The 11 Ways to Lose Time and Money With Bitcoin (and How to Prevent It)

Bitcoin is a monetary revolution that will change your life for the better.

Through its decentralized system with superior monetary attributes, Bitcoin gives you the power back. Bitcoin does not fix the current system as some like to say. Bitcoin is more ambitious than that, as it represents a superior alternative to the current flawed system that is not fixable.

This is probably not the first time you have read this type of sentence.

You probably already read this kind of assertion from me. If not, it was from other Bitcoiners.

Nevertheless, you shouldn't think that you can benefit from the Bitcoin revolution without any effort.

What? But I thought everyone could benefit from Bitcoin without needing to master special skills like trading or having to have advanced information like insiders in the financial world.

I maintain that you don't need that to take full advantage of Bitcoin.

However, you will need to put in the effort to achieve the right level of trust in the Bitcoin revolution. This level of confidence will come from knowing the flaws in the current system and becoming aware of the why of Bitcoin.

Specifically, the more time you take to study Bitcoin to understand its why, the more likely you are to take full advantage of Bitcoin in the future.

So the effort involved with Bitcoin is yours and available to everyone. You just need to have enough willpower. Taking power over the fruits of your labor and ultimately your life will be your reward.

Those who don't make the necessary efforts will pay for it sooner or later. How will they pay? By losing money, or worse, time. Because let's not forget that time is the most precious thing we have at our disposal on Earth.

Time is the only thing rarer than Bitcoin.

Bitcoin allows you to save and regain control of your wealth to use your time as you wish. So Bitcoin is all about freedom.

In what follows, I will list 11 ways to lose money and time with Bitcoin.

If you find yourself in any of these bad habits, then you should probably strengthen your understanding of the why of Bitcoin so that you can better protect yourself from them in the future.

1. Wanting to get rich with Bitcoin

Too many people come to buy Bitcoin simply to get rich.

Are you going to tell me that there is nothing wrong with wanting to get rich? I would say that you are right because everyone has the right to have their own goals in life.

The problem is that people who buy Bitcoin to get rich want to get there quickly. And because that's not how things work in life, they end up losing patience and money by giving up on the Bitcoin revolution too soon.

Instead, you should understand that getting rich with Bitcoin is only a positive outcome.

The primary goal of Bitcoin is to gain control over the fruits of your labor. Bitcoin is about power first, not money. Bitcoin gives you power over your money. This has incredible consequences for your life afterward.

2. Trusting a third party

Behind the Bitcoin revolution, there is also the importance of taking back control over your actions by stopping acting like a sheep following the herd. The Bitcoin motto is clear: “Don't Trust, Verify.”

This means that you should never buy Bitcoin simply because a third party has advised you to. That third party could be Matt Damon promoting FTX or it could be yours truly writing this.

Don't take my word for it. I won't. Same with all the influencers who want to sell you a dream.

I am not selling you anything and I simply invite you to integrate as much information as possible into your thought process and then always decide for yourself.

When buying Bitcoin, ask yourself this question: “Why am I buying Bitcoin?”

If the answer is because so-and-so told me to, then you're on the wrong track!

3. Do not secure your Bitcoin yourself

“Not Your Keys, Not Your Bitcoin”.

I think this famous meme in the Bitcoin world is significant enough in itself. But since far too many people continue to buy Bitcoin and let a third party own the private keys, I had to create a dedicated Web page to relay this message again (and again, and again, …):

https://www.notyourkeysnotyourbitcoin.com/

What you need to understand is that you are missing out on the Bitcoin revolution if you let a third party have your private keys. Because in this case, your Bitcoin is just Bitcoin paper, a promise from a third party on your Bitcoin.

We saw with the FTX scandal that some people didn't hesitate to sell you Bitcoin when they didn't actually buy it...

To avoid this, you need to take possession of your private keys. This is an essential prerequisite.

4. Playing the Trader

Trading requires special skills that a minority of people have. Behind the desire to trade, I find the lack of patience of some and their desire to have some sort of excitement with Bitcoin.

Yet, the potential of Bitcoin for the future is already an exciting enough topic without you having to play Trader.

By playing Trader, you will frequently lose money and time, because you will be dealing with people who are more knowledgeable than you and who have access to information that you do not.

I study the price action of Bitcoin because I find it fascinating, but as I tell you every time, your best option with Bitcoin is to be a HODLer by signing up for the long term.

Finally, remember that the best investments in the world are the most boring. George Soros himself once said that. So if Bitcoin seems boring to you, that's a pretty good sign. Or that you are not following the real signal, the signal of the Bitcoin revolution, because something is happening every day in the Bitcoin world.

I've been writing about Bitcoin daily since 2016 and I must admit that I've hardly ever run out of things to write about.

5. Leverage Trading

Those who make the mistake of trading sometimes end up doing even worse: leverage trading. Your chances of getting ruined are even greater.

Don't let greed get the better of your logical thinking!

