Merry Christmas from The Bitcoin Way

As we approach the end of 2024, we wanted to take the time to wish you all a very Merry Christmas from everyone here at The Bitcoin Way. We can’t express how much it means to us that you decided to subscribe to our newsletter and come with us on our journey. We feel privileged to know each and every one of you ‘paranoid crypto anarchists’.

Christmas is a magical time of year. Not just because we get the opportunity to enjoy some delicious food and unwrap a few gifts, but more importantly because we get the opportunity to reconnect with those most important to us, our families. (Even those family members who called us crazy for our unshakeable Bitcoin obsession).

As we all look forward to the festivities over the next few days, we thought it would be the perfect time to explore an important aspect of Bitcoin that’s often overlooked. Especially during the excitement of a Bitcoin bull run.

This week we want to remind ourselves that Bitcoin isn’t our most scarce resource, there is in fact something far more finite and far more precious. Like Bitcoin, we each only get a finite supply of it, but unlike Bitcoin, we are all forced to spend it!

Our most scarce resource is our time.

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Time is Money, Money is Time

Everybody’s heard the phrase ‘Time is Money’. We typically use it as a simple way of saying, “I can’t waste any time, because I could be spending it making money”.

What gets more interesting however is when you flip things on their head and say, ‘Money is Time’. By reversing things, we could use ‘Money is Time’ as a simple way of saying “I can’t waste any money, I could be using it to buy more time”. Thinking of things this way round reveals something a little more profound.

There are all sorts of ways you can use your money to acquire more time. If you can afford to outsource jobs around the house like cleaning and gardening for example, you can effectively buy back the time you would have spent doing these chores yourself. If you can then use the time you saved to earn more money than you expended, you can buy back even more time again in the future. If you get really good at this game you might eventually amass enough wealth to win back complete ownership over your time, because you no longer need to spend any of it pursuing money.

The point is, money and time are inextricably linked. You can find various ways to spend one to try and acquire more of the other. The important thing to bear in mind however is that money can only buy other people’s time. You might be able to do this to free up a bit more of your own, but you’ll never be able to buy time itself. Regardless of how much wealth you acquire, your time, like everyone else’s, will eventually run out. Even Elon Musk can’t live forever.

Sound money like Bitcoin shares a unique characteristic with time. They’re both scarce. In Bitcoin’s case, scarcity is programmed. Twenty-one million coins, that’s it. You can’t beg, bribe, or manipulate your way to more. Time, however, is even more scarce. We each get an unknown allotment, and once it’s spent, that’s it. No do-overs. You only get so many trips around the sun.

We already know it’s important to be mindful about how we manage and spend our Bitcoin. But how often do we really stop and consider how we manage and spend our time? Just like with Bitcoin, the choices we make with our time carry consequences. Spend your time wisely, and the returns can be life changing. But waste it, and you’ll find that regrettably, there’s no “undo” button.

And that brings us back to Christmas….

It’s all too easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of Bitcoin Twitter, the news cycle, the price charts and the drama. Bitcoin has this gravitational pull that’s hard to escape, especially when you understand its potential to free humanity from the clutches of corrupt central banks. But even Bitcoin shouldn’t dominate your life. Bitcoin is amazing, but ultimately, it’s just money, and being too preoccupied with money is not healthy.

Remember that money should never be the end goal. It’s simply a tool, a means to an end. What good is money if your pursuit of it makes you lose sight of what’s truly important?

This Christmas let’s instead direct our attention to how we spend our most valuable asset, our time. Rather than obsessing over price charts or worrying about how much bitcoin some ETF just bought, let’s consider investing that time into something priceless instead. Let’s all tune out for a while and make sure we give our families and those closest to us our full attention this Christmas. Bitcoin isn’t going anywhere. There will always be another block mined, another tweet to read, or another headline to dissect. But there won’t always be another Christmas with the people you love.

So, let’s take a step back and make sure we’re as deliberate with our time as we are with our Bitcoin, and spend it making memories with our families.

(And no….lecturing them for 6 hours straight does not count. Take a day off! 😂)

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Bitcoin & Chill

While this week we wanted to encourage you to take a step  back from our shared obsession, there is one important exception. If your Bitcoin is still on an exchange or you don’t feel comfortable that your Bitcoinis 100% secure, then that’s something you need to address immediately. If something goes wrong and you lose your Bitcoin, you might end up spoiling more than just Christmas.

If you’re in this precarious position and have some free time this holiday season, then you should invest it into getting your Bitcoin 100% secure. As investments go, there are few better ways you could spend your time than securing your family’s wealth properly.

The best part is that it’s one of those investments that will actually free up more of your time in the long run. Instead of sleepless nights worrying if your exchange is the next to get hacked or if the hardware wallet you chose really is secure, you can spend your time on more important things.

Our experts can help you get create a robust Bitcoin self-custody setup in no time at all. We make sure you use only the best open-source hardware and software available and most importantly make sure you’re comfortable using it. By the time your training is complete you’ll be a confident node-running Bitcoiner capable of managing and securing your wealth with zero counterparty risk.

If time is money, then learning how to protect your Bitcoin properly means learning how to protect both. The perfect time to do that is now. Setup a free 30-minute consultation with one of our experts today.