Do you have other thoughts on why Cardano should attract Senior Citizens?
Senior citizens demographically hold the most savings after a lifetime of hard work and accumulation. Over the last few years governments around the world have been vaporizing the worth of people savings by printing money. To keep more saving people will need to exit funds to systems that do no mismanage their monetary policies and overprint.
Assume control
Exit the system
According to my opinion your option wealth control is the best thing that they follow. Senior citizens have their wealth and their lifeâs wholesome money. So I think this is the main reason they offer discounts or new offers to them.
How do you think Cardano can assist Seniors in âtaking control and exiting the systemâ ? It often appears Seniors are set in their ways.
I would also add that Seniors also have the most to lose if the rules of the financial system change.
For example, many seniors are using property as a âstore of valueâ. House prices have been bid up over decades to many multiples of median yearly income. Today, a median house in some areas is 10-12 times median yearly wages. Whereas 30 years ago this metric was 2-4 times median wages.
This means that today, you can sell your house for 10-12 years worth of a median personâs wage. Whereas 30 years ago you would have received only 2-4 years worth of a median personâs wage.
Consider cryptocurrencies as a technology: They are just plain better than fiat currencies so I think there is a decent chance that cryptocurrencies will be used more as a âstore of valueâ in the future instead of things like houses. If people start to âstore valueâ in cryptocurrencies, then it is likely we will see house valuation multiples decrease back to their previous levels.
Another thing to note is the societal consequences of bidding up house prices and other asset prices:
But bidding up cryptocurrencies does not deprive people of anything because it is not a real world tangible thing with alternative uses.
In summary, Seniors own the most property and other assets which are priced at multi-generational highs. Seniors as a group are the ones that least understand cryptocurrency.
If the rules of the game change, Seniors have the most to lose.
Great thoughts and straight forward answer. What do you think Cardano Ecosystem or Community can do to âoffer discountsâ? And, what new offers could we establish for Seniors?
âSeniors have the most to loseâ and
7.4d4 you hit the nail(s) on the proverbial head!
So how in your thoughts can we change that?
Understanding through education of Senios will lead to acceptance is my current thought process.
The biggest problem I see from the seniors that I speak to is the complete lack of appreciation that the rules of the financial system can change. Many assume that they own their house and have a rental property or two and therefore they will always be secure in their retirement. They put their head in the sand and refuse to educate themselves about cryptocurrencies.
They feel secure in the belief that central banks canât raise interest rates in the long term and so property prices will continue to increase. The debt and demographic over-hangs confirm that the downward trend in interest rates will continue as technology continues to make things cheaper. Banks will have to continue to print in order to avoid a deflationary spiral.
But what if the rules change? Houses really are not a great âstore of valueâ. They depreciate and their design, materials, and uses, gets obsoleted by technology. For example, are we going to need garages in the future? Maybe new houses will have a âmetaverseâ room instead???
If society becomes aware that cryptocurrencies are a better store of value with superior features, then what happens?
I try to explain cryptocurrency as a technology: Throughout human existence we have always had to rely on trust in human entities. Trust in organisations, governments etc. that are run by people.
Now we have this cryptocurrency technology that removes this requirement to rely on trusted central parties. Instead these systems are built to relay only on trust in the mathematics.
I donât think it is good or helpful to talk about individual cryptocurrencies as an investment because most people seem to view it like some ponzi scheme. They view cryptocurrencies like shares on the stock market.
I think it is better to get people to think about what assets they are using as a âstore of valueâ and consider what could happen to real (adjusted for inflation) valuations if the rules of the financial system change. What will happen to their purchasing power in terms of how many young person working hours they can receive?
The other thing I think is important is that information exchange systems will get better. Currently the internet has made information almost free but there is a lack of ability to process this vast information. These systems will get better. Eventually people will create platforms that incentivise the community to curate and collate information to improve its exchange. When we get these, people will be able to learn faster.
At the moment, information asymmetry is still great and consequently most people are still the frog in the pot gradually being boiled.
Though once you do see the benefits of cryptocurrency, you canât unsee them.
I would not advise people â especially seniors â to put their life savings into cryptocurrencies.
There are the obvious risks that we see here every day â funds lost due to user errors, scams, frauds, projects that simply could not deliver. Would you really want billions of seniors to be dependent on Yoroiâs support, when they lose their seed phrases? And we all know that even a better support could not help there.
