owww I remember 2017 and 2018 very very well as well. same as you, I felt like WTF! spent so much time in crypto but all value decreased to rock bottom, perhaps just a handful of dollars in my case. wasn't a great feeling. well, it was a bad feeling. and then I moved away from crypto rather than continue my activities on HIVE and its predecessor. that felt better, though also with all the shizzle happening with bid bots, downvoting cycles and all that didn't give me a great feeling as well, but I continued. something to do with this idealogy mindset I have for HIVE, blogging with direct rewards, and all that.
regarding how to get to early retirement. so true this is only for a few. well, perhaps still for quite some peeps, but percentage-wise it is a few. has always been like that and it always will be like that. I think different methods can be applied to try and get to early retirement. one is the follow-the-money method as you explained in the vid. I would say, another method can be applied as well, which is indeed the 1000x tokens. perhaps a bit more difficult to follow the money method though. since in the 1000x game, one needs to spread investments a lot. also, one needs to figure out about the project/team/token and all that without much history while most of the projects/tokens will be abandoned by the team in one or the other way. so, such an approach takes tons of time. while the results can lead to bad feelings due to yet another 1, 2 or 3 teams not delivering what they promised, or simply walking away. Or some hacker stealing the money (note: I've seen more often a team dev running away with as much funds as he (likely he's, not she's) could grab than a real hacker, an outsider, who was able to steal funds). anyways, over time we can learn to accept this to happen. at least I was (and still am) able to do that. seen good money going down to zero in an instant more than a few times. on the other hand, seems a few times small to nice money 100x-ing with some of those tokens still able to do another 10 to 100x. time will tell when this will happen. and true, one shall not stick to a token since longer term, nothing is guaranteed. big ass chains can get to no usage when some other chain comes around the corner making a step in the right direction and making web3 applications simpler for the user of such applications.
a small investment I made into a new DEX over at BASE chain, based on some big ass HIVE user, got 'hacked' not long after its launch. well, not hacked, one of the devs ran with the money. just before Xmas, the main guy returned back to TG and said: now its time to continue. fortunately, I got myself 20x more tokens when the MC was like 50k$. still a gamble, but a gamble worth it. also, I didn't use more than the funds I would need for a good Xmas dinner in a class-A restaurant. a dinner I enjoyed for 'free' this year since I was with my mother and stepdad, therefore I had this money saved, so to speak.
am not at all into MEME coins and never really tried them. but recently over at this newish chain, I went into this MEME token just after launch. launched with just a marketcap of 1$. of course it wasn't that cheap for me, but I think I was the 2nd or 3rd buyer. the first buyer is likely the individual who launched the token. by now that token did 100x for me and something like 10k x for the 1st buyer or better said for the first few tokens bought by the 1st buyer. though the percentage of the tokens I own is not small, in absolute value this token isn't making me rich at all. hell no. it isn't even enough for a nice vacation to e.g. spain. but who knows, anything can change since we are just at the beginning of a nice new market cycle with greens left and right.
I would say that HIVE (old chain) kept me sane in those days... As I was "earning" something, even if it was only pennies, I had a purpose... And I do agree regarding the ideology around HIVE... Not what it IS, but what it CAN be... :)
About meme tokens and 1000x strategy... It is possible to do it if you have time to research and deploy/spread your smaller investments to 50-100 projects... 1 of them should hit big numbers... Every next meme coin that moons brings more attention to meme tokens, and even more attention to scammers... I was over-diversified in 2018-2019, and it didn't finish well for me... I will skip going into that method this time... I like slow and steady... 😃
Congrats on that! If you have good info about owners and you are one of the first, then there are no worries about investing... ;) When it hits 5-10X, you cashout your investment and leave the rest to ride... :)
Don't know anything about the owner. Very anon. But I do know that the one launching it did what he/she said would do. Namely, push some tokens in LP and burn the keys of the wallet that owns that LP. The clear statement was made right after launch: I'll burn the keys and then it's all in the hands of the community. No team, No marketing, No nothing. That made me buy some of the tokens, knowing I was so early.