The Great Money Giveaway

“Money doesn't grow on trees. It grows on a blockchain.”

~Me

DISCLAIMER: This is not investment advice, nor should it be taken as such.

As a child I was told the adage, “money doesn’t grow on trees” and time and time again throughout my life this has proven to be a true statement… until I saw the power of a blockchain. Let’s learn about this with a simple use case.

The Lazy Investor

Let’s say that in 2015 you heard about this digital currency called Bitcoin and decided to purchase 2 BTC at the price of $230 per coin. Then a year later (May 2016) you heard about this new currency called Ethereum and it seems interesting. So far, your Bitcoin have appreciated to ~$450 per coin so you decided to take some of that profit (50%) and push it into ETH as you are playing with house money. You take $225 dollars and purchase ETH at a rate of $10, 22.5 ETH.

From this point, you do nothing. Let’s review the impact of this strategy over the next 2 years.

BTC appreciation — You have 1.5 BTC (since you sold half for ETH). Today’s value = $8670 ETH apprecaition — You have 22.5 ETH. Today’s value = $6721

Forks and Airdrops Oh My!

At first glance, you’d think this return alone is amazing (and it is) but now we must factor in airdrops and hardforks.

Omisego Airdrop — Free Money 1.66 ETH. Today’s Value = $496 Bitcoin Cash Hardfork — 1:1 ratio BTC to BCH— Free Money 1.5 BTC. Today’s value = $536 Bitcoin Gold Hardfork —1:1 ratio BTC to BTG — Free Money 1.5 BTG. Today’s value = $180 Bitcore Airdrop (weekly)— 1:1 ratio BTC to BTX — Free Money 1.5 BTX. Today’s value = $20 (with a 3% increase weekly… for doing nothing)

Let’s put this into perspective

Starting Investment: $460

Total Appreciation without Free Money: $15391 (33x return)

Free Money: $1231 (260% on starting investment, 8% against appreciation amount)

Total w/ Free Money: $16622

Money Grows on the Blockchain

Let me first say that it would not be wise to expect a 33x appreciation forever, but you can expect to see airdrops and hardforks in the coming future. Both of these mechanisms help to scale the blockchain in one way or another while providing free money to token holders. The are also proving to be good PR for tokens as a perception driver and let’s be honest, what investor doesn’t like free money?