There is the still large volatility of cryptocurrencies. You might think that the larger ones â Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, more? â will never fail and will always reach new all-time highs after it went (more or less) smooth for quite some years, now. But thatâs far from sure. And then all they have left are some private keys.
There is the economical side that a deflationary âcurrencyâ will enlarge inequalities at least until all people of the world are in it. People who didnât enter early enough (either because they didnât get it or because they couldnât afford it) will only be able to get a tiny fraction of the wealth (in cryptocurrencies) of earlier entrants. Itâs all the bad things of capitalism on steroids.
Cryptocurrencies are a fascinating technology that may result in interesting applications, but up to now itâs mostly experiments. Ape pictures and dog coins, DEXes, where you can trade ape pictures and dog coins, DeFi services, where you can lend ape pictures and dog coins, and bridges, where you can send ape pictures and dog coins to other cryptocurrency networks, ⌠(Yeah, itâs not only dog coins, but nearly all the non-ridiculous ones are coins of services that self-referentially work on what to do with coins.)
They will never be the silver bullet to solve the worldâs problems. The worldâs problems are not inflation and central banks (and the fixation of crypto world on those often borders very toxic conspiracy narratives). The worldâs problems are social inequality and climate crisis. And we can only solve that by empowering politicians to fight them, to raise adequate taxes, to build social security systems that ensure livable lifes for everyone â not just the ones lucky at the crypto game.
@HeptaSean I agreed with pretty much everything you said until:
But, on reflection, maybe I do agree with this too. So long as the empowering part involves them using the tools available including blockchain.
I think many, probably most, people have lost trust in politicians. They have lost trust in them acting in the best interests of their constituents. They have lost trust that they are not making side deals that benefit their political donors or mates.
I think blockchain technology can be used to fix this. I also think that eventually people will demand blockchain technology be used to fix it.
It depends on empowering the good politicians. 
(Didnât want to write ârightâ, since in my opinion the good ones tend to be the left ones. 
)
There is a thin line between venting about the very suboptimal state of affairs and supporting that this suboptimal state cannot be changed. If too many people are too stuck in a fundamental distrust for all of politics, then politics also does not have the power anymore to do something good to alleviate that distrust.
And it is hard to deliver on political promises, given the complexities and diverging interests of the world. For all bad things that a government does, you also find not quite so clearly bad people who wanted exactly that for not quite so clearly bad reasons.
Anyway, a decentralised crypto utopia built by taking the power from the governments and doing it ourselves should have a clear plan on how exactly it will be better. How will we ensure basic support for everyone in need? How will we redistribute wealth gone too far? How will we regulate basic environmental and health principles?
Not sure about that. A blockchain is just an immutable ledger, nothing more.
You can already see that the âWe donât have to trust anyone anymore.â does not jump very far through all the discussions in this and other crypto communities. Scams, frauds, badly managed projects can all not be prevented by the mathematics on the chain. We have to trust that the projects we grant quite a lot of money in Catalyst will do what they promise. Or at least trust that we are able to communicate to the voters that they wonât get funded again in the next round if they do not deliver.
In my part of the world, there are far more people who demand that blockchain technology will not be used at all.
This weekâs example are the replies here:
Yes, this is only opposition to NFTs, but a lot of it translates to a large opposition towards all things crypto.
Yes, it could be good to advertise for distinction between ridiculous NFTs and cryptocurrencies as a whole, between world-burning proof of work and okayish proof of stake, between fortune hunting trading and sustainable development.
But for that, it would be helpful if the vision is clearer.
Unfortunately and as we all know, itâs due to our âcorruptâ human nature, which we can observe through history as well. I as well do believe that may be the only option to fix this will be through technology that will mandate completely transparent behavior and/maybe make no requirement of the political professions to govern our societies. Will it be the blockchain to fix all this, and can it do it, I donât know but I believe itâll take some time to get there.
When we have no need for politicians, a president, or when they become marginal figures in a well-organized state I guess that is the point when we can say we are on a good path.
HeptaSean this is exactly why I raised the concern and invite debate over the inclusion of Seniors, who up till now are mostly being overlooked. Typically investments for Seniors are made through a paid consultant which reduces their equity.
I would not advise anyone to put their life savings in any one investment. But, say 20-20 percent ???
Seniors often breach three generations - their children -their grandchildren. So multi generational education is possible.
