Greed is a Sin

The Seven Deadly Sins of the world are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth. Each has its own particular pitfalls, and each represents negative aspects of the potential for humanity to trend toward paths opposite to fulfilling lives. These sins are characterized as sins for this very reason. They extract from both yourself and those around you, often at the expense of the well-being of not only yourself, but also others around you. In certain ways, each of these sins is attractive to participate in. They oftentimes are the dopamine-rich choices offering the least level of resistance to engage in.

Think of all the different ways each of these sins appears in your lives. There are countless examples.

I argue that people who study and embody the principles of bitcoin tend to live moral lives, avoiding pitfalls sustained by the Seven Deadly Sins, for one specific reason:

Bitcoin teaches you to expand your thinking to the future, which means you are less likely to cave to short-term pressures and temptations.

Thinking of the future, you are less likely to win an argument at all costs. You remove pride and potential wrath and move on.

Thinking of the future, you are more likely to play the infinite game of fitness and prioritize your health. You remove habits of gluttony and characteristics that embody sloth.

Thinking of the future, you focus on what you can control in your own life and don’t focus on comparing yourself to others. You remove feelings of jealousy and envy and are happier as a result.

Thinking of the future, you put your relationship with your spouse or significant other first. You don’t fall trap to the temptations of someone or something new, you defy the beckons of lust.

Greed was left for last intentionally because, with financial markets, greed is the hardest of all sins to avoid. Greed in the bitcoin world presents itself daily, at every trade, and at every possible opportunity. Greed catches you by surprise at every corner and always looks to trick you in another new and exciting way. Greed is a sin, and in the bitcoin world, greed is a killer.

In the bitcoin world, greed is omnipresent because the easiest choice to make is the most boring and unfulfilling in the short term.

The easiest and most boring choice to make as it relates to bitcoin is buying and holding. Doing nothing else. There is no daily trading. There is no timing the market. There is no chasing 100% gains with alt-coins or other lower market cap tokens. There is simply sending your dollars to buy more bitcoin and holding. Your bitcoin accounts become a one-way street where you simply deposit dollars in exchange for bitcoin. This is historically the easiest and best decision you can make as it relates to bitcoin. The longer your timeframe is, the more right history tells you will be. Looking at any metric of annual returns over the history of bitcoin will tell you this. Yes, bitcoin has had down years, but over any 4 year period, simply holding bitcoin has been the right move for a portfolio.

However, in a society that perpetuates the “now” and “get-rich-quick” schemes, this strategy, while easy in principle, is incredibly hard to sustain if you switch your time perspective. If you switch from a decades or years mindset to a months and days mindset, you will be heavily incentivized to try strategies that are rooted in characteristics of greed.

Trying to time the market when you see bitcoin has gone up a little bit is one example. You see a small spike in bitcoin, so you sell and wait for it to go down so that you can buy more. This works in theory, but what happens when bitcoin rockets to another all time high and you are stuck on the sidelines? Greed will chew you up and spit you out.

Leverage is another huge example that causes many, many people to lose their bitcoin. You believe bitcoin will go up in the future and think that an easy 5x or 10x perpetual long play will get you even more bitcoin. You place the trade and then watch bitcoin go down in the short term, you get liquidated, and you lose your capital. Then bitcoin rebounds, and you are stuck on the sidelines with empty pockets.

Trading bitcoin is a practice rooted in greed and, historically, is a practice that will cause you to lose your bitcoin. Bitcoin’s chart is unpredictable in the short term, but up and to the right when you zoom out. Focus on the long-term, focus on the decades and years instead of the months and days, and your finances and the rest of your life, will be that much better.

Stack SATs.

The views and opinions expressed here are for entertainment purposes only and should, in no way, be interpreted as financial or investment advice. Always conduct your own research when making an investment or trading decision, as each such move involves risk. Nothing contained in this e-mail/article constitutes, or shall be construed as, an offering of financial instruments, investment advice, or recommendations of an investment strategy.