Stock Trading - Entry 34

In early 2024, I was completely unconvinced in the use case of just about any blockchain I looked at (which was only handful, granted). I mean there were fiat blockchains, there were blockchains replicating the gold standard, and there were blockchains with industry-specific use cases already saturated with miners. Without a use case; me, myself, and I could not find substantive value to rely on as an investor back then. (Bear in mind, I am not providing financial advice, neither then nor now.)

A Brief Word on my own Strategy

My need for substantive value highlights why I, as a micro-investor, rely on fundamental analysis. I look at what a company is up to, not just the stock price or the financials. My portfolio is not big enough (yet) to buy 20% or more in just one company. One of the implications of not being at that level is, I ride waves, I don't create them. If I could be a substantial investor, I would know my entrance and exit strategy upfront because it would be based on how well the company itself would do and my influence on it. As a micro-investor, I will neither know all of nor be able to influence the internal matters of a company because I have no effective skin in the game of how that company makes decisions. That leaves me with an entrance strategy based on what industries I want to promote (via capital allocation (AKA buying shares)) and an exit strategy where the selling point/price suits my portfolio.

This is not as altruistic as I would like, but it does equate to casting my economic vote (hence the basis of my starting point in entry 1 being sell-out lines). All of the above is also the reason why none of what I have written to-date is financial advice (including this article).

The other implication is the need to choose between being a day-trader or not. With time being precious, I chose not. This means I am focused more buying stocks to sell in the medium-to-long-term. A company needs to have an engine that won't break down next week in order for me to do that. (Now I have my answer to the quandary I faced in entry 26.)

Back to Blockchains

With use cases in mind, in early 2025 I saw a short, simplified clip on YouTube with an update on the blockchain sphere. Say what you want about the blockchain sphere being the wild west - it is - but things have been added. Basically, some blockchains are functioning as something useful on top of other blockchains, meaning those bottom-layer blockchains now have a use case.

What is the use case? It has to do with allowing for direct transactions between blockchains without the use of more mining computers. In fact, anyone who owns those certain blockchains has the choice of trying to make profits by buying low and selling high OR by staking their blockchains to earn free tokens they can sell OR both.

Staking basically involves setting your blockchain tokens aside (so I cannot sell them during a pre-determined period of time) and let the blockchain use them to facilitate other blockchain-to-blockchain transactions. No supercomputer in my garage is required and I can stake quite a few! In short, I consider staking to be the blockchain equivalent of dividends, only I receive tokens of that blockchain, not money. But I can unstake your blockchain tokens and then sell them for cash. So, free blockchain tokens to sell, in other words. And yes, I can sell the blockchain tokens I originally bought as well - once they are unstaked, so will need to factor the bonding and unbonding periods (how long it takes from the moment you click 'stake' until staking rewards start rolling in and how long it takes for staked tokens to become tradable again).

How does staking work? I don't care. I am not a programmer. I am not a blockchain geek/nerd. All I know is, AI is taking over software programming from people and with a few clicks/taps I can buy some blockchain tokens that I can stake to earn more free blockchain tokens.

So this begs the question of which blockchain tokens I was going to buy and on which exchange. To start, I compared two regulated Canadian exchanges, Netcoins and BitBuy (given the research I did in entry 32 about the regular company behind each of them). The thing I noticed right off the bat was they offer different blockchain tokens. Newsflash #21: Not every blockchain exchange offers every token.

To find out which blockchain exchanges I analysed and started using to invest, subscribe for free below to become notified right when I publish that article. Alternatively, you can bookmark this page that contains a list of all my entries in my stock and blockchain trading journey I publish on Vocal Media.