Dear Steemit, I can't trust cryptocurrency anymore.

About 2 hours ago, I was out with friends having a good time. My night has come to an end after I made a terrible transaction online. It was me and 3 other close friends of mine hanging out at this place called 'Baker's Street' in Sugar Land, Tx. I am the only one out of my friends that trades cryptocurrency online. None of my friends believe in it's strong technology, and I REALLY REALLY do. They find it risky and not stable yet, I used to think they were wrong, now I am starting to believe them. I was set to prove them wrong by investing every paycheck into it. I started back in 2013. The upside is I have learned so much about it's vast technology, the downside is I have probably lost over $7000 since I started trading. However, it's not just because of trading.

In 2014, Ripple coin was on the come up, it went from .005 of a dollar to 1 cent. I turned $700 into over $2k! I was excited! However, I knew nothing about coins back then and I traded my Ripple for BTC, at the time It was worth like 5 BTC. I was very happy so I decided I should cash out. I searched online all night on where I can cash it, and I stumbled on this site called 'Local Bitcoin'. A place where you exchange BTC for fiat currency. I thought it was neat so I I gave it a shot. I should of known better, and my timing couldn't have been any worse. After hours of searching for the right guy to trade to, I found a guy that was offering $200 more than the other guys. I read his reviews and he was legit! 5 star everything! I started a conversation with him, and he seemed like a very nice guy and he seemed legit. I was new to the site, and he told me to send the bitcoins and it will put the money in Escrow, he will send me money though western union. I was like alright! Lets do that! As dumb as I was, I sent him the coins, his IP address had a VPN and wasn't able to be traced. And he took my money.

As years have went by, I always gained small on returns and lost large sums to these whales of investors that come in and pump when the time is right, and cash out hard, crumbling the market before I even have a chance to know what is going on. I work full time as an RN, I never have time to keep up with trading online. I'm just so tired, here I thought I can invest in something that can get me good return if I invest right, it's done nothing but consume my life, take all my money and make me hope for a better future for my family.

Tonight, I purchased 500 Ether Classic Coins because it's the new FAD. I actually purchased 700 the night before, and lost $200 over night, when I was asleep. Anyways, I bought 500 today and thought, enough is enough, I will buy this from poloniex account and store it on my gatehub account and just let it sit, no more trading, I am done! I was doing all of this at this venue Baker's Street, while hanging out with my friends. The plan was the make the transaction to the account and get back to my life, without even looking at my funds anymore. Turns out, I transferred it to a wallet that wasn't active. Gatehub still provided me the ETC address, which is weird, and it wasn't active because I didn't make it a "Trusted Gateway". I have been with Ripple for 3 years and some change. Now I am out about $900 and I am terribly sad that this has happened. I am losing all hope for blockchain technology, it hqw consumed my time, my life, and my money. I know it's the future, but I am tired of my family being broke. It's time to give up.