I spent the past 6 months outside all crypto communities, here's what a I found out: - As the title suggests, I spent the past year (pretty much from May 2022 - July-ish 2023) away from all crypto communities, including crypto subs, discord servers, etc. And here's what I found ... See More out:

**We used to talk about how this sub itself is an echo chamber and all, so I kinda wanted to give y'all a sense what most people outside the crypto community think.**

*Disclaimer: I live in a first-world, Asian country where crypto is fairly popular (but only as an investment). Your anecdotes may and will differ.* *Please bear in mind that these are completely anecdotal, and that you obviously shouldn't take this as financial advice.*

1. The vast majority of people don't care about crypto.
1. Crypto still remains an "investment" rather than an actual day-to-day payment system. Even with stuff like Chainlink and XRP partnering with banks to facilitate int'l transactions, the vast majority of people **are not willing to try out crypto for transactions** and would **rather pay a slightly higher fee for a solution that involves traditional banks****.**
2. In fact, people outside the US are even willing to just go through the exorbitant exchange rate commissions and paypal / eTransfer someone if they're buying something from the US.
3. And the fact that it is still perceived as an "investment" means that there is a very polarising divide between people who are in the crypto space, and people who are not. This is worrying.
4. Even in my country, where (in the 2022 elections), candidates from both major parties were very supportive of crypto, crypto is seen more and more as a risky investment that just pull people in their 20s and 30s into a debt trap.
2. However, there are some niche markets where crypto is welcomed
1. There were two times that I found crypto being used out in the wild, and they were both really niche but I still want to point them out.
2. The first was in online tipping, I saw someone on Youtube doing a livestream, and they were playing really nice pieces on their ukulele and they had a Nano wallet Address as a pinned comment on the Live Stream chat. And viewers were able to request songs by tipping like 2-5 Nano to the wallet. I asked them why and they said it was because Youtube Revenue sharing wasn't allowed in their country, so they couldn't actually receive any money from their channel even though it was eligible for monetization.
3. Next was the grey-area market. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not, but there's a lot of discord servers all kinds of gaming account trading, in-game currency trading and etc. And the people who sell/buy these gaming accounts tend to accept only Paypal/CashApp/Crypto, Just as an FYI, the only crypto they tend to accept is LTC (for smaller transactions) and ETH (for larger ones). They tend to prefer Paypal and CashApp for smaller transactions (<100USD) too.
3. There's a significant number of people who instantly lose interest / actively distrust something when the hear the word "crypto" or even "blockchain"
1. This is a massive deal-breaker, and a really big issue that this community needs to solve if we really want crypto to go mainstream.
2. Because of the numerous and frequent media reports about Crypto A being a scam and Crypto B tanking 99% overnight, many people have developed an inherent distrust for anything that is mildly crypto-related.
3. As an example, I see a lot of people on software subreddits not recommending Brave Browser just because it has a crypto feature (which can be opted out of btw).
4. There was another like spaceflight project that was affiliated with something something crypto, and i remember people in the comments were trashing about it JUST because it was crypto-related.
5. Similarly, another argument / statistic that I heard about this was if there are 10000 coins listed on an exchange, how many will really be alive at the end of say 5 or 10 years? In fact, many projects get hacked, devs exit scam, some just get lost to the depths of time, etc. And many don't end up surviving for more than a year. By "surviving", I mean actively used, talked about and developed for.
6. In contrast, you can look at the stock market of any G20 country and if you ask how many companies will be alive by 2030, the answer is likely to be much closer to 80ish%, while crypto is more likely to be below 50%.
4. Except in certain developing countries, a lot of people have a lot of trust in TradFi (for investment purposes)
1. This is a bit more time-specific, so I left this until the end. If you're viewing this however many years' time, things might have changed.
2. Currently, a 1-year deposit of more than the equivalent to 1000USD in my country, at any random reputable bank, will give you a 4.05% interest rate (its meant to be a bit higher but I'm taking into account taxes). A slightly riskier bank gives about 5.2%. Staking ETH is like only 2-3% higher than these rates. **Even at the most riskiest bank (5.4%), the government (in my country) can protect your deposit up to the equivalent of USD50k.** So there's no point in putting money into crypto, which can lead to a loss in the original money put in ( you can have a net loss).
3. In fact, a better investment strategy (that I heard from my cousin) is actually just to short Russian Rubles. He's made a net profit of about 20% over the past 1.5 years shorting the Ruble-USD ratio.
4. Even better, my dad has bought some stocks at a Telecoms company in our country, and appr the dividends (give quarterly ) add up to an ROI of 10% in 4 quarters. The dividends for this company has not dropped by more than 5% ever since 2015.

