Following the massive stock market crash caused by COVID-19 in 2020, I too joined the ‘Donghak Ant Movement’ and stepped into the world of investing. Due to the nature of my delivery work, I spent a lot of time behind the wheel or waiting for elevators, so initially I mostly listened to the radio or music. Then, I stumbled upon audiobooks. Captivated by their depth, the moment I opened my eyes, I began a daily routine of wearing headphones all day long. I devoured books—typically around 8 hours long—at a rate of one or two every two days. I also started consuming lectures on YouTube about topics that interested me, taking notes and writing summaries and book reviews. Even during early morning deliveries, I constantly filled my mind with knowledge. In the confined spaces of parked cars or elevators, I started cryptocurrency trading using my smartphone. When I first encountered Bitcoin, I dismissed it as a lawless frontier for speculators operating outside legal boundaries—a ‘dark realm’. This prejudice stemmed from my past involvement in blockchain-based gaming ventures, where I witnessed people chasing money alone. Looking back, however, this was born from ignorance—a failure to grasp the sweeping changes blockchain technology would bring. Understanding Bitcoin’s essence was nearly impossible when even the concepts of coins versus tokens, or cryptocurrency versus crypto assets, remained unclear.

To properly grasp Bitcoin’s value, I sought out documentaries on the history of money. I realized that just as the value of the Korean won is determined relative to the dollar or yuan when traded, Bitcoin also possesses relative value as an asset. I began to perceive it as an investable asset class, like real estate, stocks, or gold. My past experience in the gaming industry, particularly my understanding of in-game economic systems and points, provided a crucial foundation for conceptually grasping the cryptocurrency system. As Chairman Kang Bang-cheon, often called ‘Korea’s Warren Buffett,’ mentioned in 『Kang Bang-cheon’s Perspective』, both the stock market and the cryptocurrency market are places where human joy and fear coexist. In the latter half of 2020, having gained confidence through fortunate profits, I plunged headfirst into cryptocurrency investing. When Ripple (XRP) plummeted after being delisted from Coinbase due to its lawsuit with the SEC, I boldly invested, believing in its long-term value, and tasted the exhilaration of significant gains. Yet, fear always lurked behind that exhilaration. After only hearing about a famous YouTuber’s liquidation through news reports, I personally experienced the dangers of leveraged investing during the 2022 bear market, sharing in the excruciating fear he must have felt.

According to 『The 2030 Axis Shift』, the silver generation will hold 50% of global wealth in ten years. Starting investments in preparation for this was truly a fortunate decision. I believe healthy investing means capitalizing a portion of one’s labor or business income. Investing is a constant battle against greed. Knowing the value of money earned through hard work makes one inevitably more cautious when investing. By combining trading and value investing, I experienced a ‘shift in thinking’. Rather than simply reacting to daily gains and losses, I learned to manage my portfolio like building a pyramid—diversifying from safe assets to volatile ones to prevent the entire system from collapsing. The joy of building assets through compound interest, like tending a garden, brings ease to life. Conversely, obsessing over a ‘smart single property’ with excessive debt relative to income can become a crushing weight during periods of rising interest rates. As Stella Jang’s song lyrics suggest, finding ease is difficult in a life where paychecks barely touch the bank account before disappearing.

Cryptocurrency, a digital asset, operates in a market that never sleeps. Its value is determined not by quarterly earnings reports, but by real-time project performance and the laws of supply and demand. Some question its intangible value, but considering that the worth of companies like Amazon or Facebook ultimately rests on the intangible asset of ‘data,’ this is hardly surprising. The technological revolution of blockchain will shift the paradigm of our lives, just as the internet and AI did before it. I realized that clinging to the past with the mindset that ‘the world outside the blanket is dangerous’ is the most perilous attitude. The urgency that if I don’t keep learning, I’ll be left behind in the technological adaptation cycle drives me forward. Of course, there were painful trials too. The incident where my Yoroi wallet, which held my precious ADA coins, was hacked. Ignoring the advice to write down the recovery phrase on paper and instead storing it in an online note (Evernote) was the root of the problem. By the time I received the warning about an Indonesian IP accessing it, it was already too late – like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted. The stolen amount was significant, but more than that, the self-reproach over being hacked kept me awake at night. However, I accepted the irreversibility of blockchain and took this as an expensive lesson, deeply engraving the importance of security into my bones. Now, I strictly manage offline security and am working hard on the ground again to make up for that loss.

Finally, since starting my career, I’ve strived to live a life unbound by money through tithing. During the past few years of struggling as a delivery driver, circumstances forced me to pause this practice. But after securing a new job and liquidating my Bitcoin earnings, I settled this long-standing debt to my conscience. Now, I have a new goal: to bear more fruit through investment and practice even greater sharing.