What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

If you agree with the viewpoints of the previous three articles:

(Bitcoin and Idealism) We are participating in a social experiment, which has the potential for failure, but we have no regrets.

(Getting off too early is only due to a small vision) The goal of this experiment is grand; if everything goes smoothly, Bitcoin's price may rise to 160 million RMB in 20 years.

(Hoarding Bitcoin: How far are you from financial freedom?) We have no other skills, we can only rely on hoarding Bitcoin and patiently waiting for our own financial freedom.

So you may have already made up your mind to hoard Bitcoin. Based on past experiences, the vast majority of people have not succeeded. External factors are certainly important, like needing money urgently after an unexpected event. However, the decisive factor is still mentality.

You might think the biggest thing to overcome is fear, but it's not, because you were already prepared for the wild fluctuations in cryptocurrency prices.

Impulse

The huge fluctuations in Bitcoin prices and the tens or hundreds of times rise in altcoins often trigger our impulse to jump into trading. This is a very, very irrational impulse, but we often find it hard to resist.

People are inherently resistant to gambling; knowing it's a zero-sum or negative-sum game, they often can’t help but go all in, leading many to lose everything.

Trading altcoins is like playing the lottery; the payout could be tenfold, hundredfold, or thousandfold, but the probability is extremely low. A few coins do yield high returns, but most will eventually go to zero. Moreover, if you take it seriously, you lose; what you think are 'valuable coins' don’t rise, while those junk coins rise dramatically; they call this 'market cap management.'

Leveraged trading in cryptocurrencies is like gambling on high or low; winning yields tenfold or hundredfold, while losing can lead to total ruin. I don’t deny there may be some technical skills involved, but it’s clearly a zero-sum or negative-sum game; your winnings are inevitably someone else's losses.

Hoarding Bitcoin is a positive-sum game; everyone will profit as Bitcoin grows. In the past decade, Bitcoin has never let down anyone who believes in it.

However, I also know clearly that saying these truths is useless; gambling has a long history, with countless bloody lessons, yet it remains exceptionally popular. The innate gambling nature in people is inherent, and we often find it hard to resist.

My strategy is to keep my money and coins off exchanges and hide my private keys deeper. Whenever the market comes, in moments of impulse, I can’t immediately operate my private keys; and when I can operate my private keys, the moment has passed, and rationality prevails.

Loneliness

Those who believe in Bitcoin are all lonely.

You fell in love with a girl; she is beautiful, gentle, and kind, but she dresses avant-garde and is unconventional, so others think she is of poor character, and your family opposes your relationship. What do you do?

You believe in your own judgment, firmly convinced that you are right and others are wrong. However, you also find that when it comes to reasoning, no one listens seriously, and you stand on the opposite side of everyone. Occasionally, well-meaning people come to advise you to turn back for your own good. What do you do?

I have never mentioned Bitcoin to the people around me; it is an underground relationship, a kind of suffering. What’s even more torturous is that no one has mentioned Bitcoin to me for three long years.

I am a two-faced person. On one hand, I am very active online, learning many Bitcoin-related technologies and writing many articles; on the other hand, I live in a completely Bitcoin-free circle, and I am also very active.

I often imagine Satoshi Nakamoto's lifestyle. On one hand, he is a god-like presence online; on the other hand, in his social circle, probably no one knows he is Satoshi Nakamoto.

I can even feel your pain; even if you strongly resonate with my article, you cannot like or share it because you don’t want your friends to know your secret of hoarding coins.

Many people, when feeling lonely, will attend various gatherings in the crypto space. But believe me, that’s not very useful. You will find that there are very few true believers, whether in the circle or outside it.

By 2017, there were even two instances where others proactively mentioned Bitcoin in front of me. However, by then, I had already gotten used to loneliness and even started to enjoy it.

Once at a business meeting. Afterward, during casual chat, the topic somehow turned to foreign exchange control issues. Boss C, around 50 years old, a middle-aged greasy man, chairman of a chain hotel, mentioned Bitcoin. A few others seemed interested and began to ask questions. I pretended to look confused. Boss C enthusiastically told everyone that this thing could be bought a little, that it was rising, and was expected to rise further.

Another time was a private dinner, where Old G managed a private equity fund and was introducing his recent focus on machine learning and quantitative trading. He mentioned that he has many peers trading in digital currencies.

When they were speaking, I listened seriously. I found their understanding to be very superficial, some even incorrect, but I couldn’t interrupt them. They might never think that I am the one who understands this matter the most deeply.

But that feeling is great because even a fool can tell that the bull market is really here; hurry home and buy a couple more coins, haha.

For loneliness, my advice is to write crazily. There are things you want to share with others, but they don’t recognize it, and you feel uncomfortable keeping it to yourself, so just write it all down. When you adapt to loneliness, you’ll find that not only has your thinking matured, but your writing has improved as well.

Boredom

The act of hoarding Bitcoin itself is extremely boring.

You like a girl, but you leave her aside and do nothing. This is inhumane!

You love Bitcoin, and you feel you must do something. I understand that feeling very well. But please believe me, the act of hoarding coins itself has already made a huge contribution to the Bitcoin network.

Only if you believe in the decentralization of Bitcoin, believe in the security of Bitcoin, believe in the limitless future of Bitcoin, can you possibly hoard Bitcoin long-term; only then can you possibly keep your hard-earned wealth in that string of 'illusory' private key characters.

Your behavior and attitude towards Bitcoin have far surpassed your attitude towards your loved one. How many people are willing to hand over their hard-earned wealth to their loved one without regret?

So, you really don’t need to do anything else. If you feel bored, just go to the gym or focus on health, don’t wait until you achieve financial freedom before realizing your health has deteriorated. Even if you get a beautiful model, you can only look at her, what’s the point?

Contradiction

This is a very complex feeling; you hope Bitcoin goes up while also hoping it goes down.

I once hoped I wouldn't check the market, so I deleted all the apps related to Bitcoin market tracking. However, I found I couldn't do it at all, because I could still see the market by opening websites on my phone or computer browser.

For hoarding Bitcoin, rising prices are useless. Long-term hoarding without the intention to sell, no matter how high it rises, it’s all 'unrealized profits.' However, rising prices mean that your persistence is correct, which is always delightful.

Conversely, while the price of coins falling may be somewhat depressing, it provides opportunities to bottom out and increase holdings, leading to substantial growth in coin quantity.

People can become somewhat split. This is normal; just look at some old-timers in the crypto space. They sometimes come out to bullishly shout, and sometimes come out to bearishly shout, getting criticized by fans.

My personal judgment is that the vast majority of coins are hoarded and not moved, neither long nor short. The reason for the fluctuations is that they themselves are unclear whether they want it to rise or fall, creating a lot of contradictions.

I don't know how to resolve this contradictory feeling because I am still conflicted. But it doesn’t seem to matter much because it hasn't affected my hoarding.

We will undergo psychological tests: impulse, loneliness, boredom, and contradiction. However, those things that do not defeat us will ultimately help us grow, just like those things that did not defeat Bitcoin will ultimately make Bitcoin stronger.

Years have passed, and I have grown alongside Bitcoin. If you have been reading my articles, you might feel the evolution in my thinking, writing style, and even my character, which has become increasingly gentle.