Friday Finance 4/28/2023: Hitting 50K and Meeting with the Police
50K HP!
I did it! After five years on this blockchain, I finally hit 50K Hive powered up the other day. This specific goal is one I have been working on for at least a year now. It's a pretty amazing feat when you consider the fact that I have never powered down.
Sure, there was that brief month or two where I got distracted by HBD and started throwing a lot of my earnings into the savings account, but besides that, my sole focus has been growth.
I remember my early days on "that other chain", I was scraping for pennies with my posts and I even bought some of the token back then. Sad thing is, that was back when it was worth several dollars. Looking back now, it probably wasn't the smartest move, but it still gave me a jump start to get to where I am today.
Besides that small investment at the beginning and the ensuing purchases when that chain shut down, everything I have on Hive has been earned through posting, commenting, and curating. I am really proud of that.
I now plan on looking ahead to my next goal of having 100K HIVE powered up. In case there was any doubt after five years that I am here for the long haul...
It is time again for another Finance Friday/Friday Finance. This is a series I started where I talk about random bits of financial stuff that I have seen, gathered, or experienced during the week. I hope as a reader you find it informational, entertaining, or both. I also hope it can generate some good discussion and edify the Leo community.
Did I mention Cops?
So a funny thing happened the other day. Several months ago at the school district where I am the Director of Technology, we had a student bring a loaded gun into one of our buildings. It was never used, but it was obviously a big deal. I had to work with the state police detectives to pull video footage of the student through the day so they could use it for the investigation.
While the detective was in my office, he noticed I had a crypto market site open on one of my screens and we started talking about crypto currency. As an enthusiast, I was throwing stuff at him right and left that I know was well over his head.
I think we have all been in a situation where we are excited about something and we just start spewing out so much information it can be overwhelming.
Anyway, he went on his way, I went on mine... end of story. Okay, maybe not quite.
Fast forward to last week when we had another alleged threat at the same school. I suddenly get a call from this detective again. He asks me to call him back, so I just figure he needs more footage for the old issue or maybe this new one that just happened.
I call him back and it turns out he is working a case where a woman's crypto currency was "stolen" and he wants to come up with his partner and pick my brain about the case. I told him I would be happy to talk, but I couldn't promise I would have all the answers for him.
My first thought is "how did little old me suddenly become an expert in crypto currency". I think you all know nothing could be further from the truth. As someone in the BRO Discord mentioned though, to them I am an expert. That's an interesting thought right?
Anyway, long story short, he comes in with his partner and it turns out this woman inherited $10K from a relative that died. She put in in Coinbase and bought BTC. This guy (no clue how or where she met him) offered to manage her crypto for her and help it grow.
She kept sending him portions of the money and he kept showing her charts over the past year or two of how much it was growing. As soon as it hit the $1 million mark (according to his charts) she said she wanted out. As the police said, "that's when suddenly the money was gone".
I pointed out to them that actually it was gone the minute she moved it out of her Coinbase wallet to theirs, but that was kind of besides the point.
We had a long conversation about the use, need, and legitimacy of Coinbase. I also threw a bunch of other information at them. The lead detective mentioned at one point that I missed my calling and I should be teaching about crypto. I don't know about that, but it was fun know I was helping out.
I tried to use real world examples that would help them understand what happened to the lady. Basically, it came down to the fact that this is a scam that has been happening for years, whether it is cash, gift cards, stocks, or crypto.
Same crime, just different mediums and that doesn't make crypto inherently bad.
Sadly, as you would expect, the ladies funds are gone. I explained how you could see the transactions on the blockchain, but it would take someone with a lot more brains and patience than me to actually track it all back to a single person. If they can even get that far at all.
I apologize, this got a little wordy, but it was a cool story that I wanted to share. Somehow, I have a feeling this might not be the last time I hear from them about crypto related cases.
Polygon
When I see news stories about Polygon, I always have to do a double take. I never know if they are talking about the Blockchain or the Software Studio. When I saw a headline the other day about Google Cloud supporting Polygon, I knew I had to read up a little more to see which one it was.
Turns out, it was in fact about the Polygon Blockchain. There has been a lot of hype around Polygon lately. NFT projects are moving over there due to the cheaper gas fees. We have also seen a lot of other projects make the shift.
The blockchain has been spotty at best for me, but I have a feeling in time and with all the investment that is happening there, it should get better. Google specifically is partnering with them to "simplify the deployment and management of nodes and to increase the adoption of the ecosystem".