I'm going to leave the conclusion for y'all to draw.

Whether we're early, late, or just reaching for an unreachable star is up for you to decide.

Thanks for reading and have a great day.

Binance records massive $150m Bitcoin withdrawal in 60 seconds

#DOGEUSD Dogecoin is that good.

#DOGEUSD Got a second job to invest more $ in DOGE🔥🔥

#DOGEUSD It's Time To Accumulate More Coins To Be a King 👑😇

#DOGEUSD A goodboi never sells or asks this question

How are people getting rich? - I start my senior year oh highschool on monday. After working full time this summer at my first “real” job, i realize I can’t work 40 hour weeks the rest of my life. I’ve always wanted to “start my own business” or just be ... See More my own boss, but i’m getting closer to being an adult and I have no direction. I have most of the money I made saved, but how do i turn this into more. I see these 16-35 year olds talking about how they make 10k a month drop-shipping, and new millionaire gurus popping up every week, people tell me to go into day trading, which i did for a little bit, but not as profitable because of the risk. I’m going to continue to work though out school, but I don’t want that to be my only source of income. For the people who did figure out what to do at a young age to start making good money, what did you do? how did you spend your money, and what are the best industries to look into. Real estate? I’m only 17 now, but im still so determined to be successful

Edit: Thank you guys for all the replys, i’m just not getting to read them since i just got off work, lol. But I think i confused some people. I am willing to work many hours a week, I worked overtime when I could at my current job. What I meant about my working 40 hours a week statement. I meant getting stuck in the 9-5 loop most people are in. Do the same thing their whole life. The “American Dream” ya know. nothing is wrong with that lifestyle but that’s not how I want to live. I am willing to work, I just can’t justify giving all my time to a company that isn’t going to help me grow. I want to make money on my own

My app makes 6k to 7k a month but I don't know how to grow it - I've tried running google ads to increase my downloads, but I almost barely see any increase in the downloads. For example one campaign I spent $400 to only get 621 installs, only targeting ... See More tier 1 countries. A next campaign I spent over $700 to get 7k+ installs but including a mixture of tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 countries and both times I never really saw an increase in revenue. So it feels like I'm wasting money. Maybe I'm just not good at paid marketing

So I've kinda given up on running ads because my app organically gets 10k to 13k downloads a month but I also feel like maybe I'm doing something wrong and I'm leaving a lot of growth on the table.

The category I'm in is very competitive, there's a competing app making over 600k a month (I'd estimate a million). And that makes me think it's very hard to run ads because I'm competing against an organisation with unlimited capital.

My user base is very steady and I'm comfortable making 6k to 7k a month, but I do fear some day it will start declining and would've love to figure out some way to grow it.

I've challenged myself to make $100K in 100 days (DAY 86) - It’s day 86 of my journey.



**Who am I?**


I’m a Software Engineer living in Serbia, with no prior experience in sales or entrepreneurship.



**What I’ve tried in these 86 days?**


I tried to create ... See More my own mobile app, but it went really slow, so I’ve decided to work on it later, not during my challenge - $0.



I’ve created a few digital products (black and white, minimalistic maps) and selling them on Etsy - $4.



I’ve started offering mentoring services for beginner level programmers. That worked pretty well in the beginning, but then it slowed down - $1800.



I’ve started making YouTube videos about my life as a software engineer. It’s going very slow but that’s normal, I guess. It won’t help me with my challenge, but I believe that in a long-term, having (and growing) a YT channel is a good idea. And I simply like making videos - $0.



I’ve found a freelance project where I work as a backend developer, just like my main job. I understand it’s not very entrepreneurial because it’s just a job, however, at this stage it seems like the best option to make some money, because I already have the skill - $6000.



After one of my previous posts, a guy DMed me here on Reddit and asked me if I can do the coding in his new application. We had a conversation, I liked the idea, so I’ve started to work on that project as well. It doesn’t make me any money now but maybe it will in the future - $0.



So in total I’ve made $7804 so far.



**Summary**


As you can see I’m extremely far behind my goal. Roughly in the middle of the challenge it became obvious that I can’t reach $100k in 100 days. I work on 2 full time projects, work on the app, make videos for my YT channel, and sometimes I do mentoring. But as I said it’s probably the best option to make at least some money for my other ideas, so I’m using skills that I already have and learning new ones.



In 14 days the challenge will be over and you will see how badly I screwed up lol.



Thank you for your attention.

