<div class="text-justify">

When I lived in Australia it was easy to know when the pensioners got their support because the bars and clubs filled with the *blue rinse* (because of their hair dye) crowd, who would take their newly gotten funds and pour coin after coin into pokie machines - others might know them as slot machines. How many do you think walked away with more than they put in?

In Finland it is much the same as people newly flush with government supports, they head down to the local pub and stock up on over-priced and heavily taxed drinks. It is an interesting process in the economy as no matter what happens, the people who are getting the support are returning that support into the same hands and will then have to wait til the next *handout.*

I got paid today.

Rather than sinking it into a slot machine or beer funnel, I sink it into sinks - *crypto sinks.*

https://i.imgur.com/8DjbDWJ.jpg

My goal is financial independence, or more perhaps more precisely - economic independence.

![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmWCMvc4WfJCvmz5XzaQsb2RHB7qfEcUosM72CWzFB14Fm/image.png)

However as you can see from the etymology of finance, I am looking to settle up on and put an end to what is owed, my debts. When it comes to self-sufficiency, it is more than just being able to manage resources, it is also about being able to replenish resources and if reliant on handouts, that is never going to pan out - especially if those handouts can't be affected through skill or work. Government handouts are not skill based.

![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmR5mEQxmt36EBJQiRKJNtGxepJrBFXWRHDntqgFrSjg4n/image.png)


So I think that household management is a better fit for what I am looking to do and when it comes to managing ones household, it is implied that one has the ability to do so because under that roof, things are owned. Ownership is vital when it comes to personal economy as without it, the management processes available are constrained by who owns it in much the same way a manager within a company is bound by the processes of the company itself. 

When I was talking to my client in Poland about blockchain, crypto, decentralized governance and ownership, he came to a realization that many do not. He invests into land and property rather than stocks because for him he feels the sense of ownership when he can see and hold what he has bought. As I explained about Bitcoin (for simplicity of conversation to begin with as it is known), he rightly recognized that while digital, it can be also considered physical and for the first time he woke up to the value of crypto ownership - even though he had previously dismissed it without knowing much about it at all.

https://i.imgur.com/MkalfgT.jpg

For me personally, crypto gives another facet that physical ownership does not and that is that it travels with me wherever I go whereas other types of physical ownership are difficult to carry like precious metals, or impossible like land. Physical ownership means that in order to have utility, there has t be availability and if one needs to move that is not always possible. Crypto provides value and mobility, something that in a volatile world of worst case scenarios, can be very important.

I have no idea whether this crypto thing will progress as I have envisaged, but considering that the amounts that I am putting in are unlikely to make much of a difference used alternatively, I consider the risk of loss acceptable. And rather than putting their money into slot machines and beer, more will start to realize that the coins they are sinking are worth more than they thought, just not when placed into the *funnels* they are using. 

Small actions compound into large and when it comes to a burgeoning industry, the earlier small actions compound at a greater rate than those that come later in much the same way as curation returns work on Steem. The small amounts of value put in now will advance faster than the large that come later, but the industry isn't large enough to take large amounts of capital yet, so the large amounts haven't had a place to hang their hat. It is getting there though as the industry infrastructure builds and that means all of these small actions are essentially front running the institutional investors later. 

The time penalty isn't a loss of "curation", it is an increase in *risk,* which is essentially what is happening with the reverse auction as it is, because while voting early takes a penalty, the risk is that no larger voters arrive to compound the investment meaning that there is much lower rate of return. Those that can recognize a good investment similarly to those who can recognize a good post that will get rewarded will benefit more than those who wait for the certainty of the outcome arrival. 

https://i.imgur.com/eECwYUB.jpg

Small amounts now might add up to very large gains or low-range loss but, not participating will lock me out of the possibility of the large gains, but not necessarily from the losses as it will then depend on my alternative uses of it. What else would I do with it? Well, we can see how many people spend their "disposable" income and have nothing much to show for ever having held it at all. 

When it comes to the value we can personally direct, most people seem to funnel it back to those who have it through consumerism, while others sink it into things that they can own and slowly build their wealth. At some point the sinks can become so valuable that the larger investors want to be part of the wealth cycle too and buy-in in the same way they can invest into a company with growth potential. When this happens, it is the owners who make a great deal of value and crypto is all about ownership. 

Steem is about ownership too. Account ownership, content ownership, wallet ownership, community ownership, token ownership and the responsibility that comes with being an owner. If we make this place valuable enough, value will stack on because of the potential to make it even more so. 

Small investment bricks that build the infrastructure and community pave the way for the large investors to roll in on a smooth path. For Steem, the large investors might not be institutions, but rather a large mass of individuals. 

Are you late to the party? Not at all, we are just setting up the tables and putting out the snacks. 

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]

</div>