Finally, got to rep level 75! Must've taken me about 6 months to get out of 74. This year was all about exponential growth in many ways. Didn't write much about it, but I've spent plenty of time this year figuring out my short to long-term investment profile. Gosh, it's a never-ending process! You can't really know such things until you take the time to reflect, and express your thoughts. Only to discover that the rabbit hole goes really, really deep.
Currently, there are piles of books on my left, crumpled pieces of paper on my right, and ~150 communication channels open on my computer. I haven't been cleaning my house and the dog's furballs are rolling around like I'm in cowboy town. Whatever plans I had for this entire year were put on hold and I've not even gone out on any dates this year lol. Just too busy figuring out myself and my strategies navigating through the wild wild west of finance. The future is already here, and I want in early..!
I went full-on embracing and eating up all the information I can get. Turns out, this is not something I can handle healthily. Been losing sleep and wrecking all my schedules. Even spent ungodly amounts of time designing and figuring out coins that can dominate the mainstream market. It all stems from FOMO and a simple desire to be ahead of the curve. All very exciting stuff.
But it's not all rainbows. The game also comes along with periods of intense meltdown and depression. It's all just very overwhelming, and 2018 will be the year that I hope to be able to have more confidence paving my way in this space. Focus on what matters to me. I'd like to think that I've gone through some growth as a person this year having some of my skin and head in the game.
Before I head out tonight for the year-end barbecue and drinks with some childhood friends, I wish to write this little post going forward. What are the fundamentals that I'm going for as a contributor in this game?
Content is King
All actions that manifest change in the world originate as thoughts, often expressed and packaged as readable content. In that sense, essays, memes, social communications and whitepapers are the reasons why we're now in a booming market. The new paradigm at hand is a better story. Cryptocurrencies are a game of persuasion that spans a wide range of meta information, particularly in the field of mathematics, computer sciences, philosophy, economics, memetics, and user-experience. All of these are content that have the power to sway hearts and move our spirits. They are capital mined out of works of creation and curation.
Long-Term Criteria
Following the fundamental notion that money is pure information and a content-type, here are the non-mutually exclusive ingredients of my investment profile:-
Web 3.0 / The Decentralized Web for unrestricted, unfiltered, and uncensored worldwide access with a protocol for community-based regulation. Mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies will happen at the web layer and as such, information propagation and consenting communication channels should not be stifled. Net neutrality can also be achieved by free-market innovation.
Near-instant transaction with zero fees. Necessary for the long-term game of building out the sharing economy and zero-marginal cost societies. It's the natural conclusion, at least in my mind. This opens up the floodgate of distribution and innovation.
Distributed and incentivised public content ledgers. Effective content curation and ranking are also important. If the soon-to-be multi-trillion dollar market ever hopes to achieve something substantial, it would need to have media that brings about all manner of discussion. A focus on technology, community, and usability matters. The best can only be brought out and deliberated by social influencers with information curated from perceived experts in the field.
The ability to put convert any cryptocurrencies to any other cryptocurrencies from one place instead of putting up orders in many different siloed exchanges (even decentralized ones). Basically the free exchange of content / information in a global pool with worldwide reach.
Atomic ownership over traditional online accounts, and services over applications.
Side-chainability.
Ease of development.
Full breadth of financial instruments.
Delegation and diversification. I can't cover everything on the market nor do I have full knowledge, so this is needed, and I have thrown in some wildcards just in case.
My updated portfolio
After taking some good time finalizing my long-term holds this month based on my criteria, I realised I can't be doing this like how I've been doing the whole year, watching the markets and reading up endlessly. So, I've also finally developed my own system for assessing a set of curated information once every 3 months. Here are my current long-term holds:-
- Steem
- IOTA
- EOS
- Raiblocks
- Lisk
- Bismuth
- Substratum
- Agoras
- Santiment Network Token
- Blockmason Credit Protocol Token
- Salt
- 0x
- Ethos
- Pillar
- Iconomi
- Blockchain Capital
- Token-as-a-Service
- Civic
- Datum
- Aragon
- Mysterium
- Cofound.it
- Chainlink
- ZCash
Been shopping a lot this year.. for coins lol. One thing about ICOs: usually it's best just to wait it out and aim for a lower price. I've made a bad call this year, burning a few good Bitcoins. But I guess it's the price of learning a good lesson. Don't just support a project because you have friends in it. Merit matters more than anything else to keep your investment productive.
