The worst part about being into crypto in 2014 wasn’t that people didn’t believe you, it was how they talked down to you and tried to ‘educate you’.

It was infuriating. I remember discovering Dogecoin back in early 2014 when $500 would buy you a million, and my friend tried to explain to me (patiently) how that was just a fad and if i really wanted to be a millionaire one day I needed to read some ‘Boglehead books’ and learn about ETFs and mutual funds.

When i tried to tell my coworkers about bitcoin they all patiently explained to me (how an adult might explain to a child) that Bitcoin wasn’t actually worth anything and it wasn’t “backed by anything”.

I was excited to meet my girlfriend’s friend’s boyfriend once because i heard he was into finance. He basically spent the entire dinner cracking jokes at my expense and explaining how little i understood money.

When i tried to tell my investment buddy about Monero, and begged him to get into it at 30 cents, he thought it was stupid and said he thought Visa was a better investment for money. Then when Monero went to $2 each and i continued to rant to him his reaction was “nice, you sold it all right?”. Then when it went to $12 each he legit got mad at me that I wouldn’t sell it. By the time it was $50 each he stopped talking to me.

If you’ve been in crypto for more than 10 years, it’s been an exhausting and frustrating experience.

And no, I’m not even close to rich. I’ve lost all my money since then thanks to bad investments, taxes, and overspending. Making money isn’t the same as managing wealth, which is a lesson i pray you are one day rich enough to suffer.