#NASDAQ:GOOGL What is this? I received 1000 of this on my email and it keeps going. I even deleted all my saved links on google bcs of these

#NASDAQ:GOOGL YouTube TV can’t say it is ‘$600 less than cable,’ board says

#NASDAQ:GOOGL Show me the craziest thing you’ve seen on Google Maps.

$45,000 in debt and considering claiming bankruptcy. - As the title says, I am $45,000 in debt. $22,000 towards my car, and $23,000 spread across (mostly) credit cards and some previous debt-consolidating personal loans.


This is not including my current expenses, like rent, gas, groceries, and insurances.


After fleeing to ... See More Oregon, I have been moving backwards with every pay period. The tax burden is so high, with a job market so saturated, that I have not been able to make a livable wage. Let alone enough to leave the state. It’s suffocating. My credit score has went from 750 to 575.


The fantasy of only having to pay my current expenses, combined with having money to throw into savings rather than credit card bills, is intoxicating. It almost sounds worth the ten years of being in my report.


Is this a sure-fire way to ruin the next decade of my adult life?




Some things that may be worth mentioning:


I have 100% payment history since having started building my credit


I don’t intend on buying land within my ten-year plan. Or assuming any assets, to be honest.


I have reached a point of facing an eviction notice, with my utilities being turned off at the end of the month if no payment is received. I just had to get help from a friend to buy me pet food.


Thank you for your time.

Edit:

Added this in a comment, but may be easier to see in the body-


I have 11 credit cards. On average, my minimums are about $50. Some are $25, some are $180.


My car insurance is $240/mo (recent speeding ticket as well as a 60% fault accident)


One personal loan is $200/mo, another is $300/mo.


Car loan is $360/mo.


Pretty embarrassed of all of this, and wouldn’t ever say any of this to people who know me. Thank you for taking the time.


My goals are to save with minimal spending. Assuming I have no debt, after obligatory expenses, I would like to save at least $300/mo. I don’t want to spend more than $75-100 on leisurely things. I don’t know how attainable that is as I’m not too sure what the financial situation would totally look like.




In regards to my partner’s contribution- they contribute to half of the rent, utilities, and groceries. They actually have been paying for all of our internet as of late.


Thank you for all of the different perspectives. There have been many options laid out, and I’m looking forward to processing them when I’m home tonight.

The company I work for is going bankrupt. What should I expect? - I work for a large retailer that is going bankrupt. I currently make about 200k and I am not able to find another job that pays this well, so I am staying for the time being. Leadership ... See More says that the bankruptcy is just a rumor, but WSJ implies BK will be filed this week.

The company pays out 401k matching funds each year in March. I have already maxed out my 401k for this year. What are the chances I will get the matching funds in March if I continue to work there? Will the bankruptcy allow them to skip the 401k matching that I was promised?

Also, I've never had to file for unemployment before. Is there anything I can do proactively to make sure filing for unemployment goes smoothly?

Check mailed by company was delivered to the wrong house and was cashed at the bank by someone else, now neither party will tell me what to do - Throwaway account created for this. I [18] recently got a summer job with my university and I didn't create a bank ... See More account until less than a month ago. Since I didn't have a bank account, I couldn't set up a direct deposit with my job so I got my checks sent in the mail from the company. The checks take anywhere from 5-7 business days to arrive.


I received my first check and waited for my second check but it didn't arrive. I emailed HR after 7 business days and let them know I didn't receive my second check and they said they'd look into it. In the time they were investigating, my third check arrived. I emailed again to let them know my third check arrived and asked for an update. They got back to me and told me that my record indicated that my second check was already cashed and they asked me if I had a direct deposit. I told them I didn't and asked if that meant someone had already used my check and they said they'd continue looking into it. A week later they got back to me saying that my check was indeed cashed at a Wells Fargo bank and they sent me a photocopy of the check that was signed and used and a fraud claim that had the account number of the person who cashed the check. They told me they couldn't reissue the check but they said I could file a fraud claim since it wasn't me who used the check.


I reached out to them asking how to start the process and they didn't answer so I decided to call the bank directly and ask them how to start the process. The bank said that they can't do anything on their end because the check wasn't sent by them and it has no connection to my account. They said the process has to be through the company and the company should be the one to reissue the check. HR got back to me and said that the bank should help me with the fraud claim because it needs to be notarized but I sent them another email saying they couldn't help me. Now HR isn't answering and the bank said the same thing when I called again.


My question is where am I supposed to go from here? I was never educated on anything about finances or banks so I have no idea what to do. Is there really no way for me to get my money back because it doesn't seem like there's anything for me to do at this point if neither party says they can help me?