Remember September

After a week without Market Musings, we are back with the Market Musings. This first Monday of September starts in style for the crypto markets. September has been known for years as the worst crypto month and on this first Monday of the month, it seems this tradition is also being upheld. With a fantastic Bitcoin price drop of 2% in half an hour just after midnight, we start the month 'hopefully'. At least if you hope that September will be a bad crypto month as usual. If you were hoping to finally see more positive figures, the month starts downright bad.

Hive Drops Too

As you might expect, Hive immediately joins in and the price of Hive, which was already not that great, has dropped even further. Who knows, we can then also expect new discussions about what a good member of our community should or should not do, with some people seeming to lose sight of reality. And that reality is and remains that Hive means a 'salvation' for many people, and the difference between being able to keep your head above water or going under in an increasingly expensive world. This does not only apply to people in poorer countries, but you also see it more and more often in the Western world. Not everyone is lucky enough to have their capital or even come close to it. It is simply not possible for everyone to follow the ideal strategy, although I certainly think that everyone would like to. Being able to do this means the same thing for everyone, not having any financial worries. And who doesn't want that? When there are financial worries, people seize every opportunity to solve them. It seems to me that we should understand that. Even if that means that people take their earned Hive out of the system. It can even be seen as a better distribution of wealth.

Impact Of Financial Worries

It may be difficult for some people to put themselves in the shoes of others, but financial worries can have quite an impact on your life. Some examples of this are;

• Stress and chronic anxiety
• Sleep problems
• Depression
• Relationship problems
• Increased blood pressure
• Weakened immune system
• Headaches and muscle tension
• Weight gain or loss
• Decrease in productivity
• Social isolation

There are many more examples to be found, but this list alone shows that financial worries are serious. Who are we to judge that someone else may not sell his earned Hive to alleviate the financial worries, and therefore the associated problems?

Punishments Are Counterproductive

When I read about politics, I often think that the entire system seems to be designed to punish. I will take an example from my country. People without work and income can qualify for welfare. This sounds very nice, but this welfare benefit is only JUST enough to pay your most important living expenses. It is not a package deal that you can live on easily. On the contrary. Many people on welfare still have financial worries and the associated stress every day. Now imagine that someone on welfare does a job for someone else for payment. Then you would hope that such a person would have a little extra that month. Which would at least provide some relief from the financial stress, and provide some extra motivation to continue. Unfortunately! It works differently, what you have earned is deducted from your welfare benefit. As a result, you have worked for nothing, and your financial stress is not relieved at all. On the contrary, you have probably also incurred additional costs that you would not otherwise have incurred. Your motivation does not increase but decreases. I call this punishment, and it is very counterproductive.

Hive Was Supposed To Be Different

On Hive I now see the same behavior arising due to the discussion about the 'power up 50% of your earnings or you will no longer get a vote'. Punishing people who are working very hard to improve their situation. Not voting anymore means that less is earned, and what is no longer earned cannot be sold. That's right. But what is happening now is that such a person who was just barely able to keep his head above water is now likely to go under. All the negative effects of financial stress will manifest themselves in full force and this person will sink further and further, instead of this person moving forward step by step. Needless to say, this person will leave Hive, if this person does not feel supported here, but ignored or punished by the community, what is this person supposed to do here?

Punishment Or Support?

A better approach in my opinion would be to make sure that these people get back on their feet financially, and you do that not by punishing people, but by motivating them, by supporting them. By making sure that they earn more than they need am to keep my head above water. A vote doesn't cost anyone anything! People who can build up a big Hive stake are lucky that they don't need it in real life. Be proud of that, and support others who are not (yet) at that point but are working to get there. That also adds value to the Hive Blockchain and creates people who want to give something back to the Hive Blockchain. It creates people who want to do their best to make sure Hive doesn't go under. I could write more about this, but that would be treading on very thin ice, and I won't go there now.

Will We Remember September 2024?

That said, it's time to look at the expectations for September. As I said at the beginning, September is traditionally a bad crypto month. Of the last 7 years, crypto has had a negative closing of this month for 6 years, with a correction of 13% in 2019. Let's hope that won't be the case this year! What do you expect?

Feel free to let us know in the comments, and have a nice Monday!