6. Lack of conviction and confidence in the Bitcoin revolution

Bitcoin is a unique monetary revolution. Such a revolution always takes time. Patience is therefore the key. That's why expecting it to go fast is not a good thing. You have to accept that patience is part of the game.

I often say that Bitcoin teaches you patience and it is true.

You sometimes wish that the adoption of Bitcoin by the general public would go faster, but you have to look back and see that what Bitcoin has already accomplished is already immense in only 14 years of existence.

The best is yet to come, but things are evolving at the rate they should.

Those who lack patience with Bitcoin are leaving the revolution along the way simply because of a lack of conviction and confidence.

7. Not understanding the why of Bitcoin

Those who fall into the trap of the previous point simply don't understand the why of Bitcoin. If you understand the why of Bitcoin, you understand that Bitcoin is also there to offer you a way out of the current flawed system that is not fixable.

The day you understand that you understand that Bitcoin protects you from the risks of the collapse of the current system. So Bitcoin is a risk-off asset from that point of view.

As I often say, when you understand why Bitcoin is there, you put the money you want to protect from the flaws of the current system into the network. For some, this means fully embracing the Bitcoin standard by allowing a circular economy to develop based on the “Spend and Replace your Bitcoin” pattern.

8. Give in to your natural inclination for greed by buying Sh*tcoins

Greed is a sin that we have all committed at least once in our lives. It often comes mixed with envy. You see people getting rich quickly with Sh*tcoins, and you end up thinking: why not me?

It ends up confusing Bitcoin for those who don't understand its purpose.

Some people make money by buying Sh*tcoins. But some people also make money by playing roulette at the casino in Las Vegas. Does this mean that you would advise someone to consider gambling in Las Vegas as a way to protect the fruits of their labor?

Of course not!

Don't let your natural inclination for greed distract you from the meaning of the Bitcoin revolution: taking back the power over the fruits of your labor.

9. Trust Warren Buffett

This point is humoristic, but since Warren Buffett has been denigrating Bitcoin as “Rat Poison Squared” for years, it's safe to say that those who blindly listen to the Oracle of Omaha have wasted a lot of time and money.

Don't be fooled. Warren Buffett's main problem is envy mixed with pride.

In a recent interview, Warren Buffett let slip the real reason why he is so down on Bitcoin. I'll let you find out, but it has nothing to do with the properties of Bitcoin. The problem is with him and his lack of questioning.

10. Believing that CBDCs will solve the problems that Bitcoin solves (LOL)

The offensive by governments around the world to push Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) continues to accelerate. It all started with China announcing that it was working on launching its digital yuan in late 2019. Since then, the CCP has been making steady progress and its digital yuan has already been tested by over 150 million Chinese.

It is the last missing piece to the mass surveillance society that CCP has been methodically building for years.

In the West, governments only dream of one thing: to follow the Chinese example. The IMF, the World Bank, or whatever other institutions are trying to tell you about the merits of CBDCs.

Their pitch is that Bitcoin is becoming useless now that CBDCs are filling the digital aspect that fiat currencies were so lacking. Note that fiat currencies were already largely digital, but central banks had to go through private banks to reach you.

To strengthen their power, central banks dream of these CBDCs.

The worst is yet to come with these CBDCs, which are just an even worse digital version of fiat currencies. They pose a major problem for your privacy, and above all, they are the prelude to the end of cash. This is the dream of all governments around the world.

To get out of it, Bitcoin is your only hope. If you believe the lies of politicians, then you will lose money and time, but worse, you will get stuck with these CBDCs. Sooner or later.

11. Not understanding that Bitcoin is the only thing you own

Many people still think that real estate is a good thing to own something. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Governments can seize your real estate for arbitrary reasons. The latest example is that Russians more or less connected to Putin's regime have had their property confiscated in Europe and America.

I am not defending Putin's Russia, I am simply noting that real estate is not what many people imagine it to be.

As long as you have the private keys to your Bitcoin, then no one can censor you. No one can confiscate your wealth. The. Bitcoin is the only thing you own. Physical gold has virtues as well, but you still need to have been able to buy it under the radar of governments who could once again decide to confiscate gold from individuals as America did in 1933 to finance Roosevelt's New Deal policy.

Whether we like it or not, the risk is there. With Bitcoin, it doesn't, because you can store your Bitcoin via your seed phrase within your mind.

Final Thoughts

With the Bitcoin revolution, it's all about knowledge. The more effort you put into gaining knowledge, the more you will be able to take full advantage of the liberating power of the Bitcoin revolution.

That's why all Bitcoiners constantly recommend that you study Bitcoin to understand more and more about Bitcoin, money, economics, and the current flawed system. It is the knowledge that gives you power in life. The more you reduce your ignorance, the less likely you are to make bad decisions, and therefore the greater your chances of making the most of Bitcoin.

Please let me know if you see other ways to lose money and time with Bitcoin. This may serve to alert other readers who are just at the beginning of their Bitcoin journey or who are still hesitant to get on board the revolutionary train.

Also published here.