First Introduction to Crypto

In May 2017 my knowledge of crypto currencies was, like the majority of people, minimal. I knew of bitcoin and it’s rapid rise in value and regularly heard the old adage of “If you bought X amount of bitcoin four years ago you’d have X now”. I was sure, in my ignorance, that Bitcoin’s only use was to buy drugs, hitmen and to fund ISIS.

This changed one night when I was in the midst of my healthy bedtime routine of scrolling through the front page of reddit on my phone for hours on end. Buried about 30 pages deep, on the “Ethtrader” subreddit, I spotted a title that would catch similarly greedy people’s eyes, it read: “I Just Became a Crypto Millionaire”. Even though it was a clickbait-y title you’d see on advertisements on dodgy video streaming websites, my curiosity got the better of me and I dived in. This was the first time I had heard of Ethereum.

The post had me sold on cryptocurrency immediately. Hearing about this guy buying ETH at $13 and how it was now $134 and how he believed it’s future was to only get more valuable from here was very enticing. I found myself reading through the whole post and comments, and went further on to read through more of the subreddit and it’s money-hungry group of die-hard enthusiasts, frothing at the mouth at the thought of the Lamborghinis they would buy once they made enough gains. I had to learn a lot of new terminology and of the technology that was in development behind the currency. Me not knowing my blockchain from my ICO, would still confusingly read through, hand on chin in a pensive pose, thinking to myself “Yes, I too like money”

First Buy and First Loss

Next morning I decided to hold back from spending every last penny I had on this thing I just learned about at 3AM the night before. I eagerly watched the price for the next few days. Every day it rose and rose, sometimes by 20% a day. I was amazed at the increase, knowing of some friends and family who would be ecstatic when their stock shares rose by 7.3% in a year. I then experienced my first case of crypto FOMO. I immediately signed up to Coinbase and waited restlessly for the few days as they verified my ID. Once verified, I transferred a nice amount of my money into Ethereum and waited for my gains to roll in.

The next day, ETH dropped by 10%. Fuck. The day after that, it dropped even further and continued on a downward spiral to about 30% less than what I bought it at. I was devastated, I was fully sure that I was lured into an elaborate scam tricking people who are first hearing about bitcoin and it’s rise in value. The calm posts and ever-present positivity on the Ethereum communities kept me from selling back into fiat and never trusting the internet again, the drop in price was assured to be what I now know as a minor price correction. This was good for me as the price just kept on rising from there with a few corrections along the way. Ethereum currently being up 569% from when I originally bought.

First Alternative Coin

I soon started to educate myself on the more intricate details of crypto and the overall philosophy of blockchain and decentralised currency. I started to feel guilty that I had only viewed crypto as a means to get myself more money to transfer to my bank account to buy things rather that the goal of overthrowing centralised banking where individuals can monitor and regulate everything. This guilt was short lived however as I started learning of gains from altcoins. Of course I was attracted to coins that cost less than a dollar and were being pushed as “The next Ehtereum”, I wanted my Lambo damnit. It was shortly after this that I realised I was getting sucked into this community of fanatics, eager to invest early in the next low priced coin that was going to shoot for the moon.

I began to do a lot of research into other crypto coins and ERC-20 tokens. By research I mean counting up the amount of posts on Reddit, 4chan and other communities and weighing up the “Bullshit Scamcoin” posts to the “Soon to be bigger than Bitcoin” posts, and investing if there was more of the latter. I learned early that for almost every coin you were going to have armies of both prophets and nay-sayers, each with their own agenda to manipulate the price for one reason or another.

Lessons Learned

Eight months after my first investment, while I still have a lot to learn, I feel like I have become a bit more educated on the world of crypto currencies. I’ve learned to do my own research, recognise FUD and FOMO, only spend what I can afford and I’ve learned to stop checking the prices of every coin I have every half-hour. I’ve learned not to buy high and sell low, to be greedy when others are fearful and, most importantly, I’ve learned to HODL during price drops.

Even though I’m far from my goal of a crypto millionaire and while I’m glad of the gains I have made, I’ve found myself to heavily support the future of crypto and it’s use as a global decentralised money system and hope for an even more meteoric rise and a change from the current financial systems in place today. This may be already happening as my understanding is that as well as the aforementioned hitmen, KFC can now be bought with bitcoin.