But Who Am I?
My name is Arjan Eikelenboom.
Until the fall of the year 2008, I used to look after a large portfolio of wealthy clients for a major Dutch institutional bank. Making sure my clients were happy and being looked after was important to me. My clients and I spent most of our meetings talking about life. The majority of my clients were retired businesspeople and farmers. Most of them had lived through WW2 as a child or young adult. I learned a lot from listening to their stories. We also talked about their funds, of course, but less.
I wrote a short story based on one of my banking experience’s
The Start Of The Financial Crisis of 2008/2009
On one particular sunny Monday morning in the summer of that year 2008, I sat down at my desk with my cup of black coffee, as I always did, and opened my inbox. What I saw were dozens of emails from my clients. That never happened before so I was kinda shocked. Every single one of my dear clients requested me to move some of their funds to a foreign bank. What happened?
The weekend before that particular sunny Monday an Icelandic bank called Icesave, published a full-page advertisement in the leading newspapers, offering Dutch citizens a slightly higher interest rate on their savings than our bank and other banks offered at the time. My clients saw that ad and wanted to benefit from a higher interest rate and so they emailed me with their requests.
That Monday I called each one of my clients and explained to them why this foreign bank offered them a higher interest rate on their savings; Icesave was on the brink of collapsing and needed cash, desperately. I also walked my clients through a quick calculation of what the higher interest rate would actually mean to their funds after taxes, compared to what they had at that moment with us. It was less than they expected. On top of that, I made sure they understood very clearly that this foreign bank would never be able to provide the same service that I was giving them, simply because Icesave did not have a physical branch. The foreign bank was after their money, that was all. At the end of that day, most of my clients didn’t move their money to Icesave.
A few months later Icesave collapsed. Meanwhile, the Credit Crunch that was happening in the United States turned into a serious financial crisis that eventually affected everyone around the globe.
Also, I had to leave the bank.
The looming crisis was inevitable and the bank I worked for was sold to three other banks. Those three banks ‘ripped’ our bank apart, as hungry lions do with their prey. That is how I experienced it. None of the three banks proved to be strong enough themselves and one of them collapsed as well, right after the takeover. Months later, the part of the bank I was working for was rescued by the Dutch government.
I had to leave the bank, like many others but, I was given the opportunity to stay for another six months to give me enough time to find another job. I declined. Better leave now before the whole house of cards crashes, I thought, knowing it would.
A year before the financial crisis started I saw the signs of the looming crisis. My colleagues and I talked about it all the time. Especially about the changing work ethics that were forced upon us by management. Instead of helping our clients to make responsible and founded decisions, all of a sudden we had to sell our clients complex investment products like, Yields and other creative ‘saving’ products. We didn’t like that. I refused.
So, in the fall of 2008 I left the bank. And you know what? I wasn’t scared at all. I was actually glad I was the first to let go so I could take my time to figure out what to do next. I took a long break.
I love to travel and ended up in Palm Springs, California. There I saw the famous huge windfarm I read about many times and it blew me away. (Pun not intended). It also inspired me. Later in 2009 I decided to start a career in renewable energy. Not wind, but solar. An emerging market back in those days.
I found a company that sold solar panel installations and I offered to work for them, for free, for a few months to learn the business. Thanks to my financial background I was able to explain to potential solar panel buyers how they could benefit from solar energy. Fiscally and financially. I enjoyed this new playing field and it felt good because I was part of something new that could change the way we harness energy, making the world a little better.
Later on I got recruited by a green energy company to help them set up their solar energy program. Unfortunately it turned out that also, like banks – and insurance companies – this green energy company was all about profit and not their customers. So I left and started to work for myself. I consulted solar energy installations to residential homeowners and businesses, from home.
A New Challenge
Fast forward to 2014.
I published my Solar Energy book. (only available in Dutch)
This book was the result of several years of blogging about the quality of solar energy installations and the potential dangers you could encounter if you didn’t pay close attention to who you do business with. There were a lot of ‘Solar Cowboys’ flocking to this emerging market. It was a wild west industry.
Here’s a snippet from my solar book in English.
Not long after I started my solar career I heard about something called Bitcoin and got intrigued. I liked the idea of a digital currency that was not controlled by banks. I did not jump into it right away because it was too new and also, I had no idea how to get Bitcoin, or how to mine it. All I had at the time was a Dell computer from 2004 so that didn’t work. Looking back I just wish I knew a way how to get me some.