Riding out the wave in 2018
Next year, I will try to focus on developing my blog while putting more time interacting with the community. Also revisit my lofty plans highlighted here (lucky I wrote it down). Nothing concrete but that's probably for the best. No point making too many resolutions when I know I can be easily distracted. Maybe that's just me being me being a scatter-brain. Oh, not to forget that I'm actually also in the works of planning out a live music ecosystem on the blockchain. So much going on.
Maybe I'll even consider building out a lodge by the seaside. Go out for romantic dinners. All the good stuff. This year has been a little out-of-the-ordinary and particularly stressful at times. Spent too much time being a hermit in 2017 and wish to return to my "normal" life, next year!
Alright, gotta rush out for the barbecue now.
I wish you all happy new year and see you on the other side!
omg that is a very high reputation!
Congratulations on your achievement. I have yet break out of 70s level. Thanks for sharing your portfolio, bitcoin is conspicuously missing.
yeah it is, just keep some for insurance haha. thanks @positivesteem, appreciate the kind words
Thanks for sharing your portfolio! More importantly, thanks for sharing your criteria (i.e. how to fish, instead of just the fish). I'll look up some of these up and add the ones i like! I'll prob mostly just continue to add steem in 2018 because I want to grow the comic book community around here (and support writers I like, like yourself), but I'll dabble in other stuff if they look like great buys. Congratulations on making it to 75. . . after 6 months, woah :). I believe 81 is the highest, correct? Steem actually feels like a video game sometimes, and I mean that in a good way.
Thanks @thunderbirdcomic! Btw, no idea about the highest level. 81 might never even be achievable anyway. And that's great to hear - how do you plan to grow a comic book community here btw? Sometimes it's hard to grasp steem's econs, other than steem power having a real effect in this mmorpg ;)
As far as growing the Comic Book community, I'm trying to support as many good comics as a I can on this format. Sireh and Perrenial started the #steem-cartoon initiative. They teach at a university in Malaysia and their art students have rallied behind #steem-cartoon. They've set out their goals and for growing comic / art community on steemit. https://steemit.com/steem-cartoon/@perennial/steem-cartoon-setting-our-milestones-and-mission-for-2018
I'll be becoming members of that discord when it launches and helping out with the other goals.
They have already established a strong community among artists and artists from all communities are beginning flock there. A vibrant and engaging art community is good for all of Steemit.
Ah yup, I've taken notice of their initiative for quite some time now. Let me know if you need anything - i'll be at steemit.chat
I didn't imagine you had so much going on, I thought you were just a laid back dude enjoying life :) I super appreciate you leaving the list of your long term holds, it means a lot (... a lot less research for me :P )
I also want to thank your for all the support this year, I hope I will be able to repay it some day; and congratulations on reaching rep 75, I'curious what is the maximum rep obtainable.
Happy new year and I hope you have a lot more fun in 2018 :)
I'm pretty laid back, which is why the house is pretty messy now LOL. The best way to repay is to keep distributing the votes :) thanks for the kind words, happy new year!
Thank you for the post @kevinwong.
Over my 4 months on here, I came across your blog a number of times...you write some good stuff. I like what I read and look forward to 2018 where you are more committed to your writing. I think that will only benefit this community.
As for the craziness and single-minded focus, I can identify. I, too, put a lot on hold, at least in my free time. While, perhaps, not as far down the path as you are, I live with the FOMO. I cant help but feeling there is a window here for early adopters that will eventually turn into mass adoption which escalates the price of things (tokens) yet will make it not as profitable to get in. Perhaps there is a degree of sensibility in that...and a degree of neurosis.
Either way, I know we are changing things with our contributions to Steem. There are so many lives that will be changed by this blockchain. We are seeing a new model created, one not based upon greed, fear, and scarcity. It is up to us to pass that idea along to everyone.