Seniors many of them now from the 60s & 70s started the global awareness of Mother Earth and pollution and global warming. Many still lead the war. And, UN stats show the global Senior population doubling in the next 10 years.
My primary concern is does DeFi continue to overlook (essentially exclusion by inaction) or does it embrace and socially include. And, is Cardano the proper ecosystem?
I would also see some opportunities in an effort to address seniors.
The introductory contents for entering the Cardano ecosystem are not that good at the moment, in my opinion. If they are made âsenior-readyâ that could also benefit all other people trying to learn about Cardano, decide if itâs something for part of their funds, and finally really doing it.
I tend to think that it would also benefit all interested people â especially seniors â to make introductions honest and humble, highlighting, but not overselling chances, but also risks.
(Charles Hoskinson: âSometimes cryptocurrencies are bad. Sometimes cryptocurrencies are good. And in our love and rush to embrace this new technology we must be intellectually honest and wise enough to acknowledge the times that they are bad. The point of regulating structures are to figure out how do you blunt that.â)
Also here, Iâd prefer a humbleness approach. Perhaps, itâs sometimes not âset in their waysâ, but a healthy bullshit detector.
If people/seniors think that this is a community of preppers waiting for âthe systemâ to collapse, commiting themselves to this idea in a way that they want it to collapse, that they work for it to collapse â instead of working on it getting better, then they have every right to be appalled and deterred. Then I am appalled and deterred.
I agree we need to work together with governments. But this working together means complete transparency. They work for us and they are spending our money.
I would like to see most government decisions and deals recorded on a side chain. Immutable and transparent.
Hello @Headelf
I donât think anyone who is not familiar with crypto should put 20% (one fifth) of their saving into it. Especially not seniors that spent 40-50+ years saving and are dependent on steady income.
I believe any new inclusions, including seniors, are best trough community approach.
As a step one spend a little bit of money to get ADA to be able to experiment and be part of things. An amount that you will not regret loosing. Then take part in what interests you. Soon you will develop a type of crypto-smarts and in a few months you will be able to recognize most scams and rug pulls. During this time you learn about different things Cardano network offers. You learn sources that are more trusted and what red flags to look out for. All this while becoming part of a community.
After that step you may find things that you like. Buy ADA to just fund those interests. Like games, CNFTs, supporting projects, etcâŚ
Then when you get comfortable doing that you can start reallocating savings to ADA. Then you start thinking about safety and who can have access to your wallet(s). As a senior you may think about allowing family members/lawyers to have back up access to your wallet(s) in a case something happens and you canât access it. This way you have a back up in RL community. At this point you may be going as high as 5%.
Maybe you get so comfortable that you want to start making your own projects. As a senior you may have some awesome stories you want to share with your friends and family so they can always remember. You could place your stories in NFT format and send them out for holidays to your friends and family. This way crypto doesnât seem like this bare digital place, but it helps you connect to people in your life.
@Headelf If you are looking to help this process you can start a Cardano Seniors community on Discord so everyone can help and relate to each other. Education would be easier and it would be safer for everyone. If anyone is in doubt if that ADA âgiveawayâ on YouTube is real they would have a place to go and check with others.
At this moment there is NO proper ecosystem in any crypto. The learning curve is very steep at the start for the uninitiated. Mistakes usually cause 100% losses. Inclusivity is absolute, however it is left as a choice for individual to make.
As for crypto as an investment for seniors, well⌠it holds risks that donât exist for other investments.
Itâs mostly unregulated with tax implications that could be harmful. In some locations trading in crypto may trigger business tax event which may disqualify individuals from all/part of government/public pensions since receiving business income makes you become not retired anymore. Here In Canada you could loose up to $350 a month if you end up having income during retirement above some minimal amount. If you make a lot of money you may loose up to $1000 dollars a month.
Any senior that is entering crypto as an investor has to educate themselves about implications to their income in their region. Probably talk to their account or tax person.
Although I still think community approach is still preferable then presenting any crypto as an investment first. Investment only approach misses the best parts of crypto movement.
Seniors are too easily scammed.
Most exposure for people in crypto should be via index funds, mutual funds,etc.
Otherwise, that very loud demographic will find itself scammed out of $Trillions,and will legislate blockchain to the margins.
Creo muy linda la opciĂłn del valor de ADA, somos seres humanos, y Cardano es sinĂłnimo de valores humanos. Mis saludos para usted y toda la comunidad.