The power of time and compound interest: 10 iron laws for wealth growth in the crypto space

Author: DUO NINE

Compiled by: Tim, PANews

Wealth comes in many forms, but there is always a common golden thread. No matter what kind of wealth it is, there is a golden thread running through it:

time.

If you work hard at it, it will continue to grow and compound. In the crypto space, you also need to be careful not to lose money, which I’ll mention at the end.

The following 10 tips are based on my personal experience. They are absolutely true and not exaggerated.

1. Invest in hard assets early

When I first bought gold, it was around $1,600. Today, it’s more than doubled. When I first bought Bitcoin, it was around $700. Today, it’s over $100,000. These are hard assets: they can’t be diluted or created out of thin air. They’re scarce, in high demand, and hard to replicate.

Working or getting a salary will never create wealth like investing in hard assets. Gold and Bitcoin both fall into the category of hard assets. In any case, start investing your spare money in hard assets.

This also includes buying index funds such as the S&P 500 or real estate in prime locations that are always in high demand. Then let time do its work, and after 5, 10, 20 years, you will be pleasantly surprised!

It’s nearly impossible to become wealthy and build wealth if you never invest in hard assets. When you take a long-term view of decades, even $1,000 invested today will make a huge difference. Don’t procrastinate, make a plan and take action.

2. Do something that has growth potential

This applies to any field, and I’ve discussed similar ideas before. Look at your current skills and passions, and imagine 100,000 people seeing the content you produce. If even 1% of them recognize your value, that means you have 1,000 potential customers, fans, subscribers, or supporters.

Be brave and try. If you don't take the first step, you will never know the result, and it often brings pleasant surprises. Few people dare to do this, but those who dare to try will always get some rewards. Although it takes time to settle, one day you will have a breakthrough.

I started with zero followers and no community. So I just kept working hard. Keep producing every day and give it your all, and people will see your light. Once you make your first dollar online, or any income from entrepreneurship, the door to success will be completely opened.

​​Beginning is the most difficult node, but few people put it into practice. ​​

3. You can never be richer than who you really are.

Your level of wealth today reflects the level of personal development you have achieved so far.

Therefore, if an ordinary person suddenly wins $1 million in the lottery, he will almost always squander the money within a year. The reason is that his personal qualities are far from meeting the ability required to manage the money.

Stop expecting others to act for you. If you don’t invest in yourself, no one will. Knowledge is now open, and as long as you have access to the Internet, you can explore any field. With artificial intelligence, you can also have a dedicated mentor to guide you at any time, provided you are willing to spend time.

No excuses needed.

Improve your skills through practice (see point 2). Even if your current abilities are limited, continued practice will eventually lead to improvement. Take action first, and time will witness the transformation. This principle sounds like investing in Bitcoin.

4. Overestimate Yourself Properly

Maintaining a positive feedback loop is critical. When you value yourself slightly more than your current skill level, you’ll continually strive to improve.

Even if you have accomplished nothing today, you must believe that you deserve more and will achieve something. Changing this mindset can have a significant impact on your future self.

What you do today shapes who you will be tomorrow.

5. Money is not everything

Gold or Bitcoin can be purchased. However, you cannot go to Amazon and buy a home, or find a place to call home. These forms of wealth cannot be measured in money, nor can they be sold anywhere.

In your pursuit of material wealth, don't forget what is truly important.

Not building a family or fostering meaningful relationships can be costly in the future, with depression, a midlife crisis, or an identity crisis all likely to ensue, which is just as important as holding Bitcoin.

Material wealth is often meaningless if it’s not shared with others. Ultimately, what humans value is experiences, and more wealth allows you to have more experiences. However, some of the most profound experiences are nearly free.

6. Face the challenges head on

If you’re afraid to buy Bitcoin, that’s probably a good sign that you should go for it. Fear often prevents you from trying new things. But exposure to new things is essential if you want to improve your personal development (see point 3).

These experiences can be painful, pleasurable, or bland. If you stop labeling them and simply see them as new experiences of personal growth, you can quickly move on to the next stage.

As you go through this cycle again and again, success and failure will come back again and again. The difference is: if you put your surplus energy into hard assets, you will fall higher each time and climb faster. Success will come faster and the harvest will be more fruitful.

7. Learn to reset yourself

People are born here and never leave for decades, and the environment never changes. This is fine, but you have to be careful not to let your environment limit your personal growth.

If you have the mindset described in point 4 (i.e., more self-worth), you will be able to sense this. As you continue to grow as a person (see point 3), the things that are holding you back will naturally emerge. At this time, you must make a choice, and this decision may trigger the psychological reaction described in point 6 (fear).

Break through the limit or give up and turn around? This may be your breakthrough to wealth.

8. Don’t fall into traps designed to reduce your wealth

The archetypal cryptocurrency is altcoins. The entire cryptocurrency world has only one hard asset, but it is filled with thousands of traps. Every time you spend money on altcoins, the opportunity cost is not being able to buy Bitcoin.

This simple decision can cost you a lot of money in 5-10 years. The same goes for buying a car instead of investing the money. Any consumption comes at the expense of investment opportunities.

Please be rational about consumption and investment, and be wary of lifestyle inflation. If you are not investing your income, correct this problem immediately.

When you have a certain amount of wealth, don't reveal it, don't show off, and don't post it on your Moments. Because that will attract people with ulterior motives. These people may also include relatives and friends who are ready to sell you "investment" projects.

9. Never sell your hard assets

One of the biggest taboos in cryptocurrency investing is exchanging Bitcoin for altcoins. Anyone who does this and waits long enough will eventually pay the price in blood. Although altcoins can occasionally outperform Bitcoin in cycles of six months to a year, if you look at the longer term, measuring it over a time span of several years, this has never happened.

The second problem with selling hard assets is that there are no better alternatives to buy. If you sell Bitcoin and buy gold instead, you are still holding a hard asset, but the risk-return characteristics are different.

Whatever you do, make sure you are not exchanging hard assets for inferior assets. If you do decide to do this, be sure to calculate the risk and keep it to a minimum, ideally no more than 5% of your total wealth. The reward for taking such risk must be asymmetric and should allow you to buy more Bitcoin later.

If you want to accumulate wealth and keep it, you must hold on to your hard assets and never sell them.

10. If you succeed, be prepared to be targeted

All success attracts bad actors, in crypto as in any other field. Last year I was hacked and lost $50,000 after downloading malware. My hot wallet was wiped out instantly. I fell for such a simple scam.

I should have thought of this earlier, but before the RAT Escape incident, I never kept a large amount of assets in a hot wallet. Once the price of the currency soars, hackers will get wind of it. This is why, as long as you have a little public exposure, you will inevitably become a target for attacks.

(Note: The author created RAT Escape as an experiment in November 2024. Three weeks later, the market value of this token soared to $16 million.)

What’s worse is that even if you are not a public figure, you will become a target because platforms such as Ledger and Coinbase have suffered customer data leaks. Just yesterday, one of our members was socially engineered by a scammer pretending to be a Ledger customer service representative, who asked for his mnemonic phrase to "protect" his account security.

They knew his name, email, phone number and address, which was enough to forge a credible identity. When the mnemonic was taken, his crypto wallet was emptied. Please remember: never disclose your mnemonic, even if the police ask for it.

Once you are successful, the vultures will flock to you. You need to protect your wealth at all costs, and don't show off your wealth, which will only make you a bigger target.