Although I dont know about this blockchain world, but I can tell you and some other dedicated person like @kevinwong is heading towards the great journey that not only contribute a little but will contribute to the whole community. Thank you to people like these that is big heart generous to let us tag along. I too give you the respect.
@kevinwong - Looks like you had an extremely busy year - Not even going out on dates! Ouch!!
It is great to see that you got in to the depth of finances and soaked in a lot of knowledge but do take care of your physical and mental health. Burnouts are not good.
I love the concept that money is content, going forward. Ancient wisdom has always held the belief that knowledge is power. This concept of content is somehow and extension of that. Since everything in the world is information driven 24x7 now, you are absolutely right that decentralized repositories of info, storage systems, fast transactions and tracking info would be vital and anything that is related to that in the crypto world is going to be the next Gold!
Thanks for sharing your 2017 events and your thoughts with us. Upvoted full. Wish you a very happy, prosperous and happening new year 2018 my friend. See you soon on the other side.
Regards,
@vm2904
Good post
I might just be abstracting too much and over-generalised some stuff, so becareful lol xD..
thanks @vm2904 appreciate the good thoughts. Happy new year!
congratulations on your new level @kevinwong
Happy new year !!!
Congrats on 75! It's probably a decade away from me lol !
Interesting to see all your long term holds ! I must say I have picked many of the same coins. Many of these offer more than just a block chain payment solution - and I think that being educated and keeping the ear to the ground will pay off big as time well wash away the coins that are just that - coins .
I wish you a happy new year @kevinwong and thanks for all the support in 2017 !
I can identify @dandesign86.
The path from 63 to 64 has been forever....maybe in another month I will be at 64. LOL
HAha yea and then it progressively get slower and slower ! 6 month for someone like Kevin who is a regular poster . Wow that's insane. But oh well we are in no rush we will stay here for the long haul ;)
I'm going through the same process even today on New Year eve I'm clueless what could be my long-term writing path...so, we're on the same page at least on this..
These are exact same feelings I have been having ever since I came across this cryptocurrency thing....
These are golden words..
Wish you all the best for all your plans including that music venture. Also wishing you a very blessed and successful 2018!
Excellent post @kevinwong. Shared.
Steem On!
Ideally the easiest way to invest is to invest in something you're using, which is why personally i've a heavier position on steem power. Will consider rebalancing more for others when i find myself using them in the future..
Thanks @ugetfunded happy new year!
Oh, yes, my friend, this year 2017 turned out to be tense because of the events that took place on the crypto-currency market. I, too, like you studied all year and looked at various coins, of course among a large number there is something to look at and your list of coins is very good! There are perspectives everywhere, the main thing is to understand them. Thank you for the excellent posts and much that we have understood and studied from your posts, and now you are right, you need to rest a little and meet the holiday :) Happy New Year @kevinwong and let it be good for all of us!
I just hope whatever we find ourselves using is a good indication of a "safe" coin to hold.. lol. Happy new year @serkaga, best wishes from space :)
I can see you buy some good amount of cryptos, and it's not a suprise steem is on top of your list, i have been having alot of hope for the steem and since i can mine it from here is such a blessing. I will work on investing in some more cryptos too. And congs for the 75 rep, am at 44 now and the higher you go the harder it becomes but you are making it.. Happy New year 2018.
It gets hard to increase that rep level i've been at same level for a while
Great planning, are you sure you are not type A? I’m working toward a 70 rep level, gotta ways to go as I just turned 69.
Wow...I'm so impressed on how dedicated you are in this. All I can say is... No pain no gain! P.s.. Few of my friends are single..wanna date them? Hahaha just joking.
Lol it's not much dedication and I don't have a schedule. It's just a very interesting field of study at the moment :) wait, i lost track of the applicatio form, hold on lol
CONGRATULATIONS!
for reaching (75) !!!!
I will need a few years until then ... :-)
I wish you a very nice 2018 !!
I wish you happy new year.i pray for you.your will success new year days.god bless you and your family.
thank you @robert31, happy new year!
