September is here. We are entering the most interesting phase in crypto market cycle, I think. Bitcoin and crypto prices have been boring in August. While we did see some price movements, for the most part 60k for bitcoin seems to be a magnet price point. It is acting almost like an algo stable coin. If prices goes higher than 60k, shortly it is pulled back to 60k. Same thing has been happening if it drops below 60k. Things may change this month and upcoming months, I hope. Fed is planning to cut interest rates, presidential elections coming up in the US, more and more institutions are considering bitcoin or bitcoin ETFs for their portfolios. Even if none of these played roles in price action, scarcity of the assets only works for the benefit of the hodlers. I am looking forward for some big moves towards the end of the year.

A few years ago we haven't even heard of MicroStategy despite it being a publicly traded company for more than a couple of decades. Today it is a globally recognized brand. It appears in the news as frequently as the big tech companies like Apple, Google, Samsung, and NVIDIA. Unlike these big tech companies MicroStrategy is not known for its core business, but rather for its bitcoin strategy. This strategy will go into the business text books, will be studied and debated in the years to come. It was a bold, risky, and courageous move when MicroStrategy adopted bitcoin as at its treasury asset. For bitcoiners such a move would be a no brainer. But for the rest of the business world and Wall Street any new strategy would be super risky. There were time it seemed like they were going to fail. Then they were also rewarded. MicroStrategy has been rewarded well with its stock price appreciation in recent years due to its bitcoin holdings. The company appreciated in value more than bitcoin itself. They have pivoted and took multiple different steps to strengthen their position and improve their bitcoin strategy. It appears they are not done yet.

In a couple days my Hive account will reach 150k HP. I take this as a significant milestone in this amazing journey. The road to get here has been awesome. I wouldn't change a thing. I am grateful for the blockchain and the community. While it is great to unlock new levels of HP, the most rewarding part has always been the journey itself. HP does have real financial value. But the value of knowledge, skills, and relationships built is many times higher. There were many many times in the past, regardless where my HP was, it could have translated in a lot higher USD valuation. These days Hive's price has been stuck in lowest levels. But that would last for long. There will be a time that we will be celebrating price appreciations as well. In general, short term movements don't matter much, as long as the long term vision is clear. Thank you Hive!

Summer is almost over. August is here. I am so ready for cooler weather. July has been super hot. The weather cooled down a little bit, but it is still not over. July also was a month full of events in crypto world. So much of volatility and conflicting sentiment. We had some great news and achievements in crypto, but also some fear and uncertainty. While there was plenty of price action for many crypto assets, HBD remained stable as it should by design. Tiny bit up, and tiny bit down in HBD doesn't matter, as long as the blockchain magnet keeps pulling it back to $1 USD. And it does quite well.

For the last few weeks I have been working on major refactoring project. It has become too much time consuming to add new functionally, make changes to an old app I have made a couple of years ago. When the initial project started I kept coding giving too much thought about future self. As long as things work as expected who cares what happens in the future. Now that future is here, every time I need to add some functionality to the code I need to get familiar with the initial code again, again, and again. My past self didn't take into account it would become necessary to make changes because structure of data it uses changes, or source of the data went through changes, or all dependencies wouldn't consult with me before making the updates. However, outside factors weren't the biggest problem. Even with all the changes in the outside world, the app did work just fine without throwing errors. The most challenging part became adding new functionality. That is because of poor code structure, and zero planning for the future.

It wasn't too long ago we lived in a different world. It was new, it was strange, it was something we never experienced before. It was pandemic. Unfortunately, we lost many because of Covid. Those were indeed the sad times. It showed how unprepared we were. I am not sure if we are prepared now. I am not even sure about how it started and what caused. Was the virus developed in the lab and a lab accident happened it, it just happened through some unknown natural phenomenon. Anyway, those days are gone. We have been back to normal for a couple of years now. One of the negatives after pandemic has been the crazy inflation, and we are still facing the consequences. We also have developed new habits in personal lives and professional settings. Really good habits. That is what I would like to talk about today.