Volatility is all the rage – time to get used to it
There’s clearly a huge difference between HODL and FUD, both polarising terms that are decentralised in themselves, but they also have something very much in common.
These believers and non-believers, whatever their differences, have a very common bond and that is the understanding of the very nature of volatility.
The HODLs shrug it off because they’re in it for the long game, while those who believe in FUD embrace its negativity as they panic at the first sign of, er, panic.
But we need to learn from the HODLs because the world is going to have to prepare itself for constant volatility be that global warming, population movement, creaking financial models or political systems that are currently in control of dictators, but will undoubtedly be challenged by opposing forces in these weird years to come.
Being able to handle volatility is a 21st Century skill that needs to be learnt now if anybody is to survive the next decade.
Whether it’s a landowner in North California, the Siberain forest being plagued by fires or China preparing for a One World Order, the implications of being able to handle volatility are vital… the first being to live somewhere up high, nowhere near the coast and in a place where it’s colder more often than not. There will be a lot of people moving to Scotland and Ireland in the next two decades.
Truth or fiction, false memories, matrices, DeepMind beginning to cure all diseases, pandemics, vaccinations – the volatility of life has always been the essence of life, but now it’s right out there in the open. Some of us have lived volatile lives for years, others have not.
The internet is infected, the scammers and Black Hatters are tearing down the fabric of this Metauniverse 1.0 and it (itself) will be more volatile in the future when it goes down through Big Cybersecurity Attacks. Many would much prefer an ongoing pandemic than an unreliable internet and those attacks are inevitable and will be much, much worse.
The end of volatility is death
Everybody knows (apart from some people at DeepMind) that the end of volatility is death and now the pandemic has thrown that at people’s faces, their behaviour is going to be even more volatile as well as the world itself.
Not quite anarchy, but not far off. Maybe personal autarky is a better description, self-sufficiency in a time of volatility is the only survival mechanism. Look at Elon Musk’s weird Gricean Maxims on Twitter to show how weird things have become.
For the HODLs, the power of being strong and walking through volatility is a huge asset and it will be people like this who are probably our only chance to save the world, but as they know, it will not be easy.
FUD is part of the human condition as well. Everybody has fear, uncertainty and doubt about most things whether that’s cashing out crypto, leaving a floundering marriage or starting a new enterprise.
Say what you like about the ego-race to Space and the egos of Branson, Musk and Bezos, but they are true HODLs who ride volatility and literally hold on for dear life as they soar to the stratosphere.
More of us need to be like them, bows and arrows of misfortune, better to have loved than never loved at all, behind every great win is a huge failure and all that.
Get used to volatility. It isn’t just the ups and downs of cryptocurrency prices, it’s everything else. It might even be the meaning of life. So if you’re a HODL then you’re going to be fine. If you suffer FUD, then that also makes you a human, but probably a lesser species than the sort that is needed right now.
Don’t cash out, invest more, do more, save the world. Be more volatile and by doing so, understand volatility. Crypto has been responsible for a lot of this, so be very proud of yourself if you’re a crypto HODLr. The world loves you and will love you more when things, literally, start heating up.
Monty Munford is a tech journalist and the Chief Evangelist and core contributor to the Sienna Network project.
He is a keynote speaker/emcee/moderator/interviewer at prestigious events around the world and has spoken at more than 200 global events interviewing figures such as the late John McAfee, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Steve Wozniak (twice in Beirut and Vienna), Kim Kardashian (once in Armenia), Ghostface Killah and many others.
He also runs his own crypto podcast https://blockspeak.io
He was previously a weekly tech columnist for Forbes in New York, the Telegraph in the UK and continues to write regularly for the BBC, The Economist, The FT and… City PM.