It has truly been a long journey for me. From the time I first heard about Bitcoin until now, my journey has enjoyed all stages of grief since I've never been really attracted to any quick money-making scheme, which at its early stages, most people presented crypto as.

Let's explore together how my crypto journey has gone through the 5 stages of grief:

1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

It has been a really exciting journey. Let's go back in time together!

Denial

What is crypto? According to most simplistic explanations, it's a type of money that no one controls or regulates; it's just open and runs on strange stuff called the Blockchain.
Hmmm! So shabby!
I quickly came to the conclusion that cryptocurrency is an illusion that cannot become a reality.

Anger

With very little knowledge of cryptocurrency, it really pained me to see people talk about it, and even talk about how they are invested in it.
What hurts more is seeing close friends invest and lose out on their investments. I was like, "What is this craziness?"

Bargaining

With growing anger in the crypto space, I decided to take a more rational approach. Instead of being a critic without all the facts, I tried to dig deeper.
So I did. I made several attempts to dig deeper, and I came to learn a lot about it. The Steemit Crypto Academy (SCA) was instrumental in my crypto journey. It would be nice if we had something similar here. But that aside, having learned much, it started becoming interesting and started making sense. But things changed quickly.

Depression

Two key crypto trends led to my crypto journey of depression. They were: NFTs and Crypto Airdrops.
Starting with airdrops, having understood how they work, the prospect of having free cryptocurrencies was appealing. That's effectively having free money. However, the road to free crypto is frustrating and depressing, and the telegram channels they use are wild forest. My trust wallet is filled up with coins that may never gain relevance, and when you try to keep up with airdrops, then you know, you're on a long, endless road.
On the other hand, NFTs are something else. I am honestly yet to understand how this part of cryptocurrency works. How does a picture sell for hundreds, thousands, or even millions of dollars? I understand a bit about it, but if I could learn more, that would be nice. So, if you can explain it better for a layman's understanding, I'll appreciate it.

Acceptance

The more I explored the crypto world, the more I came to realize that the cryptocurrency world is highly diverse and one cannot keep up with all of it. So, I chose my path.
I asked myself, "How can I earn crypto without making any real financial commitment?" Steemit was my go-to, but growth was really hard on Steemit, so, Hive was to the rescue. And through Hive, I accepted crypto for what it is and am still willing to explore more opportunities in crypto as time goes by.

Where Do I Draw the Line on Crypto?

Crypto can be exciting and rewarding if you modestly go about it and tame your expectations about how profitable it is. With a modest outlook, and a moderate understanding of how crypto operates, I've chosen the following areas as red flags:

1. First, I'm saying no to crypto trading for profit. Crypto is too volatile, and technical indicators are hardly effective in accurately predicting future movements. You need serious education in crypto trading as much as the amount of education you receive from your formal learning to be able to get crypto trading right. So for now, with my level of knowledge and experience, I don't think I'm ready to trade crypto.
2. Secondly, even if selling NFTs seems like a good idea to me, something I'll like to explore, I don't think I can buy one, even with free cash. However, if I get to learn more about it, I may reconsider my stand.
3. Thirdly, I am currently taming my participation in airdrops because I think it is a time-consuming and unrewarding venture.
4. Finally, no more crypto investments. I rather lose my funds trying to explore opportunities in crypto, even buying NFTs, than hand them over to a self-proclaimed investor. We have lost a lot of money while trying to make more.