I Had 1.0 Kid And 0.01 Bitcoin
And now I’m holding both of them, forever.
This is my Writing Blog #1, I’m trying to write as many posts as I can this year, you can read my other posts here: Writing Blog — 2018
Note: This is just my personal story, nothing more. Please do not take it as a recommendation to have a kid, or to buy a Bitcoin, you do what you want.
Recently, I welcomed my first kid, and also took my first fragment of Bitcoin.
But, why am I mentioning them at the same time?
If only my parents did this, or had that
This is the easiest excuse that I tell myself anytime I’m facing a hard situation, or when I see a successful business that I’m not part of it. If only they invested in the 90' pre-Internet era, if only they took High-Tech stocks, registered some premium domain names, or directed me for computer science school... if only they did this, or had that.
Well, they couldn’t do anything of that, since they had no access to it.
But now that I’m myself a father, the roles are inverted. I’m asking myself:
What am I missing now that my family will regret later?
What am I doing now that my family will be proud of later?
Those two questions are dictating big part of my ongoing actions and goals.
Fine, now where to go? To do what?
Since I’m 9-to-5 engineer employee, I learn, make and share about technology topics, fortunately, a lot of things are happening there, among them: Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Transportation, Voice Assistants, and Blockchain. Some of the trends are more for the “I was there when it happened” feeling, and the others are for serious personal improvement and professional career.
So since last summer, I’m reading anything I can find related to Blockchain, especially its use for cryptocurrency. Here I took Bitcoin as an example, but it can be anything else, there are lot of currencies and each one is tackling a specific market, like Ripple for bank transfers, or IOTA for internet of things. Also the amount may change, but what I’m sure about, is that this will take a part of the future, I’m confident that those coins can be the answer to some problems of established economics.
History repeats itself
When I was born, EURO currency wasn’t yet created. At my 20 years, when I left home for my master degree in a European country, my dad gave me the money for school fees. I will remember that all my life, it was two red papers of 500€ each , that he struggled to gather and find at local banks, and that I hold with crazy fear to loose during my trip.
Now imagine if my kid will have to do the same 20 years from now, and that I can just transfer him the amount using a cryptocurrency to his own wallet.
The same case for daily transactions with credit cards, today I’m using like five different cards for different purposes, eating, car gasoline, gifts, … All that replaced pocket money and checks.
No big expectations
That said, don’t get me wrong, it is not about becoming rich, at least for me. I’ve always had a clear relationship with money: When I have it, I use it. When I don’t have it, I still have other resources to get it, my time and brain.
So I’ll do my best to keep an eye on that technology, and stay updated with the major events (like Bitcoin Core vs Bitcoin Cash) to have, at least, funny stories to tell my family during cold winter evenings at home.
And you, what things are you doing now to say “I was there” to your kids?
