Once Upon A Crash. How the DAO taught me a new way to invest in cryptocurrencies. Pro-tip on refunding your ethereum.

This is a story about how sometimes forgetting is the best option.

So a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away I had purchased a nice chunk of DAO. The promise of a decentralized corporation that would invest funds algorithmically was super exciting to me and so I jumped headfirst the Ethereum that I had from my pre-sale investment. I actively monitored the price for the first few days. It was climbing high, and I was certainly was feeling high.

Then, one morning I wake up and see this: 

NOOOOOO. My heart sinks and I crash along with my only savings account. I've never seen a cliff like that in any market. Ever.

I was a victim during the DAO attack which led to the loss of over 60 million dollars worth of ether. And this is where my learnings began.

That day I decide to forget about active investment in crypto currencies and I moved on to living my life. Moving to Lebanon, working in refugee camps and generally getting on with my life and ignoring the tiny moving percentage points on the screen. 

A year later, I look back into my account and I find that after selling most of my dao and diversifying my assets across cryptocurrencies I believe in. Things like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Lumen I found that the tiny bit of money I had left in my account had 10xed in the last year.

That was my lesson. Don't day trade. The real change is massive. Cryptocurrencies are changing the way money is going to work, I love this post by James Altucher where he describes humanity evolving from Theism ==> Humanism ==> Data-ism. For currencies he describes it as 

• "Theism: “In God We Trust”
• Humanism: Let’s throw a President on there. Let’s get the signature of the Secretary of Treasury up there. “Don’t worry, we’re good for it.” While we print a few trillion without telling anyone.
• Data-ism: The natural evolution: Cryptocurrency.

These trust tools are here to stay and I believe in supporting the transition from central banks to a world where code is law and trust is as common as the air we breathe. What get's built in that world? 

Here's an added bonus. After a year of ignoring my accounts, I found out that the hard fork in ethereum meant that I could claim a refund from my investment in the DAO. 

So I've taken this gift of magical internet money from the kindness of the crypto lords and have invested in a new coin that I believe is a long term investment. Iota. They basically check off every box on this great due diligence post by Muneeb Ali. We're currently in a bubble, so this advice will behoove you to read and follow.

What do you think? How are you investing? Are you? What do you think of iota?

PS, if you like anything I share and feel like donating any IOTA/Ethereum/Bitcoin, here are my addresses:

Bitcoin: 1BdMZzF1t4K1E9Drtddt83W37nat3R1zvw

Ethereum: 0xb070a03e025544b321f63adc51eaec415fe701fb (not classic)

Iota: GUBDXJOHPQTCNWWLKTQGIBQIFX9NXMFA9PDMXNZAFNYZQKDEWOGOYWHIZPLCQGEABDIWWJEHVYDZZGOGZRQXNMLDOW

Hugs errybody! :)
+BG