A friend of mine took me aside not long ago. ”John, I’m worried,” he said.

He proceeded to point out several things that I myself am compelled to acknowledge are classic warning signs. After the success of my experiment, I’ve subscribed long-term to the controversial Blue Check over at Twi… X… at TwiX. I’ve since posted a link for DogeCoin tips in my bio. I’ve now got a crypto wallet and I’ve begun speculating at RobinHood.

“Are you still even a writer?” he asked me.

Well, yes. Yes I am.

Quick history for those of you who haven’t been paying attention: I started TNFN some years ago in order to teach myself how to write, on the theory that I learn best by doing. I would occasionally submit an op-ed, but most of what I wrote ended up here. On the side, I helped maintain, then run, the Planets Magazine, but of course that was mostly for fun. Then, exactly one year ago, I decided I was ready: I assembled my best stories and started submitting them to magazines.

Today, I’ve got over fifty published stories, mostly science fiction, at three different outlets, not counting the Mag and here. I’ve brought in (barely) enough to qualify as a professional by the Science Fiction Writers of America, but not so much that the $100 annual membership fee would make sense. I’ve begun saving up my writing income in order to pay to self-publish a collected volume of my stories. And, of course, I’ve been using social media to self-promote. (If it didn’t work, you wouldn’t be reading this.)

I also have a Patreon, a BuyMeACoffee account, and of course PayPal. These are essential for any amateur blogger, which is what I was and still am, and given the likely piddling income I’ll get when I try to sell my book, they’re going to remain necessary for the foreseeable future.

Not long ago, an internet acquaintance offered to give me a tip. ”But only in crypto,” he said. ”The fees are a lot smaller.”

I was skeptical. It’s not what I think of as real money, and I’ve never seriously considered investing in it. All else aside, who has spare cash lying around? Besides: Especially after watching all the collapses, thefts, fraud, bankruptcies, and scandals surrounding crypto, who in their right mind would gamble on it?

But money is money, and after all I do get paid every couple of weeks by Elon Musk to say things on TwiX. What harm could it do? I got a wallet and he sent me my tip: $4.20 in DogeCoin. 33.6 cents. Much wow, as they say.

Overnight I became a convert.

It costs me up to 5% to use BuyMeACoffee. Patreon money mostly goes through Stripe, and both get a cut. Even PayPal wants a fee to move my money around — MY money, going from me to me, and they want some of it for the privilege of them hanging onto it. Even banks pay interest.

But transferring my tip to a RobinHood brokerage account? Three hundredths of a percent. Converting the DogeCoin to cash? Half that. Brokerage to bank? Free. Bank to brokerage? Free.

Just for fun I moved $60 online to join it and did a little daytrading, exclusively in DogeCoin, the value of which goes up and down even faster than penny stocks. I made a dollar, then another. Then, RobinHood gave me a free (fractional) share of Apple stock, just for joining.

It’s been a week, and my $60, plus 32-cent tip, has become $71.

Wow! I thought to myself. Every small creator based online needs to do this! First, get the Blue Check to double your reach and get paid for it; then, set up a DogeCoin tip wallet and a brokerage account. It makes so much sense! Hmmm… I wonder if I can use my computer to mine crypto when I’m offline…

Turns out, no. It costs more in electricity than I’d get back, and that’s with the absolute best software mining the crypto with the top return. If I were living in a dorm room somewhere, or had a solar setup, maybe; otherwise, no chance.

In justice, I did consider it. I researched the concept, consulted experts, weighed options, and looked at alternatives. And that’s with me still not equating crypto with “real money”.

Bear in mind: There’s no gold backing my dollar bills either, and the “full faith and credit of the United States” is looking less and less reliable as time goes by. We’re spending half again what we take in through taxes, and the interest alone on our national debt is a substantial percentage of our total production. It’s not sustainable.

But crypto doesn’t even have that. It’s got the faith and credit of… people who use it.

So, going forward: Yes, I’ll keep my DogeCoin wallet. If you want to tip me in BitCoin, I’ll get a wallet for that too. Once I’ve got it, it’ll become cashy money, or tips for other creators, which is the highest use of it I can think of. I will continue speculating on my RobinHood account whenever I need some mild entertainment, and I’ll keep subscribing to TwiX as long as Elon pays me more than I pay him, because why not? It’s free money, and that stuff comes awfully hard to a writer.

And yes, I would strongly encourage all my writer and artist friends to follow suit. Free money helps pay the bills, which keeps me writing instead of working behind the counter at the local Bohack Superette. That is the objective, after all.

Does this make me a TechBro? Judge for yourselves.

Full disclosure: I do have a collection of vinyl records but absolutely no man-bun.

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You can send cash to PayPal in order to help support my writing, set up a subscription donation at Patreon, or buy me a coffee. My DogeCoin wallet is at MyDoge.com/gnerphk. Sign up for RobinHood and we can each get free stock shares; my link is https://join.robinhood.com/johns-ca450756.

More importantly, though: Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to do some writing of your own, if you’ve got the inclination.