Back in 2013, in a Bitcoin talk forum deep inside the crevices of the internet, a seemingly inebriated member named GameKyuubi famously began a thread entitled, “I AM HODLING,” declaring that he would be holding his BTC despite the serious fall that had just happened. The typo seemed to stick and gained sudden popularity in the cryptocurrency world — becoming redefined as a humorous backronym: HODL — “Hold On for Dear Life.” Today people say they’re “hodling” when they believe their coin will be profitable one day, if not today.

The plain and simple truth is that when it comes to building an impressive investment portfolio, you just can’t do it without hodling. But in the first world, people fail to hodl for very first world reasons. Reasons like…

Their coin experiences a dip in value, and they panic and trade for dear life. They fall victim to the day-to-day fluctuations in value and interpret those fluctuations as condemnations — unable to see that a downward trend can just as easily reverse into an upward one… Or they invested too much money to begin with, so they’re terrified of losing that money because they actually need it to buy that new car or pay their mortgage… Or they’re addicted to the thrill of trading. That’s what drew them to cryptocurrency in the first place. It’s a gambling addiction under a more intellectual guise.

As cryptocurrency is sweeping across Africa, people on that side of the globe are also failing to hodl… but for very different reasons. They don’t have new cars they’re worried about financing; rather, they’re worried about pulling together enough cash for their daily bread. So they cash out just to get — what seems to us — a few measly bucks.

L-Pesa — a smart contract microloan platform — recently announced its ICO for the new L-Pesa Kripton, predicted to be “The Bitcoin of Africa,” and has been giving away free coins to interested investors during its pre-sale. People across Africa have jumped on this. All of them are interested in the long term potential this coin can have on their personal economic states and the economic state of the entire continent. But many let their short-sightedness get the best of them… for the sake of survival.

L-Pesa has seen Kenyans who have left their jobs and taken on coin trading as a substitute instead. They never bought a single coin, but they started trading the free ones. Now they buy more with their earning and sell again — all for the sake of profiting enough to afford their daily bills. But this is a shallow use of the potential of the coin.

Selling Kripton to make some quick cash

is a bandaid over the bullet wound that is poverty.

And even though these Kenyans gave up their jobs to devote their time to trading, trading itself becomes the full time job — potentially with even greater stress since they’re not in control of the market that “pays” them.

Sure, it’s great to be able to guarantee that you’ll have plenty to eat for the day, but when you’re trading coins this quickly, that’s about all you’ll ever be able to guarantee. If that. You’ll never tap deeper into the huge, life-changing, poverty-crushing potential of cryptocurrency in Africa.

Holding is better than selling. Or I should say: hodling is better than selling. “For dear life” has even greater meaning for those investing with their dear lives at stake. Although it’s tempting to get quick cash to survive from day to day, by selling the coins you only condemn yourself to a pattern of continually surviving. Wouldn’t you rather be thriving in the long run?

That’s not to say there’s absolutely no merit in trading.

If trading a little bit can ease your daily burden if you’re truly desperate, then do it. Trade as little as you can to get that daily bread, if you have no other ways to get it. But hodl more.

Hodl if you want your life to actually change in a big way.

In the first world, many believe that day trading is for idiots (hey, don’t shoot the messenger). Of course, in the third world, day trading bears different value. The stakes are higher there, so a day trade can be the difference between meeting one’s daily needs to survive and… not. It’s harsh to call day traders “idiots” if you’re talking about day trading in Africa. Still, it’s safe to say that day trading in Africa is for the short-sighted. Especially considering the Kripton specifically…

The craziest piece of this whole puzzle is that there haven’t even been any dips in the L-Pesa token. It’s only appreciated in value and continues to appreciate. The trend is wildly encouraging. There’s no better omen than that to hodl. So if some of the world’s best investors recommend to “be brave and hodl” even when the shit hits the fan, then hodling when things are going great should be a breeze. In fact, it should be a no-brainer.

And even if dips do happen — as is normal with all cryptocurrencies — the dips of one week or one month weigh very little in meaning in the span of two or three years. Buying and hodling for a number of years without doing any sells during that period could be transformative. At the end of that span, re-evaluate your portfolio like every successful investor has ever done.