Well I know what a GIF is, but what's a TGIF?
Jobs are weird like that. Technically I have a job. I write this blog. Of course it's a part time job and the pay is extremely subjective and often based on random chance combined with several other factors. Everything in crypto is volatile it seems.
Technically blogging could be a full time job. Certainly the amount of time and effort that Taskmaster puts into his thing is more than most around here. The payouts reflect that, along with the value of the content presented. But also for the most part it seems like being a full time blogger around these parts can also be looked down upon. At a certain point diminishing returns are reached and posting too much becomes "leeching the reward pool" in the view of many. Nothing wrong with that viewpoint either it's probably true in a lot of situations. Hard to post constantly without it becoming repetitive or downright shitposting.
There's a certain simplicity to having an employer.
When I was working for Amazon it was easy. I have to be at work at such and such time and the shift is over four hours later. I don't have to risk anything. I know exactly what I'm getting paid (not much but also enough). I have a commitment to be there and it's more difficult to ignore the responsibility and commitment that I've made beforehand.
Not so much with being self-employed.
Especially when that self-employment is within the crypto industry. This is hands down the most difficult industry to be self-employed. It's like we have to be an economist and a day-trader / gambler on top of whatever else we are doing here. One bear market later we've all lost 80% or more of our stacks wondering what the hell just happened. I'd say it gets easier but... actually it does get easier 2018/2019 were way worse for me personally than the current lull we find ourselves in.
Everyone has forgotten what a bull market is.
BITCOIN SURGES TO $30k on BLACKROCK ETF
BITCOIN SKYROCKETS TO $30K OFF POWELL'S STATEMENTS
UHHH... Spoiler alert...
$20k-$30k is the range we have been trading in for exactly one year. The only deviation from that range occurred during the FTX collapse which only ended up solidifying the rock-bottom levels. I guess it never gets old watching everyone flip out over the price even when it crabwalks sideways for an entire year.
Like I said before, everyone has forgotten what a bull market is. I guess they'll be reminded when Bitcoin goes 10x over the next couple years. The year-of-the-maximalist is already half way over and the alt market will return soon enough.
Assuming we are still largely on a 4-year crypto cycle 2024 will be the year that we figure out the narrative of the next bull market. In 2020 this was DEFI. In 2016 it was ICOs. Remember the days of a new token launching every week while every degen was gambling their asses off trying to get a 1000x gain every month? Yeah we are only a year away from that happening all over again, but what will the new narrative become?
Could be anything really.
Obviously Hive benefits the most if the narrative is decentralized social media. I'm not sure how much it helps us considering how comically ignored we are within the context of our own niche, but I have to assume we'd get something out of it. Perhaps we'll get finally back into the top 100 where we belong.
But there are so many other narratives as well. Blackrock revitalizes the "institutional money" narrative. There's also the AI narrative. Metaverse probably won't be back for a while, but there's also DEFI 2.0 (sustainability), gaming, and a handful of other things I've already talked about in previous posts. There are no shortage of narratives to choose from going forward. I suppose the market will take it's pick and all the thoughtless devs out there with no vision will jump on the cash-grab train all over again. Business as usual.
So what should I be writing about?
You know bloggers on Hive have it easy; perhaps too easy. I could write about whatever I want, and often do. This equates to a blog that reads more like a dairy or a stream of conscientiousness rather than a body of work that has a defined topic and viewer-base. I've written over 10k words about Diablo 4 over the last few weeks. This is not a Diablo 4 blog, nor is it a gaming blog, and the payouts on those posts reflect that. Still this is a classic example that I can pretty much write about whatever and still get paid something (even if the payout if half of what it would normally be).
The other day I wrote a post about the discussion revolving around if not getting paid was censorship... and I forgot to bring up this topic... which was actually kind of the entire point. For the most part it becomes obvious what most people around here do and do not want to be reading (or absorbing content as the case may be). Say what you want about the faults around proof-of-brain but there actually is quite a bit of method to the madness.
Certainly there is no shortage of things to talk about. Look at me go writing a meta post about what I should be posting about. I guess the main issue I have is that when I'm hyper-focused on something it's much easier to write about that thing than to switch gears back into regularly scheduled programming. Perhaps this market has me annoyed and depressed and I'm just ignoring it for a while. Who knows. Blah blah blah more words.
Conclusion
Crypto is all about responsibility. We are supposed to be our own bank and manage our own finances, which is something that 99% of the world is definitively not equipped to deal with at the moment. Perhaps the narrative of one of these bull runs will actually be resolving that fact and helping citizens to get their shit together so they stop relying on "trusted" institutions to do it for them. Until then this jungle is untamed.