Bitcoin As A Career?

Here's the latest interview with the always excellent Andreas Antonopoulos:

https://youtu.be/fHZzkT1ci1U

I agree with most things Andreas says on Bitcoin. I am surprised to hear he says that he is broke. He's obviously a very talented public speaker and I would think people would be throwing tons of cash at him to hear him speak.

But one thing I disagree with him about is Bitcoin as a career. His advice is not to invest in Bitcoin, but rather to learn the skills to have a career in Bitcoin. My advice would be the complete opposite. I'd say invest a small percentage of your asset as a speculative investment. If Bitcoin truly fulfills its promise as Andreas and I believe it will, it will pay off spectacularly as it already has for its early investors up till 2012. Gavin Andreessen, one of the early Core developers of Bitcoin, said he made $800 for every PENNY he invested in Bitcoin. You wouldn't have had to invest too many dollars to be set for the rest of your life. But if Bitcoin had failed, your life wouldn't have been materially different if you had completely lost that investment. That’s an excellent risk/reward ratio as a speculative investment. It is clear, that throwing a few hundred or thousand dollars for some Bitcoin is far less risky than doing Bitcoin as a career choice, as Andreas is doing.

I think it’s a bit too early to bet your career on Bitcoin. Andreas actually mentions my career choice in this interview, iOS app development, but he’s a bit early in 2007. Although the iPhone was a hit product in 2007, it wasn’t until 2008 that Apple created the App Store, which turned the iPhone from just a nice smartphone to a platform. It wasn’t until the success of the App Store was clear, from 2009 that iOS clearly became a career option. In other words, Apple was a good investment starting in 2007, but it wasn’t until 2009 that iOS was a career option. Why is this distinction important? Because if you had started iOS development in 2007, you would have been limited to web apps. There would have been 2 years where you were learning a skill set that was limited in what it could do, and therefore the job opportunities available. Then, when the App Store hit, you had to learn native development, which is what unleashed to full potential of smartphones and mobile apps. It’s a different technical skill set than web. In 2007, there was not yet a huge demand for app developers. Most people can not last 2 years without an income. It was simply too early as a career in ‘07, but it was not too early as an investment in Apple on the potential of the iPhone.

Today, Bitcoin is at a similar state. There are not that many Bitcoin related opportunities compared to other technical skills like mobile, cloud, and big data. In those areas, you can spend a few months learning a skill set, then get a job any day of the week. Bitcoin is not there yet. It may never get there. It could be the MySpace of social networks and its successor, like Facebook, is what ultimately succeeds. In fact, MySpace succeeded as an investment (as all its investors were bought out.), while it failed as a social network. The real threat to Bitcoin is not the gov’t, banks, etc. It is one of the other 700+ cryptocurrencies that might manage to overcome Bitcoin’s formidable network effect like what Facebook did to MySpace.

I am waiting for Bitcoin’s App Store moment. Until then, I will remain a speculative investor, user, and advocate.