A question from a soon-to-be computer science graduate about career options in open blockchain development. Should a young person go the corporate route or the entrepreneurial route? What benefits and risks do the options entail? Would a “traditional” job still have the lifelong guarantee of security they used to? Being willing to take risks and fail gracefully, like Bitcoin, in the early years of your life by doing work that matters to you.

This question is from the November monthly Patreon session, which took place on November 17th 2018. If you want early-access to talks and a chance to participate in the monthly live Q&As with Andreas, become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/aantonop

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Beyond Price: Bitcoin’s Impact on the Future – https://youtu.be/rvwVbRQ5Ysc
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Andreas M. Antonopoulos is a technologist and serial entrepreneur who has become one of the most well-known and respected figures in bitcoin.

Follow on Twitter: @aantonop https://twitter.com/aantonop
Website: https://antonopoulos.com/

He is the author of two books: “Mastering Bitcoin,” published by O’Reilly Media and considered the best technical guide to bitcoin; “The Internet of Money,” a book about why bitcoin matters.

Subscribe to the channel to learn more about Bitcoin & open blockchains; click on the red bell to enable notifications about new videos!

MASTERING BITCOIN, 2nd Edition: https://amzn.to/2xcdsY9

Translations of MASTERING BITCOIN: https://bitcoinbook.info/translations-of-mastering-bitcoin/

THE INTERNET OF MONEY, v1: https://amzn.to/2ykmXFs

THE INTERNET OF MONEY, v2: https://amzn.to/2IIG5BJ

Translations of THE INTERNET OF MONEY:
Spanish, ‘Internet del Dinero’ (v1) – https://amzn.to/2yoaTTq
French, ‘L’internet de l’argent’ (v1) – https://www.amazon.fr/Linternet-largent-Andreas-M-Antonopoulos/dp/2856083390
Russian, ‘Интернет денег’ (v1) – https://www.olbuss.ru/catalog/ekonomika-i-biznes/korporativnye-finansy-bankovskoe-delo/internet-deneg
Vietnamese, ‘Internet Của Tiền Tệ’ (v1) – https://alphabooks.vn/khi-tien-len-mang

MASTERING ETHEREUM (Q4): https://amzn.to/2xdxmlK

Music: “Unbounded” by Orfan (https://www.facebook.com/Orfan/)
Outro Graphics: Phneep (http://www.phneep.com/)
Outro Art: Rock Barcellos (http://www.rockincomics.com.br/)

source

20 COMMENTS

  1. I've had a pleasure working in good old corp as an accountant. Everything was great for a couple of years, masterclasses, social events and shit, they told us that we are the best and company loves us. Then economic situation changed, and good old corp started firing people 10% a year calling it "optimisation" and narrative changed too, we suddenly were no longer the best, and were told to respect the fact that good old corp had a good will to give us jobs. It all went down to the degree that if you want to do your job properly you had to work afterhours (aka work for free). So I said to my colleges hey lets do something, but everybody pulled their tongues up their asses because they all had debts to pay. So I realised that they a just a bunch of wortless slaves. But I had a profitable hobby, so I came up to my boss and told her that I want double of what I get paid, to cover for additional work in afterhours and shit life I have, or I quit. So I did quit and have no regrets. The first lesson is that you should not take debt, period. The second lesson is always stay diverse, you never know when shit hits the fan. Kind regards.

  2. Aantonop: Question; On December 14th BTC had a market cap of over 204 Billion, however recently on November 25th 2019 BTC now has a market cap of just 65 Billion.
    What I do not understand is how the value can do that.

    If the circulating supply of BTC is still 17,392,775/ 21 000 000

    How can the value of the market cap in Billions of dollars change so quickly?
    After all I assume someone who owns bitcoin and wishes to sell it,. isn’t going to just sell if for sell it for 1% , or less of its market value. It would not make sense.

    How can Between March 6 – March 23 BTW Market cap lose over 49 Billion dollars.
    The number of humans owning btc never changed other than owners, but why would someone sell the coins far below the market value. It do not make sense, unless huge numbers of coins are intentionally being sold for such a ridiculous value, that it is an intention at deflating the value by flooding the market with super discounted coin, which is my mind would get snapped up and simply cause the price to quickly rise and those folks having finite supply could literately hold them in super inflate the price for others wishing to buy them.

    Cosmic Observer

  3. As a 51 yo that did the staid career and tried entrepreneurship two years ago and found I didn’t have those skills nor had made the right connections, this is very true. I also found that the bits I hated about my old job were outweighed by the good bits, so I returned on 60% salary to a new organisation and, as I’d paid off my debts and learnt to live frugally, my focus is now on building new knowledge and portfolios with the 30% of income I have spare each month. I love it all. Great advice to youth Andreas – aim for your wildest dreams but don’t worry if you dont achieve them. Life has much to offer still and new dreams await

  4. But being a blockchain dev is a risky profession since US regulators are chasing anyone involved in cryptocurrencies and blockchain projects, specially developers those can face criminal charges for facilitating "ilegal trading activities" through smart contracts. Look what happened to the developer from EtherDelta.

  5. If you join a big company you can line up for Karoshi. You mutate to a zombie. Most of those zombies dont even know what they are doing. They feel very important and the job titles sound great but it's so ridiculous.

  6. After a long life of many different jobs, involving ALL aspects of employments types, I found I had always been working for myself. The truth of the matter is we are always working for others too, sometimes we call them bosses, sometimes we call them clients. What is different is the employment structure. Whether we need experience, mentoring, salespersons to get us the jobs, human resources to handle our financial obligations and interactions, administrators to pay the rent, share the load, manage a team. As time wore on, I gained the knowledge to do each function and take that expense centers unto myself and maximize my own personal profit center. Until one day, I became the entire owner of the company of Self I had created. Today, I am retired, I own all my belongings, I have no debts, I have tax free passive income. I have lifelong free medical, an increasing unlimited long term care plan as not to burden my family when servere old age arrives . I have what feels like unlimited time and resources to maintain a simple carefree life and I love my hobbies. I believe in the words of this video, I only add to it, You are already in business for yourself. However, realize you are either renting yourself out so that others profit from your labor or you can gain a new lease on life by enjoying more of the fruits of your labor in every contract the more you commit to and do for yourself. Thumbs up! 312

  7. I think first you have to understand yourself and the level of risk you can handle. Not everyone is made to handle uncertainty. If you can handle a degree of uncertainty, then you may want to test the waters while you are younger because it's easier to fail and to try again, and the potential upside could be enormous. However, I've seen it both ways. Sometimes people are in the corporate environment for a long time and then one day want to try something with more freedom. This can work out as well if you have enough savings to experiment even though you may by then have a family as well. Ultimately I think it's about understanding yourself because I've met serial entrepreneurs that are super happy even when they fail, and I've met people who have stayed in that same cubicle their whole life and have also been very happy.

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