Cryptocurrency and The Security Of Belonging

We discovered a surprising connection between the most physical of assets - the home - and the most virtual of them, cryptocurrency. Everyone is looking for a sense of security and belonging.

Here at Belong, we think there is a reason that the word “real” comes before “estate.”  We believe in the power of home.  The value of a tangible investment.  

A lot of people agree with us: At this point in American history, more than 67 percent of us own our own homes. This is up from 47 percent at the beginning of the 20th century, which is especially impressive, considering the nature of the economy back then.

But at the same time, homeownership is not for everyone. As we say in our Vision:

“There is more than one American Dream. Owning your own home and loving it is one of those dreams... But there are other American Dreams.

Some of these dreams are about living differently than previous generations — for whom owning was everything. We may want to use the cash to start a business — perhaps the next Belong-. We may want to experience new places. We may not have the money yet for homeownership, but still, dream of living in a glorious home where we can put down roots and experience the sense of belonging.”

We’ve quoted John Allen before, who is the author of the book Home. (The book is subtitled “How Habitat Made Us Human,” which we think cuts to the quick of the matter.) In the book Allen poignantly writes that “We know we have been successful in creating a new home when a dwelling feels like the one place in the world that belongs to us more than anyone else."

We’ve never found a better description, anywhere, of what Belong does. How it makes people feel. People don’t need a deed to experience a deep down sense of belonging.

So, home matters. Concreteness matters. But at the same time, let’s talk for a moment – just as everyone else is doing – about cryptocurrency.  There’s nothing more intangible than a $60,000 digital asset, backed only by the fact that someone is willing to pay $60,001 for it. 

And while crypto ownership is generally pegged at 14% of Americans (some estimates have it at nearly 50%, although that is debatable), that’s still a lot of people who’ve decided to invest in a virtual currency that was scoffed at even less than a decade ago.

How, then, do we reconcile the need for something tangible and the acceptance of a currency that has nothing of physical substance behind it?

The answer comes back to our name. Although Bitcoin is decentralized, as an article in the Financial Times writes, it is a network “defined by distinctive rituals, symbols and creation myths.” The article goes on to quote Mick Morucci, an anthropologist working in crypto, who writes that “Bitcoin community’s value systems and rituals . . . have helped to establish it as money (whose price is shaped) by community, beliefs and a sense of belonging.”

You can’t make that up!  

Looking at it through his clarifying lens, the same human emotion that draws people to the safety and security of home – and to the neighborhoods and communities where we live – attracts them to the shared values and community that exists in CryptoWorld. 

A blog post by Suhitesh Das – a venture capitalist and advisor – makes a similar point.  He argues that “Belonging can be easily related to cryptocurrency” because it is encrypted, noting that the same “sense of security is what people also experience with belongingness.”

We are now more inspired than ever to extend the state of belonging that exists between people and their homes, to a state of connections that flourishes within the larger Belong community.  Importantly, Das also writes that “Belonging is actually about recognizing oneself as a member of a community, and the higher-quality relationships that come with it.”

That community also connects everyone who works at Belong and shares the same mission – to our homeowners and residents. 

Fascinating, isn’t it, that whether you invest in a modern home or a modern currency, a desire to belong is behind it all.