Everything is prone to reach bubble status, right? We had a real estate bubble in 2000 and building up to 2007, 2006, 2007, 2008, right? We talked about that or we wrote about that I wrote about that when I was doing articles, right? There was a bubble, the bubble popped, right? It doesn't mean investing in real estate is a debunked or not a valid form of investing It is valid, right? But do you really want to buy during the peaks of the bubble or do you want to buy during the troughs or somewhere in between, right? Do you want to buy when prices are rising or do you want to buy when prices are falling, right? Some people, a lot of people are looking at the real estate market right now and it's a valid form of investment, 100%, right? However, is it bubble levels, right? So when you're thinking about cryptocurrencies, what you have to consider is are you buying at peaks and will you be able to hold out in volatile times where the price might drop 90% Really, where it might drop 90% and then come back up again, right? Or 80% or 50% Are you in it for the long haul? Are you in it to make sure you don't have your eggs on one basket in one economic system and you want to participate in different types of economic systems, right? That's what you have to consider That's what you have to keep in mind before you look at any type of investment, right? Any type of commerce, any type of system and cryptocurrencies is no different, okay? Let me know if you want to talk about this a little bit further I can't get into the mathematics of it because I haven't done my research into it properly anyway to be able to do a full discussion on the mathematics the algorithms behind cryptocurrencies because I'm not a coder I like my mathematics and I like my politics and cryptocurrencies sort of merging of the two, right? Politics and economics combined with mathematics offering us a new way, sort of a disruptive innovation and giving us options as opposed to putting all our eggs in one basket in our current banking systems which are quite fragile right now to say the least and the future is very volatile and will continue to be quite volatile for quite some time to be and if you can't hold out through that volatility in cryptocurrencies as well as our current economic system then you need to probably rethink your personal finances and make sure you can ride the wave that most likely is coming