@kevinwong, My warmest congratulations to got great reputation level of 75. You have most updated portfolio in blockchain. How about it? However it was great experience to you and then you gave knowledge to us. Appreciated.
I wish happiness and great return investment new year to you!!!!
Hard to pick something that might be bigger than google / amazon of tomorrow, but i think will come from cryptocurrencies. Happy new year @madushanka :)
Reputation 75, this is awesome and requires much effort and patience!
Congratulations for reaching this milestone.
Nice that you've updated your crypto portfolio.
I think the bullride of 2017 can go on in 2018.
Maybe if trust in the cryptos grows, the increases will be even higher than in 2017.
At least all of us have this wish.
I'm so excited what is going to happen and I'm happy to be a part of the steemit community for 2 months now.
2018 will be a exciting and good year with innovations, new ideas and a big expanding of steemit!
I'm excited where steemit and the steem will be at the end of 2018.
So I'm also excited where I personally will stand.
At least I'm very optimistic ;-)
Happy new your also for you Kevin!
I am new to this field and still on learning curve. Yes there are lot to consider and also need to read a lot to understand the market. But sometimes things can go wrong too. It is a highly volatile market. But if we do some digging and do the home work we can find out the real ROI opportunities.
You have done a great work and thank you for sharing it with the comunity.
Happy new year to you and to your family
Cheers!
No bitcoin (or bitcoin fork), ethereum, stellar lumens or ripple? No cardano, litecoin or nem? No dash or monero?
Sweet heavens, you are definitely ahead of the pack! Thank you for this, time for some technology researching again!
Don't find myself using them so didn't get them.. lol. Have fun! My picks could all turn out to be crappy by the way, there's just no way of knowing..
Wohooooo Level 75 The Hardest level ever to achieve i guess ;) and what a cool day to go beyond it wow 2017 will be special for you forever its must be a great adventurous ride for you Wishing you all the best for 2018 achieve all the unachievable things and keep inspiring and smiling yayyyy and steem on Congratulations AND Happy new year :D
"~150 communication channels open on my computer", haha... say it isn't so! FOMO, memetics...new info for me, ty. Interesting idea that if money is pure information, man, the information in our society messed be really messed up and distorted! No surprise there. As things scale-up, def. what is still lacking is "media ... community and usability matters" because currently the geeks know what is going on but joe public is in the dark. The convertability of cryptocurrency also a huge and daunting issue.
Great article / Resteem / Congrats on 75
Woohoo.. that's the way to end the year.
Happy New Year. 😎
Haha wow @kevinwong congrts on finally reaching 75 what a great way to start the year, love the shared tune really suits the reading, while id like to be less of a hermit this following year id like to focus heavily on steemit so also maybe will have to hold off on those hot dates lol.
Haha thanks @simonjay. Hold off, and hodl on..
Hi kevin!
I admire the amount of dedication you have for your goals, and for the steem platform, it is really inspiring! I really get inspiration from people that decide they want to achieve somthing and then - no matter what it takes, how much time and learning - do everything in order to achieve it. the long term criteria you thought of are very sound, and fit many of the thoughts I had about the crypto and web world - you pretty much elucidated many of my musings to clear words, thanks!
I also am really happy to see that you are noticing the way it affects your life in aspects like friends, girlfriends, time management etc... - noticing the problem and daring to admit it is really really admireable and I respect you for that! keep going full steem :) and have success in combine your dedication with normal life, friends, having simple day by day fun and so on!
Happy new year!!
Hey, thanks for the kind words. It's just a very interesting field to study lol. Happy new year, hope all is well on your end :)
Congratulations for you who have already achieved a reputation score of 75 and I think it takes hard work to get there. I wrote about the struggle day by day to level up not long time ago. I myself do not focus too much on reputation score and focus more and more on content. As you say, content is king. Quality is everything despite many opinions about the definition of quality in Steemit and there are many complaints about the lack of response to high quality content.
Happy new year 2018 for you @kevinwong. Thank you for all your and @donkeypong support to me and to alls my friends of Indonesian Steemit Community. 2018 is full of struggles and question marks. However, I hope also to be a year of success for all of us.
