I would agree with this statement.  Bitcoin was first...so that's why it has traction.  It is not, however, the best functioning currency out there.  Some of these other projects are very promising.  I look at bitcoin as being the Ford Model T of cars.  Sure, it was the first and paved the way for future cars...but it's not as fast as new cars.

That's actually a really good point.  I didn't think about energy-free/off-line uses..which is a very real possibility.  Thanks for bringing that up!

100% correct in this statement!

What do you mean "bitcoin is not yet legal"?  You can buy it, use it, sell it and not face any legal ramifications.  The United States IRS recognizes it as an asset and taxes gains on it.

Just because the government has not adopted it as a currency they choose to use does not in any way make it illegal.

Well put!  In addition to that... as we've moved from paper money to digital, all those transactions have started flowing through private financial institutions giving them all a % of the cut each time money exchanges hands.  If we keep going down this path, ALL of our money will be controlled by financial institutions that profit at every turn.  This is why cryptocurrencies are so important in my opinion.  We're at a cross roads where we can do one of three things;

a) go back to using cash for all transactions (not likely)
b) keep going down the path of credit cards based on fiat that make private institutions very rich and allow them to ultimately decide how we spend our money
c) embrace crytpocurrencies that keep the power of choice in the people's hands.

I personally like a & c

In reality, Digital money already is replacing paper money.  20yrs ago, almost everyone paid for things with paper money.  Now we basically only use paper money for tipping purposes.  Credit cards are digital money (just backed hypothetically by fiat).  I bet most people don't use paper money at all in 10-15 years.

Awesome!  Yeah, if you get into the freelance game at this stage of your life, you're going to be very successful (and happy!) in the long run.  A lot of people start of freelancing, and then hire freelancers at a lower rate to do the work for them.  In essence, they become the boss and have a bunch of hungry people working hourly rates while they make profit on each hour billed.  At that point, you're basically the face of the company and get to sit back while others make money for you.

Good luck! and don't be afraid to ask more Questions if you hit any roadblocks at any point in time.  Happy to help

She actually taught me the ropes on how to start my own remote business, so I can give you some pointers!

For eduction (to get brought up to speed):
- She used TeamTreeHouse.com.  She learned a lot of what she applied in her business there
- Udemy is also a good one and can find cheap courses there... but I'd start with treehouse.

For software:
- She uses Divi (from Elegant Themes, which is a WordPress plugin) and makes most (if not all) of her clients' sites that way.  It's super easy (I'm an accountant, and have used it for my own site).  Very flexible and allows you to make beautiful & highly functional websites pretty quickly.

To get clients:
- I have used UpWork mostly in the past, but there are a lot of new options out there.  Stay away from Fiverr because thats the low dollar option for people.  Anyone serious about building a nice website for their business is most likely going to go to another Freelancer platform to find talent.  Just google "freelance jobs" or variations of that search and you'll get a good current list.

After that, you just have to be able to accept payments.  Paypal is always a super easy way to do it.  I'd also suggest requesting a paypal business debit card from them...so you can spend your money immediately (if need be) and/or withdraw it from an ATM the second it hits your PayPal account.

All in all, it takes a little bit of work to get your first client....but after that it seems to snowball into more business than most can handle (at least that's the way it has worked for a lot of freelancers I know).

My biggest bits of advice:
1) Set your price to be something you're happy making.  If you lowball yourself too much, you're going to hate the gigs you get because you'll be underpaid.
2) Don't get frustrated if you're not getting gigs at first.  It's normal.  If you price yourself at a $$ amount you want to make, then you're going to automatically be exclude 90-95% of the clients out there who are looking for cheap solutions.  This is ok!  Those clients are usually super tight on cash and slow pay their freelancers.  If you hold out for the ones that can afford you, they often pay almost instantly, and also send repeat work to you.  I have accounting clients that I've been working with for years now.  In the beginning, I'd send out 100 proposals for gigs I saw posted, and maybe hear back from 3 of them.  1 would bite, and I'd end up making $20k a year off them.  Get a couple of those clients on board and you have a legit business. 

