Several years ago, I was desperate for work and ended up freelancing for a then start-up involved with Bitcoin.

I'd heard of Bitcoin before but I'd no idea what it was.

I began doing some copywriting and translation work for the company and got paid in BTC. I actually recall asking whether PayPal was an option but they said, nah, Bitcoin only.

Long story short, some time later I'd amassed about 0.7 Bitcoin, worth around $600 at the time, and it sat in the account I'd opened with this crypto start-up (which is now an exchange).

One day, I found emails I didn't recognise and found my account had been drained.

In short, I made three crucial mistakes.

First, I used a simple password for my account.
Second, I used the same password for my email account.
Third, no 2FA on either.

It must've been a piece of cake for the would-be hacker to steal the money from me.

I still remember feeling angry and sad. I remember the feeling of panic.

$600 was a lot of money for me at the time because I was flat broke.

Obviously, I never recovered the funds but the experience taught me a lot.

I now use different, complex passwords and 2FA. I keep track of authorized devices and change passwords often.

It was a $600 mistake back then but it's a mistake worth $17k today. And hopefully, if everything goes right, it will be worth a lot more in the future.

Fortunately I was able to accumulate some BTC after that, through the years, but still.

It sucks.