We're just contributing on our own to the network and see it grow, hopefully. Thanks @ayijufridar, I appreciate you comment. 2018 will be good :)
What a brilliant way to end 2017 eh? Congrats @kevinwong for reaching level 75, and I'm very sure it won't be too long til it goes even further!
And thank you again coz without your constants posts on FB about Steemit, I still wouldn't have a clue! And yes, thanks for sharing your portfolio with us all. For total newbies like me, it definitely gives us the certain guidance and confidence we need! :)
Have a great and fantastic 2018 Kevin!
Nice portfolio :)
Enjoy your BBQ and 2018 :)
Felt like a trader showing off his wares in a bazaar lol. Happy new year @markwhittam :)
Haha! Yeah, and be all like! "you can look but no touching" and "no they are not for sale I only Hodl"
Hey @kevinwong, thanks for sharing your portfolio? Was just curious, what books have you been reading about cryptocurrencies? Would like to read up more, but I dont know where to start!
No one source, I usually just study the whitepapers, or read a couple of articles or watch a couple videos on the same thing and find out if the person has been producing sensible stuff and decide from there lol. But mostly just from hunch first before going into any of it
Hmm, I see. Do you also participate in ICO's? I try to read white papers of projects. But I'm looking to actually learn how to code and utilize blockchain technology.
ICOs, quite rarely these days. Just too many. But yea i think its good to make it a point to study one coin per week or something..
Yeah, I am trying to study 3-4 ICO projects a week, and 3-4 coins. Not really easy to delve deep into it.
I see you like SUB. Being trying to find out, how is it different than the Orch1d Protocol?
Hey thanks for the list of coins, a few of those I am not familiar with and your investment strategy / priorities align nicely with mine so this is a great resource as I continue to dive deeper into the crypto-pond. I would have resteemed just for that, but...
Oh, not to forget that I'm actually also in the works of planning out a live music ecosystem on the blockchain.You threw that in as an aside? Geez man don't bury the lead! Okay maybe I am showing my bias here, I am sure many/most readers would think the rest of the article is the lead and this is appropriately buried as an addendum. But gadzooks man! This is great news for me to hear. Is @buckydurddle on your radar? He has been brainstorming with me and some other Steem musicians on how to accomplish exactly this here on Steem. I know his dream has been to figure out a way to accomplish live musical collaboration - currently he has been working on a ton of Steem musical collaborations but we haven't figured out how to jump the "live" barrier when most of the traditional tools that might facilitate this (Skype, Google Hangout, etc.) are all algorithmically determined to filter everything except the human voice out (if someone is singing at the same time as instruments are playing these tools try to cut out the instruments) and also to focus on only one sound source at a time (when multiple musicians are playing at once these tools don't know who to "focus" on, while in fact we would desire them to play everything at once - totally opposite from the goals of a conversation). We haven't found the tool yet that makes it easy for multiple musicians to play and hear each other live when not in the same place. Anyway - very excited to hear you are thinking about live music on blockchain!
Much love and happy new year - Carl
The music thing, still looking at it, just too complex. Going for something like viberate, but wanna tie up event crowdfunding, show-my-profits, sponsorship decks etc. Gotta start with a simple pivot first before going for an ecosystem..
Oh some Steem application for music, haven't thought about it yet, although as someone who DJs, I'd like if I can get paid to play live on the decks with someone else across the globe on steem xD
Oh cool that sounds awesome. Hey I didn't know you DJed :) You ever post that side of yourself here?
happy new year, hopefully the year 2018 is better and you can achieve all the targets. thank you for filling in 2017 with useful posts, I learned a lot here, you always explain something complicated in a simple way. Anyway, do not forget to go out for a date this year, may always be successful
I might remember haha. Happy new year @rayfa :)
Thanks for sharing your portfolio, Kevin :)
Happy New Year and congrats for level 75, you are a Steemit legend!
Happy new year @joythewanderer - let me know of your portfolio as well. or probably your top 3s :)
Haha! Mine is not that special.