Tools I use:
- Google Drive
- Drop box
- Zoom (always video conference when talking to clients if you can.  Builds a good relationship!)
- Xero (for accounting software)
- PayPal
- Skype
- Adobe Creative Cloud (for editing or filling in pdf forms)
- Hellosign (to have people sign documents electronically)
- Hellofax (to fax docs electronically)
- Wordable (heard this is good software to post google docs to Wordpress for blog posts)

Everything on this list (except for Adobe) has free subscriptions with some limitations...so you can get all this for free and be 100% remote! 

Last year, my wife, son, 2 dogs and I traveled around the USA for 11 months while I worked remotely from my cell phone personal hot spot.  Pretty nice life!

You can check out my accounting website at www.TheMadOnesAccounting.com (disclaimer, I'm no web designer and made this myself.  I used Divi, but my site is not a good representation of the power of that plugin).  You can also see some photos from my family wandering around the USA in the "About us" section.

All in all, i'd never go back to working a regular 9-5 ever again.  I make my own hours, don't have to ask permission to travel or vacation.  My clients request meetings with me (instead of demanding I show up like most bosses), and I get to write off a lot of expenses as business expenses while I'm traveling because I can always try to get new business in different cities I visit.  There are limitations to what you can write off accounting-wise, but all in all it's a really good life.

How often does maintenance seem to take place?

Even Fiat can be super risky.  I bought some stocks in marijuana industry a month before California legalized recreational marijuana, and 4 days after they legalized it, the US Government rescinded some Obama era laws basically overriding what the state laws.  My stocks were shooting through the roof the days before this new law came out of nowhere, and theyve been worthless ever since.

You aren't kidding with all the bookkeeping work.  I have a couple clients that are heavy into crypto investing (I'm an accountant), and even with my knowledge of accounting, it's still tough to keep up with all the trade conversions when these guys are super actively trading.

I like your site the most!  My wife is a graphic designer and I can tell you have an eye for design.  Everything flows nicely.  Might want to take that route instead of the logo design.  A friend of mine makes a decent living at $150/hr doing graphic design.

Very wise words... patience is the key to success and profit.  I like to think about the stories I've heard where people bought bitcoin a long time ago, forgot about it for many years and/or didn't pay attention to the market, and then cashed out when bitcoin hit the news and was surging.  The people that made out in the end were the ones that just let the market do it's thing and grow.  They didn't freak out when the market dipped...becuase they didn't know about it.  They just Hodl and the market naturally appreciated.

I've purchased tokens that I expect to hold onto for years to come.  Lol...probably because I can't stand the emotional stress of day trading (haha)

exactly!  I'm located in the USA, and almost everyone I know has no clue about crypto.  There was also a time when the "Stock Market" was new and confusing and didn't have a lot of buy-in.  Fast forward to today, and it's hard to find someone who's not playing the stock market in some manner...either through actively trading or investing in a 401(k).

This industry is so new and has so much potential, that it's definitely going to rise. 

Lol...traded for a little bit when I first started, but realized i'm not the best at trading.  Now I just hodl.  Would like to start mining someday though.... if miners got more energy efficient

The crypto market is in it's infancy...so yes, it is going to grow by leaps and bounds over the next decade.  Getting into crypto right now is similar to getting involved in the internet in the late 80's.

There will definitely be better days.  We're experiencing the birth of a new way to do businesses.  There will be ups and downs, but overall the trend will be UP UP UP as time goes on.

Thanks.  I have actually heard that theory before.  Makes sense.  So, that will probably lessen as time goes on and global adoption increases.
 
Anyone have any other guesses?

Does anyone have any speculation as to why Jan and Feb are usually bad months for crypto?

Thanks for sharing!