And how I now intend to correct that mistake.
This is meant to be the first post about a beginners first attempt at getting somewhere with crypto. It should also be read as such. This is not meant to be a "how to get rich in no time"-scheme. If it happens to turn out like that, no one would be more pleasantly surprised than myself.
My first encounter with crypto currency was nearly ten years ago. It was at a party, far to the north of Norway. A fellow student of me was hyped about this new scheme - Bitcoin. He was talking about there being a chance of him getting a solid coin, based on a digital economy that no one else at the party got the hang of. He had used an old computer to mine, and was doing quite well.
I didn't start with Bitcoin in 2012. $10 for an imaginary coin, don't make me laugh! That was obviously my first mistake.
My next encounter with the mysterious coin was in 2015. I got a cryptic text message, from an unknown number. There was no name assigned to the number in any register. It was written in poor Norwegian, almost as if it had been through an early age translator service online. The essence was that I should use whatever I had in savings, and buy Bitcoin.
As I was fresh out of university, money was scarce. My mom was with me at the time. She meant I should report the text to the Police as an attempt of scamming people.
The only looser on that end was me, not buying Bitcoin at aprox. $250, in 2015.
We all know where this led us - up until the spring and summer of 2021. Bitcoin at $40K, for a start. If it wasn't for beer tasting so good, I could have bought 10 Bitcoins for the price of one night partying as a student. Given how much partying that was going on. I should have been a millionaire by at least Norwegian standards.
I've gotten a solid job, and are able to provide for myself and my share of a two person + one dog household. After considering buying into stocks and bonds, and always pushing it away "due to vast costs for each transaction", I gave it up again. I was thinking that the system was rigged in such a way that you'd have to be filthy rich in order to be able to earn anything.
In May thing was prosperous. I looked into crypto again, and was somewhat surprised to see just how much that was happening. For a first timer - it was a vast field to understand. And that triggered me. I was not gonna let go of the chance to be part of the next crypto wave.
And, as a journalist - it triggered me. I wanted to understand the mechanics, the use of crypto and block chains. To be honest, I was never that good in school. Because I prefer to experiment, rather than read or be told how things work out. I thought I would work harder to learn, if I risked losing something.
So after reading and getting the impression that the recent dip in May was just a fluke, I though that things might turn around. On June 18th I made my first $200 deposit at Currency.com.
A week later, my Ethereum was worth only 80 percent of what I bought it for.
I thought - there must be an easier way than this "2020 winner of Breakthrough in Cryptocurrency Trading". Because no one can earn money with these administrative costs, except the big guys. And not a single person of those I knew, dealing with crypto, can be called a financially "big guy".
More on that later.
How did you get into crypto? Anyone else that passed upon the glorious tips of 2015 and earlier?
Are there anyone else new to crypto the last month that have some weird or exceptional experiences? Or are there any particular subject of the newbie part of crypto you think I should go into with extra details?
Let me know in the comment section.
Header photo by Crypto Crow / Pexels.