Additionally, "Google Cloud's Blockchain Node Engine will support Polygon".
We have seen big names throw around collaborations with blockchains in the past and we all know they have amounted to pretty much nothing. Hopefully this time it will be different. The engine already supports ETH, but maybe this new announcement will be the catalyst that catapults Polygon/MATIC to mass adoption.
Then again, it might just be another in a long list of mundane headlines.
What do you think?
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Congratulations. It is a nice milestone and you will soon be an Orca (56176 HP). You have done a great job of building your account and being part of the community. I have not really been too involved with other blockchains, but I think Hive has something special.
That's funny about the cops calling on your expertise. The average person knows little about crypto, but they will mostly just regard it as an investment rather than something they actually use. We do need more awareness of the security risks. Just understanding the difference between a personal wallet and an exchange is vital. People always say 'not your keys, not your crypto' and it's so true.
I just read the latest Thursday Murder Club book and that has some crypto in it, but the person who owns it lets someone else manage it. I think it gives a wrong impression of how it works.
I look forward to welcoming you to the Orca Pod!
Thank you! I'm looking forward to getting there! I feel like 50K used to be Orca status and the bar keeps getting pushed further and further out. Either that or when I hit dolphin, Orca was suddenly the new dolphin. I guess that just means everyone besides me is growing and in the end that is a good thing for everyone here. I had to do some explaining to them about cold wallets, software wallets, exchanges, etc. I think I confused them a bit, but they said it was helpful.
The threshold does keep moving due to the inflation. It may have been 50k at the very start. It relates to the number of VESTS that you can see on hive.buzz. You need to get to 100m.
Ah, okay. Well, I think this HPUD I am going to be powering up close to 1000 HP, so that should push me one step closer!
So it may be possible this year anyway. Keep it up!
!BEER
Oh for sure. I will get there this year no problem.
Congrats man! Huge milestone, I’m hoping to cross 30k in a few months if all goes well! Creeping up to that 50k mark is going to be great when I get there!
Pretty cool on the helping detectives haha. Hopefully they give you a little bit more of those types of things and before you know it, you can be a consultant! Make sure to charge them at that point lol
I think it would be cool to be a consultant. I toyed around with being an FBI agent in my younger years. I didn't want to have to move away though. I figured at that level I would have to move down to Detroit or to some other state. They assured me the talk yesterday was off the books and my name wouldn't show up in the report. I think it would be a cool side hustle though if they ever wanted me to go legit.
Honestly, I always look at people with over 10k HP as a mini god. How did you do it? Well, you have been here for five years so it is possible for you to achieve that.
Your post is serving as a motivation to someone like me so I can work harder and become more consistent
It was a lot of hard work. Besides what I bought from the old chain, I have earned it all by posting and showing up five days a week. I can't stress enough how important commenting is, but you seem to already have that down.
That’s pretty scary but ended with a cool story. As someone in the space for 5 years you actually are a expert. The guys that got in really early obviously know more but with adoption relatively low in comparison we have a very specialized knowledge.
Yeah, there are still a lot of technical pieces I don't understand, but then again there are so many facets that it would be hard to know everything about everything!
So many caught by dodgy fellows, perhaps more ethical people should be teaching the ropes...
Having been hoodwinked by one/two characters I shy away from actually advising folk what to do unless they are serious about learning how to own a wallet, work with their own finance.
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They asked if there are legitimate places where you can invest like that. I told them not many. It's kind of the wild west right now still. I have a friend who gave me some money to invest. I told him to expect it to all be worthless one day. He was fine with that, so I went ahead and bought some BTC for him. I just needed him to be prepared for the worst.
Everything is at risk, market does not matter, spread it out into on/off shore investments, cryptocurrencies, always cash stashed somewhere for emergencies.
Trading in cryptocurrencies leaves one more open to swindlers, tough lesson learned is reading and fully researching always.
Have tried to track and trace 'lost' BTC for people who went through 'friends', could only get to a point where one realizes the money has gone into their wallet, no wallet set up for the person involved.
Yeah, it seems like a futile effort to me.
Hoodwinked out of finance is on the person, no research done.
Hitting 50k an indicator of concerted effort, investing wisely on the move. Well done!
Many congratulations, soon to be Orca and well earned!
Here's to the next 50K!
Thanks, I appreciate it!
Congrats on the 50k!! You are building up speed now!! Not far off the Orca!
Great antedote about the police, sad the lady was being milked for so long.. they do say, dont invest in anything you dont understand.