By the time it was 2017 I thought, hey, that Bitcoin is getting attention, let me have a look. What I saw was the same thing that I noticed back in my early solar days; people showing interest in this new opportunity of digital currency but not having a clue how it works. Meaning, a wild west industry for cowboys. Again. I decided to educate myself. Not much later I was producing crypto seminars, to help other people to protect them from crypto cowboys.
Wobbly Banks and a Maturing Digital Assets Market
And now we are here. 2023. Banks are starting to collaps, again; Silicon Valley bank collapsed March 10th and don’t forget what recently happened to First Republic Bank. People are getting scared, rightfully so because the global financial industry is wobbly. It never really changed. <—-
I see developments similar to back in 2007. Only this time we have an almost matured digital asset market we can turn to. We did not have such a thing back in 2008/2009. All you could do was move your money to gold or other traditional commodities, with the ‘help’ of your bank.
This time it is different, we have other opportunities. But, even though the blockchain and digital asset industry is rapidly growing up, there are still challenges to be aware of. The crypto market or better, Digital Asset Market, is maturing and overlapping with industries like the Gaming Industry which is the largest market within the global Entertainment Industry, which is good and I kinda saw this coming 5 years ago.
But, there are too many cryptocurrencies out there. The majority of those cryptocurrencies are absolutely meaningless, they have no (solid) business model and no purpose.
When we look at the top 20 of the Coinmarketcap today we see coins with a purpose but also coins that just sit there doing nothing. But, let me not decide for you what is good and what is not.
Let’s instead have a look at some of the coins in the top 20 of today’s Coinmarketcap and see what these coins are really about.
The information below is from Investopedia:
Bitcoin – BTC
Launched in 2009, Bitcoin is the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
Unlike fiat currency, Bitcoin is created, distributed, traded, and stored using a decentralized ledger system known as a blockchain.
Ethereum – ETH
Ethereum is a blockchain-based platform best known for its cryptocurrency, ether (ETH).
The blockchain technology that powers Ethereum enables secure digital ledgers to be publicly created and maintained.
Bitcoin and Ethereum have many similarities but different long-term visions and limitations.
Tether – USDT
Tether (USDT) is a stablecoin, a type of cryptocurrency pursuing a steady valuation.
Tether is used by investors who want to avoid the volatility typical of cryptocurrencies while holding funds within the crypto system.
Tether’s parent company paid nearly $60 million in fines in 2021 to settle two regulatory probes alleging it mishandled and misrepresented its reserves.
Binance Chain – BNB
Binance Coin is the cryptocurrency issued by the Binance exchange and trades with the BNB symbol.
BNB was initially based on the Ethereum network but is now the native currency of Binance’s own blockchain, the Binance chain.
Every quarter, Binance uses one-fifth of its profits to repurchase and permanently destroy, or “burn,” Binance coins held in its treasury.
Binance was created as a utility token for discounted trading fees in 2017, but its uses have expanded to numerous applications, including payments for transaction fees (on the Binance Chain), travel bookings, entertainment, online services, and financial services.
Ripple – XRP
XRP is a cryptocurrency and the native token of Ripple, founded in 2011 by Jed McCaleb and Chris Larsen.
XRP is premined and has a total supply of 100 billion tokens.
XRP is more cost-effective, has faster transaction time, is greener, and is more scalable than bitcoin.
Cardano – ADA
Cardano is a blockchain platform that was founded in 2015 by Charles Hoskinson. It was launched in 2017.
Cardano aims to be a decentralized application (dApp) development platform with a multi-asset ledger and verifiable smart contracts.1
Cardano runs on the proof-of-stake Ouroboros consensus protocol.
Polygon – MATIC
The Polygon platform, powered by the MATIC token, was launched to connect and grow Ethereum-compatible projects and blockchains.
MATIC tokens are used to govern and secure the Polygon network and pay transaction fees.
Polygon uses a modified proof-of-stake consensus mechanism to efficiently operate the platform.
Dogecoin – DOGE
Dogecoin is an open-source cryptocurrency established in 2013 by Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus.
Dogecoin features a Shiba Inu, a Japanese breed of dog, as its logo.
It is based on Litecoin and uses the same proof-of-work technology.
Dogecoin has a loyal community of supporters who trade it and use it as a tipping currency for social media content.
Litecoin – LTC
Litecoin is an early altcoin developed by former Google engineer Charlie Lee in 2011.
It had once been called the silver to Bitcoin’s gold, and at its height was the 3rd largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
Because its structure is similar to Bitcoin’s, it has been used as a testnet or testing ground for improvements that later were applied to Bitcoin.
Chainlink – LINK
Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network that connects blockchains with off-chain data.
