How the Seven Deadly Sins are a parable for the cryptoverse
I’M sure that most of us can pretty much remember what they are, but in case not they are Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath and Sloth.
I’m also pretty sure most of us succumbed to all of them at one time or another. Some of us, of course are more into lust than sloth, for example, but it remains true I believe that none of us can say we have never fallen for any of them.
Despite greed and gluttony being perhaps almost interchangeable, I do think they pertain to different urges. There’s that wonderful yet horrific film “Seven” which I suppose is already a parable for our age, but how, you may say, do they become relevant to crypto?
Starting with pride, it creeps in at various levels and times as we contemplate where we are with our investments. Have I done well? Yes I have! Am I proud of my achievements? Yes I am!
And that leads us straight to greed, because, such is the nature of humanity, we instantly want MORE.
And that takes us to lust, because not only do we want more we want LOTS more and we want it NOW and we are brimming with envy because Joe Bloggs already has more, and has been telling everyone about how smart he is and how he has hoovered up loads of cash.
And that makes a straight connection with our crypto person wanting EVEN more, more than they need which is pure gluttony.
What about wrath? I love the story of Warren Buffett when he was trying to buy Berkshire Hathaway originally. He had agreed a price but when the contract came in, it was different. And he took a major hissy fit and spent lots of money and a long time being enraged. He has subsequently said that if he had simply either paid the price or walked away and looked happy he would have been able to start investing in insurance (which is what BH essentially is) years earlier and made another trillion.
So, wrath leads you to compromise your judgement and take the wrong path (which many many people do in the land of crypto).
So it’s all going swimmingly, and then one day instead of going up the exchanges start dropping crypto prices and apart from worrying and trying to talk yourself into buying the dip (surely a silly idea as all knee jerk reactions are) you get depressed and don’t bother to follow things properly for a bit. Rather like not opening the letters from the bank in the hope that Something will Turn Up.
The endless tsunami of information and opinion is such that it becomes a rabbit in the headlights situation. Sloth – just at the point when you should be doubling and redoubling your work rate.
CZ, he of Binance fame, just gave an interview where he said that basically 80% of crypto investors would never make anything and I have written before about how ephemeral crypto profits generally prove to be.
He also said that you should stick with Bitcoin. He may well be right. Bitcoin’s share of the crypto market continues to rise. Now sitting at nearly 59%, what is truly amazing is that there are literally tens of thousands of altcoins counterbalancing that, and thousands more every year. But Bitcoin continues to hold its ground and even to expand its reach.
Some years ago I compared Bitcoin to the US Dollar and the Federal Reserve. That is the Big Daddy of Tradfi. Bitcoin is the Big daddy of crypto. It would appear that Donald Trump has taken my words to heart and is ensuring that the US controls both.
Temple Melville
