The Humble Beginnings of my Journey: Cryptocurrency

Hi all,

My journey began in a humble small city on the south coast, where the sun was adventurous, and the winters were bearable. I studied Computer Science and Finance - A combination that was often met with confused yet condescending all-knowing tones, which were on the very verge of a scoff - "They don't work together", "They're completely opposite fields." I'm fairly sure they were close to calling me an idiot. At the time I agreed, my logic was that if I made money - I needed to be able to handle my money right? I only realized later that these ignorant adults, showed me how backwater my city was. I also realized, it was possibly one of the best decisions I had made.

My childish logic and disobeying the direction of the grain had paid in an unexpected way; I mean, what else does the art of Computer Science and Finance bring together?

Cryptocurrency.

2008 was the birth of Bitcoin, 5 years later, 2013, was the birth of my Cryptocurrency trading career. I tentatively dipped my feet in the torrential storm of the Bitcoin market with a small fortune of $100 at about a "cheap" ~$400 per bitcoin. Keeping in mind I came from very humble beginnings, I was a migrant from a third world country and my mom had worked incredibly hard to give us a good life and here I was potentially squandering it away on some imaginary money, made from CPUs and GPUs? Isn't that a strange thought?

Anyways, in my mind, no way could Bitcoin go any higher - this was early in my Finance studies. If I had understood the implication of Bitcoin sooner, which challenges fiat currencies, gold, and the very core of the finance world - I might've just put my entire life savings on the line. However, sadly I didn't understand a single thing. Monetary supply, inflation, transaction costs, remittance costs, global issues, banks - none of that was on my mind as an ignorant student from a small town.

In my pursuit of quick money, I discovered Altcoins, a journey which showed me how to lose money I worked weeks to earn, within seconds; pump and dump schemes. The allure of double, tripling, pentaling my monies was simply irresistible for young prey like myself. I quickly learnt the markets is a monster, and rarely does you any favours if you didn't earn them. A near death experience of my money left me bloody, scared and bruised, I quickly retreated to the outskirts of safety that was Bitcoin. Even then I was suspicious of the 'ponzi scam' that people called Bitcoin at the time. Paranoia was eating at me and destroyed my trading career.

The market is a beast that is untamed. In a short-lived duel, I believe the Cryptoworld would sooner take your arms and legs, then give you anything back. That is, unless you had time to devise a strategy.

Years past quickly while I passively held Bitcoin. I got further into my finance course, I learnt the wonders of the finance world. There came a the time I really needed money. Debts were hanging, rent was going unpaid, mom and dad were struggling with work.

I told them I would make everything okay.

Time was ticking, my part time job at a diner was not enough. I turned back to my nemesis, the beast that almost devoured me whole, but I lived another day. I went back. News came out that Ethereum was teamed with JPMorgan to develop smart contracts. I was in shock, everything I learnt made Ethereum sounded like a dream, I moved all my money to ETH in an instant at a cheap ~$12 which was an all time high - Silly me, who buys anything at an All Time High? My excitement was unmatched, my trigger finger from years of gaming would've achieved record times of how fast I put through the transaction. However my excitement was quickly culled like a chicken's head on a chopping board. Time would remind me to be patient - my investment dropped to $8. On the brink of selling everything to recover even a little bit, I held onto the belief that Ethereum was the real deal. Surely right?

Despair and hope was a pair that didn't match, consequently causing nightmares and itches. But in that duel of darkness and light, only one prevailed. Mom and dad would not know of anything that happened, I couldn't bare to tell them. It was my secret to live with - I had told them I'd make everything okay... Didn't I? I'm one to keep my promises.

My Hope was met with what would most aptly be described as a "Rocket". A cheetah chasing after an antelope that was known as Bitcoin. It was in 2017 that Ethereum had began in earnest, its journey to overtake Bitcoin. It is 2017, Ethereum came from humble beginnings, to almost match the market cap of Bitcoin.

That is my beginning. The beginning of a career that would have no end.