That's what I told them. I threw out not your keys not your crypto and don't invest more than you are willing to lose a couple of times during our conversation! Love the Super Troopers GIF. One of my all time favorite movies!
Too bad the lady lost her crypto... too many scammers! At least the cops weren't after you! Polygon may be about to explode with this news. I've been holding Matic for a long time now. Cross my fingers!
I've been buying a little bit of MATIC every month for the past year or so. I have a bunch that I have been holding too. I'm right there with you crossing my fingers! Yeah, I always get nervous when the cops want to talk to me. I happens far more often than you would realize.
Congratulations on 50k HP milestone and this is such a great achievement
Thank you, I appreciate it! I guess I should have made my real goal being an Orca. That seems to be the next step.
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I'm still a long way from 50K. I do buy small amounts of hive typically on a monthly basis (I don't think I ever bought any on that other chain though). However, I am putting about half into HBD. I figure as long as interest rate is 20%, why not? It potentially hurts me if the value of hive skyrockets but only if it skyrockets and stays high. I don't keep much in the way of liquid hive around in any case so I'm not really in a position to take advantage of short term volatility. My liquid hive either gets powered up or traded for HBD and put in savings. I don't really have any specific short term goals. Long term is to earn as much in a month via interest and curation as my day job. That will take a while :). Until then, just plugging away every day.
As far as that woman losing here crypto, it really sounds no different than any other fraud case in which someone convinces you to give them their money and takes it all instead of doing what they are supposed to. Assuming she has records of their communications and her own transactions to him, I would think he could probably be prosecuted and/or she could sue in civil court. Might be hard to actually get the money back though.
I think it will be even harder to even pinpoint who the person actually is. Fake identities and stuff like that are just too easy to run with these days. Her money is absolutely gone. I tend to power up most of my Hive too. I can't seem to keep it liquid long enough to take advantage of the swings.
Yeah, I guess it depends on if she actually "knows" the person or not and how much of a professional scammer they are. Though why anybody would give money in any form to a random stranger is beyond me.
Yeah, they didn't give me that info. I am not even sure what part of the state she was from. They said they had another case that was kind of similar in another part of the state if I remember correctly. Unfortunately, they are probably going to start seeing more and more of them.
Congrats on the Orca-hood!!
I think your interaction with the cops shows how ahead of the curve we are and how far behind most others are. Just think, they came to you for the discussion, meaning that they had no one in their office that could give them better advice. That tells something, doesn't it?
It will change in time though, but it won't be coming from the government institutions, it will be that the cops are users like us :)
Yeah, that is the same thing I was thinking. Don't they have someone on staff for this? Maybe they don't though, or maybe they do, but that person is stretched so thin... I dunno. This is why we need more regulation right :) Thanks for the congrats. This is a big deal for me. Been working towards it for a long time.
Congratulations on your 50k HP.
It shows that you've come a long way.
Every journey starts with a foot step. More achievements to come
Thank you! I appreciate that! Now my next step is getting to that 100k vests mark!
It's amazing people are still falling for such scams... I believe Facebook is fool of them.
They were falling for it way before Facebook and they will still fall for it long after Facebook is gone. Like I said, same scam, different medium.
Congratulations on hitting that goal! There seems to be so many loaded weapons ending up in schools. This just happened in Central Ohio a few days ago. Security apprehended someone with an AR-15 at the Mall of America last week too. Scary times. How cool that you were consulted about crypto!
Yeah, I never would have guessed it would make its way here to us, but here we are. It seems like we have had an abnormal number of threats and incidents this year. At least none of them have been the kind that gets you on the news. I'd love to have a full time gig doing consulting like that. I still feel a bit awkward speaking about it, but given practice I think I could do pretty well.
I'm sorry to hear that! It seems like there's a new story in the news every day.
Opportunities can come in the least likely of places! Having been in the space so early has some pretty significant advantages. It might be time to start an LLC and begin building.
I'm too much of a chicken to do that. Despite being in crypto, I am not much of a risk taker. Yeah, the number of shootings being higher than the number of the days in the year is sobering.
Congrats @bozz that is a nice size stake. Maybe one day I will get there, who knows. That is so cool the cops came to you for advice. Real shit deal for the lady though. Interesting news about Polygon and Google. Will be keeping my eyes open for more on that now.
I know people who have been stacking MATIC for a while now.
I just grabbed some. So we will see what happens.😀
Congrats!
50K????
OMG I am working my ass of to get 150 HP up each month, then again this is my first serious year so I have a long way to go compared to the Bozz 😎
You will get there. Just keep at it! You are still further ahead than people who haven't even found Hive yet!
