Hello everyone, 

My name is Elisha Owusu Akyaw (aka GHCryptoGuy). I am 16 years old, and I have been in the Cryptocurrency world for almost three years, working my way from $0 (with absolutely no money to invest with) to over an 80,000% gain in USD. In this article, I share excerpts from my story, and I tell you what to expect from my Steemit blog.

Disclosure: I was once on Steemit but lost my password. To help me get restarted on Steemit. Please follow my blog.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

It all started in Junior High School; I was doing pretty well in class. Placing somewhere in the top 3 students ranking every term. I wanted to explore, so I got access to the internet and started studying what operating systems and websites were all about. I learned how to create websites on my own through Youtube.

Learning all this wasn't enough because I wanted to learn a skill for a future industry. Something that was going to evolve in years to come.  No offense to web developers but I felt web development as a skill had gone pretty further, even in my part of the continent. So much that, I couldn't be a pacesetter in the field. 

My journey in the web development field took me to various projects. I started out as a volunteer to the Mozilla Community and later to the Wikipedia Community in Ghana. As a Mozilla contributor in Ghana, I spoke at the Software Freedom Day 2015 in Accra about Mozilla's open web initiatives. I also started one of the first commercial blogs for now-defunct Firefox OS (Mozilla's in-house operating system based on the Firefox browser).

I was then introduced to the Wikipedia project by the 2017 Wikipedian of the year, Felix Nartey. I picked up editing Wikipedia very quickly and made several edits on local content on Wikipedia, Wiki Commons, WikiData and more. Felix then started an open initiative that brought Mozilla, Wikipedia, and Creative Commons together to form Open Foundation West Africa (OFWA). At OFWA, I was a project manager in charge of Mozilla events and the social media manager of the foundation.

THE DISCOVERY

During this time, I began to increase my focus on foreign media and started to watch a lot of CNN, BBC, and Aljezera. During one news episode, I discovered Bitcoin. I then went to the best source of information for me at that time, Wikipedia. I read everything I could about Bitcoin and then went ahead to discover altcoins. 

During my time of reading, I went on faucets to get some satoshis and tried all these fake mining sites. At the age of 14, from a middle-income family with no credit card; There was no way for me to earn any Bitcoins. During my daily scan for coins on coinmarketcap.com, I found DASH. I joined the DASH community immediately due to the technology behind the coin and the idea of community-based governance. Me being my stubborn self, I decided to start the first DASH commercial blog based on Bitcoin blogs like Coindesk, Cointelegraph, and Bitcoinist called "THE DASH TIMES".

FROM $0 TO 80,000% GAIN ON MY PORTFOLIO

I began to earn money from ads on my blog. I then moved from the DASH community (I will explain the reasons in another blogpost),  to a DASH fork called Darknet (now PIVX). There I led marketing (mostly publications and social media) before, during and few months after the rebranding process from DarkNet to PIVX. 

During my work on the DASH commercial blog. DASH moved from under $5 to $14. I also joined PIVX at a time when it was worth less than $0.01, and through the work done by the team including myself and the community we got to $3.00 per coin few months after the rebrand. All coins I bought were as a result of revenue from the blog which came from DASH and Bitcoin.

I then started a Cryptocurrency Marketing startup based on my experience with marketing PIVX. I then worked with other Cryptocurrency projects and helped raise millions in ICO's for various blockchain startups.  (I will explore my business ventures in future blog posts).

THE HAZARDS OF BEING N EARLY ADOPTER 

Being part of all this at the very early stages comes with a lot of ups and downs.  My two most significant problems have been the fact that the African content has very few platforms with cryptocurrency integration which makes moving money around a little hectic. Until recently I couldn't find a decent cryptocurrency exchange in Ghana that offered excellent services with reasonable fees. 

Secondly, another problem that is getting bigger is the silence on the part of most governments on the continent on the regulation of cryptocurrencies. Regulators on the content seem not to understand the fundamental concepts of blockchain technology and may take rushed decisions that will hamper the growth of the blockchain industry in Africa. As an entrepreneur, it makes it hard for me to plan with this high level of uncertainty at play.

The first issue has caused me a lot though with me loosing 4.1 BTC (Bitcoin) and 910,000 SMART (SmartCash) through OTC trades. These two loses are worth USD $139,357.5 at current prices.

NOW AND THE FUTURE

Despite these challenges, I have never lost trust in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology at last. I have also learned from my mistakes, and with my experienced, I am focused on teaching people.

Currently, I started a new Cryptocurrency Media Hub called Token TV that produces a podcast hosted by Tom White from Sky Sports. I have also started the GH Crypto Guy brand on various Social Media platforms to teach Ghanaians about how to invest, use, buy and sell Cryptocurrencies locally. 

On Steemit. I intend to share various aspects of my story fro 2015 till now, educate people locally based on my experience and mentor them on how to use the platform. My GH Crypto Guy education series will start properly on YouTube and Facebook in June. I intend to teach about Steemit later on in the series. 

I hope to be a significant part of the steemit community.

To follow my adventure from 2015 till now and to help me feel it home. Remember to follow me, upvote and resteem this post.

Other Social Media

• Twitter 
• Facebook 
• Instagram

ARTICLES ABOUT ME:

• Bitcoin Africa - Meet Africa’s Youngest Blockchain Entrepreneur: Token Media’s Elisha Owusu Akyaw
• Morden Ghana - The Ghanaian Teen On A Mission To Popularize Cryptocurrencies Accross Africa
• Yen Ghana - 16-year-old Ghanaian making "mullah" off of Bitcoin 

I am always open to conversations, please ask any questions in the comment section and I will reply asap. Can't wait to hear from the community.