An exploration into cryptocurrency

Hi,

I've been pretty free lately with the end of the year approaching and things slowing down abit for the holiday season. So i've decided to use the spare time to read up about the latest big thing that is dominating the news in the past few months - cryptocurrency, blockchains, coins.

Reading through the news, my economics brain started to stir again for the first time since i graduated. Supply and Demand, futures, long, short are just some of the terms that reminded me of good times in university sitting in a boring classroom thinking that i would never need this information. Turns out it's making people alot of money now.

Following the news for a few weeks now and im abit more sure of what is happening in the industry. It's pretty exciting stuff. The ideals are nice, but then i wonder how it would fare in a non-ideal world. The decentralised ledger is really a brilliant idea which creates transparency and reduces the control of the top 1% in the world. But then again, the top guys will know this is happening. They would find their way into the system no?

Still I think that there is something worthwhile in the blockchain technology though it probably is still far from its full potential. I don't think its use as a store of value will be successful for now because of its volatility - one day you could have $10 and the next day it might be $1/$100.

 I also feel that the current prices of Bitcoin at the moment are abit inflated (S$22 850). There's a lot of people going into it just for the opportunity to make some easy money. But today with the launch of futures contracts, there might be a chance that the big money institutional investors may be able to short the market which might bring prices down quickly. I dont know what will happen, but i'm interested to see how the markets continue to move in the coming weeks. Will keep reading up more and observing the market.

Till then,

Zeke

Working and planning for 2018

Hi,

Since the last time I was here, I managed to extend my nparks part time contract for 2 more months till February. After that I will be leaving to US for a month of training with the team before I return for the national championships for some racing experience. 

It's funny how my thoughts have changed since April. Back then, I thought a part time job would suffice and that I would be able to get by on anything more than 1200$/month. But since then, I've started to look at my finances abit more carefully and I realized it's gonna take much more than that to really be surviving.

Now my estimate would be about 2000$/month and maybe I will have some savings? Money is a funny thing, it really just makes me feel like I would want more and more.. And more. 

Where does it stop? If I had 3000$/month, would I feel like this still? If it's 7000$...10000$?

I really don't know.

All I know is I would like to be reasonably compensated for the work I do. If it's fair, I think I would have no complaints.

On the paddling side, I'm trying to keep motivated and excited about trainings. Trying to keep enjoying the process. Hope things continue to improve in the next few months.

Also, I'm starting to try to e poorer my other interests. I am enjoying the researching I'm doing on history that is related to my work at Nparks. I like initiating modern cool art for the exhibitions and I like it when the public also enjoy it as much as I do. I'm also spending some time to reading up on fin tech in an attempt to make use of my economic skills ? I feel it's a waste having them but never using them.  With the latest fever running around Bitcoin, I'm wondering if it is a good idea to try some investing. Or maybe just another bubble that's gonna burst.

I guess we will have to wait for the next post to find out.

Till then,

Zeke