Great news as you have worked hard to get to this point. Interesting story about the cops and how things unravel. I was asked to help out our equivalent of CSI a few years back with regard to cable ties and cattle theft trying to track back to certain suppliers via batch numbers etc.
Now that sounds a lot more interesting than my story! I would have thought cattle thieves were a thing of the past. Long gone since the 1800's! Thank you for the kind words!
Congratulations on the %0K! That is awesome and, as another who earned it the hard way, it is no small feat! You have really done well for yourself!
You are an expert of sorts! You understand it and they know nothing, so yes. How cool is that? H remembered you for that exact reason. I would say you made a good impression on him and you even helped solve the mystery, As much as was needed. How sad!!!
On another note, the firearms problem in school is terrifying. It is not even unheard of anymore, That is even more terrifying.
Thanks always for the great posts!
Yeah, I am actually a little surprised that so few people keyed in on that part of my post. I think you are only the second person to mention it and this post has gotten an insane number of comments. It was fun knowing I could teach them even the smallest bit about crypto.
Congratulations on 50k HP and I am a bit surprised to see the detective so interested in the crypto scamming. It's so common that I thought it was more like common knowledge. I imagine that people could probably find everything they need to know online but the people who aren't knowledgable in this space would have trouble finding it.
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My guess is not that many people actually report it. There is a good chance they know they were playing with fire and when they do lose it all they are either too embarrassed or realize nothing can be done.
Congrats on the achievement it's really a work well-done.
Thank you!
Wow - breaking 50k HP - thats pretty awesome. And then helping the cops as a crypto expert - nice ! Thats an awful story about that poor lady getting scammed though. Jeez I hope they are able to do something, but I'm guessing not. Bloody terrible what some people will do.
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Yeah I don't think they will be able to do anything. Unless the lady knows the guy which is pretty unlikely.
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Congrats on 50k! Ah... so you did get to 50k before I got to 25. Guess I lost on that one.
Cool story about the police!
Sorry about that! I bet you get to 50k before I hit 100k!
May the best man win!
Congrats on the huge hive milestone! Let's just hope they don't start tracking your crypto now ;)
Thank you! I don't think they would even know how!
How cool is it to be at the origin of cryptocurrencies. When I talk to everyone I know, I tell everyone that cryptocurrency is the future. Because a lot of people just utter the phrase: God, what is this?)
Congratulations on 50K HP!
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Yeah, a lot of people don't even care. It is rare to find people who want to hear about it from you.
And time goes by...)
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You've done a great job reaching your goal of 50K Hive powered up. It's great to see that your hard work and determination have paid off. I like that you were honest about your journey and that you earned everything by posting, commenting, and putting together collections. Your story is motivating and shows how powerful blockchain technology can be. Thank you for writing on your blog about your thoughts and experiences. I can't wait to read more of what you write.
Thank you for the kind words. It has been a long journey but I don't plan on stopping now.
You are welcome. You have inspired me.
Congrats on that 50k HP!
That was funny! Maybe, I will be hearing the same in the coming months. 😅
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Thank you!
Congratulations, that's huge 🙌
Same here, at least so far :) And like you, I have yet to do a power down ,(though I have to admit I want to kick myself, knowing that if I had, I'd probably have over 5k HP right now 😂)
You really should get the detective onto Hive :) His blogs would make an awesome addition!!!
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Thank you! It's a good feeling to know you have built something special. I think Hive would be so over his head!
Five minutes a day of learning, and he'd have the basics in no time :) ...
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Congrats!!!!! 50K, and most organic, was certainly a challenge and one you should be proud of. I have seen the effort you put into it first hand. Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap!!!
I'm now about 1,000HP away from 50,000K HP. I am looking forward to it changing. Most of mine is organic as well. I guess I could always power up from HBD savings and hit that number now... But I think I'll just let it ride. I always struggle with what's better.. HBD savings at 20% or the growth one gets from curation and 2.92%. I should really just sit down and figure it out. lol.
Congrats again and don't turn your back on the law (Wink wink).
Yeah, I would probably be closer to 100kbif I hadn't went so hard into HBD. It's a tough choice. That 20% is hard to pass up. Even if hive were to go to $3 again. It's just a solid investment in my opinion. Looking forward to seeing you in the 50k club!
I hear ya. I have some HIVE sitting idle and should either power up or move to HBD. But anyhow.... Here We ARE!!!!
I have some spare hive I am saving to power up tomorrow for HPUD.
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