How does a Ukrainian crypto-trader live during regular blackouts?
Known circumstances have influenced the ongoing problems with electricity supply in Ukraine. How does a crypto-head live when his entire “business” is online?
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Hello, this is Artyom from the GNcrypto team. I work with all of the blockchain topics on a daily basis, so I thought you might be interested in reading how life has changed for an”average” crypto-head with regular power outages.
Russia's energy terrorism
For 8 months, a full-scale war has been going on in Ukraine, caused by the Russian Federation attack. Due to the failure on the battleground, Russia resorted to terrorism – every week missile strikes are carried out on critical infrastructure, energy and water facilities. Resulting in country-wide issues with electricity, and especially in Kyiv, where I live. First, shutdown schedules were introduced when the light was in a 4/4 ratio (4 hours on, 4 off). Now, emergency shutdowns are being used more and more, when access to electricity is very short-term (2-4 hours a day) and chaotic, without a clear schedule.
Life on schedule
Strangely enough, I was able to structure my day to be able to both work and follow all the developments in the crypto world. You know, nothing motivates like circumstances beyond your control. You can wake up at 10:00, and you will have to go to the nearest cafe that has electricity to undergo your morning routine. Or you can get up at 8:30, before the lights go out, and do everything early. Planned power outages are quite comfortable: there is an opportunity to divide tasks into hours. Rest is not a luxury anymore, but an inevitability. But this does not apply to emergency shutdowns, when the electricity supply schedule turns into chaos, and the working day goes into a set of chaotic actions.
There is less time now
For half of the working day, there is no access to a computer, the Internet, or water supply, because the pump does not pump water to the 19th floor. Add to this the inability to cook food at will, constant trips up and down the 19th floor, trips in search of an ATM, a working coffee shop or a store, trying to find a working mobile Internet spot on the street to complete the next NFT mint, token sale, transaction or any other task. There is much less time, so you spend less of it on trifles.
Limits for the win
And now we get to trading. Every morning I analyze the BTC, ETH and other cryptocurrencies charts in search of potential trades. But if earlier it was possible to follow the chart 24/7, now there is no such thing.
We had to switch to longer timeframes to make transactions less risky. Today I perform the analysis in such a fashion to avoid editing positions as much as possible. Limit orders have become my lifelines, since you no longer need to worry about your trades. I entered a position, immediately added Stop-limit and Take-profit, and in the evening you see the results.
Don't need Wi-Fi anymore?
Finally connected unlimited Internet. It used to be a privilege, now it is a necessity. It just so happens that my ISP draws its electricity from the same source as the house next door. This creates a situation when there is electricity in the apartment, but Wi-Fi does not work, which is why I regularly create a hotspot via my phone. Probably, my service provider is shocked by how much traffic I consume, but unlimited means unlimited.
No time to spend at home
Of course, the majority of the work comes at the moments when there is no electricity in the house. My neighborhood is divided by a major highway, and when one side has a blackout, the other shines like a Christmas tree. In this case, I am a nomad, moving from place to place in search of a workspace. McDonalds, a Japanese restaurant, the Dnipro embankment, a cake shop, a football field – wherever there is electricity, I come to work there. Before everyone was measured by IPhones, now by Power Banks. Harsh times, call for harsh measures.
Coworking as an HP cheat code
Half of the coworking spaces in the city have already switched to autonomous power supply and generators. Of course, this is much more convenient than permanent migrations. I do part of the work at night, severely damaging my sleep pattern. This is easily cured by moving your day to Open Space. An office with constant Internet access, a cozy workplace, free coffee and Playstation – what could be better? I've been to a co-working space several times, the atmosphere there is amazing, and the energy is crazy. I'm still debating whether to buy a pass, but the cost is clearly worth the money compared to not having a job at all.
It is not the circumstances themselves that shape us, but how we react to them. Any problem is a way to something new and unusual. Cryptocurrency is developing rapidly, and we must do the same in order not to lag behind and move forward in tandem.
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