BCH
EOS
Zcash
Maybe byteball.
Thank you @kevinwong for the hard work and contributions you have made here on steemit. Congrats on hitting reputation 75 it is well deserved. Looking forward to seeing more of you this year. Hope you get that piece of happiness you are looking for. Happy New Year!
Congratulations! Actually you are the highest level steemian I have encountered that does not blog like some sort of DemiGod and Lord of Steem, you actually sound like a regular person, and that is super refreshing. It gives me more faith that even without becoming a witness or somehow reinventing steem, I one day can also achieve a high reputation. Maybe you did reinvent steemit, IDK, you just talk like regular chap, and it's nice.
Thank you as well for sharing your portfolio, so many people horde this info, but if WE get interested, value goes up, of course... I has bought into Ethos when it was bitquence, but I got so turned off by suppoman's pump group I sold it all and turned my back... now it's doing toooo goood. :(
{Also I create some vaporwave as well it's on my blog }
A E S T H E T I C
Just did a lot of crazy lengthy articles back then if you scroll down far enough. Ethos is awesome, should hold onto it. I believe the team is onto something good, time will tell.
Ah been trying to form a vaporwave community here. Maybe it's a good time, but artists are like cats.
Couldn't agree more on the state of crypto. There are still many things that either need to be developed or adopted on a mass scale to make it viable in the commercial sense we are all accustomed to.
Yup so far it's kinda scary that only 4% of the many coins I've diversified to is being used 99% of the time (which is steem lol). Don't find myself gravitating to any other crypto-application so it might say a lot about user adoption (although that's only from my experience, but i've asked around before, there really isn't anything being actively used other than simple transactions).
Now That's What I Call a Pareto!
Congrats on the 75 rep brother ! It took me 6 months to get to 60 :D haha Can't say when I'l be able to hit the 70 mark.
Cheers and best of wishes !
Hello @kevinwong, hope you're doing great. This is my 1st ever comment on your blogs. And I'm so sorry that I missed your wonderful work in 2017. You did really a great job and I'm happy that I caught you on the 1st day of 2018. Now I'm giving you 03 CONGRATULATIONS:
You did a great job in the year 2018 and now all the very best for your great work in year-2018. Regards!
hey @jawad09, thanks for the kind words, appreciate it. there's no genius here lol, just writing my reasons, can be all wrong haha.. Happy new year!
Great post. Meditation is great to battle whit stress and being overwhelmed. Regarding goals is best to have priorities, which ones are most important and focusing on those. Happy new year !
Too many opportunities floating around, it's difficult having a lot of choices lol. Happy new year @bloomberg215 :)
Congratulations to you 75 you deserve more because your content is special and happy year with the age of 75
thank you @abderrahimlafifi, happy new year :)
Congratulations! For your great success in 2017 @kevinwong.☺
I wish you a great success in 2018.
Happy new year 2018!!🎉🎊
Congrats to your great achievement.
Definitely you gave long information to steemians any fields. Especially Crypto portfolio. You update anytime with shared your opinions.
Massive support we got from you and will see next year with your more support.
Happy new year to you and all steemians.
Congratulations on the 75 @kevinwong, do you have any idea how high the reps do go?
level 100 might take more than 200 years..!
Wow, congrats that awesome. I’d say this year has been pretty similar for me too in terms of figuring out the portfolio. Do you have an ideal percentage breakdown of your portfolio for your crypto investments vs all other investments?
Nope, just what i'm using will have the heaviest weight in the portfolio :) i dont break them down to percentages. I also dont invest in any other stuff, maybe real estate someday. Precious metals, nope..
100% with you on this one. This is the kind of innovation we need. Using IOTA and actually seeing it work was a marvelous experience!
Congratulations @kevinwong. You've passed great milestone.
I followed your instructions and opinions about cryptocurrencies. You've great planning next year.
Wish you successful, peaceful, wondering new year!!!!!
Cheers~~~~
Hope the barbecue is nice. I am having a pralineeque:
Hey didn't know that you're so romantic hehe.
Building a lodge by a seaside and stuff.
Yeah, happy new year man. Congrats with 75.