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I was wondering the other day: what if all my bags went to zero? How would I feel about my experiences in this space after spending so much time and energy there?
To answer that, I have to go back a lil over a year. That was my pre-EVMavericks, thus pre-NFT, and pre-Web3 era. When I held bitcoin, I did not need to interact with the community; I did not know if there even was a community, just a few forums discussing prices, and that was it. You could learn a few basic things, like decentralization, and start questioning the intrinsic value of everything. Maybe you'd like to make a few friends if you are a non-lurker. I personally haven't really made any friends in those spaces. I was in touch with some online friends who happened to either know or have bitcoin or some other crypto. Although I have seen a decent number of people never come back into bitcoin once they were out at a price below the current one. In retrospect, it tells me it was just about the money, which is a bit sad that it is all that technology was for. I had even discussed some intricacies of faster payments, and my friends from Europe said their systems were sooo much faster than bitcoin that there was just no need for it unless you were into it for investing purposes.
Long story short, while I was staying in touch with a few of those people, I started lurking on r/ethfinance for a few years. I did not meet anyone nor connect with anyone due to me treating subreddit like a lecture and not interacting a lot. Also, the platform itself—Reddit—played a significant role in that too. The only people that I connected with through Reddit were from healing or some therapy related subreddits.
Well, what's happened since I got my Maverick?
I've made sooooo many connections with a variety of people. It would be a loooong list to name all of them. I don't have a deep connection with everyone, and relationships vary. But I'm appreciative of everyone with whom I've interacted and learned something. And I do believe that strong online relationships can translate into real-life relationships too, especially when you are an adult. Moreover, I think that some of those connections are stronger than some of my IRL relationships. The L0 game has given me more insight into trust and a relational approach between people.
Isn't it amazing how much trust can exist in a trustless world?
I have also become part of a few other communities. Bcard, ENS, to name a few.
I have also experimented with and learned soooo many new things. It's hard to notice them all as navigating the space has become easier and it feels more natural, but I think it will be clearer in the years to come when more people get onboarded, and while I hope that the interface and experience would be better, there would be certain skills, tricks, and, most importantly, valuable lessons and experiences that will stand out to me.
It's been a blast connecting with people, and going forward, I hope to strengthen some bonds, get to know more people, and, eventually, meet some people IRL and share some experiences!
So how would I feel about my experiences if all my bags went to 0?
Well, there are things you cannot buy in this world, they are priceless to me, and community, relationships, connections, and shared experiences fall into that 'priceless' bucket. I would cherish all of those, and I think at the end of my life I would look back and have no regrets and be happy that I realized it relatively early on in life - while I'm still going through the journey.
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