Chainlink uses hybrid smart contracts to integrate on-chain code and off-chain data infrastructure.
Chainlink tokens—called LINK—serve as currency to pay Chainlink network operators for retrieving and preparing off-chain data and performing computations.
Usdcoin – USDC
USD Coin (USDC) is a cryptocurrency that is backed by fiat money, making it a stablecoin.1
USDC reserve assets are held in segregated accounts with U.S.-regulated financial institutions.1
USDC is not issued by the U.S. government.
Solana – SOL
Solana is a blockchain platform designed to host decentralized, scalable applications.
Solana can process many more transactions per second and charges lower transaction fees than rival blockchains like Ethereum.
Solana is a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain but improves on it with a mechanism called proof-of-history (PoH), which uses hashed timestamps to verify when transactions occur.
Polkadot – DOT
Polkadot (DOT) uses the nominated proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus algorithm.
Polkadot uses parachains and a relay chain to facilitate a much more scalable blockchain ecosystem.
The protocol’s bridges allow different blockchain networks to interact with each other.
The protocol also features the DOT token, which is used in governance and staking.
Shiba Inu – SHIB
Shiba Inu is an Ethereum-based altcoin that features the Shiba Inu hunting dog as its mascot.
It is widely considered to be an alternative to Dogecoin and is touted as “the Dogecoin killer” by its supporters, a community known as the SHIBArmy.
Shiba Inu was created in August 2020 by an individual or group called Ryoshi.
What we see here are mostly blockchains or protocols and there are many, many other blockchains out there, some even better than we see at the top. To be continued, I suppose.
My Two Cents
So, now what?
That is up to you. My two cents? Educate yourself as I did and still do every day. I don’t give advice when people ask me what to buy into or invest. What I do is pinpoint them to what I think could potentially happen with a (business) token or coin, based on my experience and knowledge of the markets. I also would ask them why they would want to go crypto and for how long.
If you want to go crypto to make a quick buck you should stay away. I would use my old school banking rule; a short-term investment is a minimum of 5 years and those are considered to be high risk. I would leave my crypto investment for at least 5, or perhaps even 10 years, and go back to my daily business. If I would have gotten myself Bitcoins 10 years ago and never touched them, well, $$$.
As long as banks are the ones that govern and rule our financial system (and your money) we have no choice but to obey and use banking services and cards. But, I see the change I was waiting for and I will praise the day when the ruling power of banks will come to an end and we can save, buy, travel, and invest without ever having to need a bank anymore. Just your very own crypto-wallet. You are the only one who has access to it!
My Journey Continues
5 years ago I met a group of longtime friends, who happened to be avid gamers. They had a game-changing idea. They named it GAIMIN. If they can build this, I thought at the time, and if they do it the right way, meaning; playing by the rules, never stop learning and being transparent, they could become the first company in the Coinmarketcap with a coin that has an actual purpose, and, it is not another blockchain. Very refreshing. I believed in them and I believed in the GAIMIN project. So, I joined them.
And you know what? They outperformed themselves. On top of that GAIMIN got approved for SRO membership of VQF
What is The GAIMIN Project?
GAIMIN is a Web3 gaming infrastructure project strategically positioned at the disruptive intersection of Web3, gaming, and cloud computing. With 3 billion active gamers globally set to transition into the new exciting world of Web3 gaming, GAIMIN’s innovative technology solutions mean the GAIMIN project is set to be a key gateway for the mass adoption of Web3 games and blockchain technology.
Our mission is to create a better future for gamers and game developers by providing a fully-featured, next-generation, Web3 gaming platform, and game launcher, that offers passive rewards for users, true ownership of in-game assets, and an ecosystem of innovative Web3 game benefits.
Our vision is to use our gaming technology to create the world’s most powerful, decentralized supercomputer by harnessing, aggregating, and deploying the unused and underused computational resources of the global gaming community, via our GAIMIN platform and gamin.cloud, to power an exciting new future for the benefit of humankind and create a sustainable lasting social impact.
check out this ultra fast presentation by CEO Martin Speight, laden with current achievements and actual numbers. Scroll to minute 32, sit back and be blown away.
Main Website: Gaimin.io
Platform Sign Up: Gaimin.gg
Data Processing: Gaimin.cloud
E-Sports: GaiminGladiators .gg
There was a GMRX pre-sale that has now officially ended, although if you send an email we can see what we can do for you. GMRX, GAIMIN’s pre-mined coin, looks set to hit the exchanges in the coming. Please, shoot me an email if you are interested or for inquiries: arjan@gaimin.io
arjan eikelenboom 