When I first got started in the sports industry, I knew nothing about cryptocurrency. Never heard of it. Parents are cool, but very conservative. I first learned about it from a co-worker who was using a wallet for his crypto to collect payments for a shoe raffle. Paid your way into one of the 10 slots with BTC in 2017-18 and you could've won a pair of shoes value much higher in $ for you $30 in BTC entry fee. Was this legal? Probably not.
Tie-in to that top line? I was working for a sports team part-time. Don't be fooled by the glitz and glamour of games, owners, and wealthy courtside spectators. Behind it, there are part-time and full-time people that work very hard for little. Most do it for the love of the team in their city. Some, college experience for a resume. Others, its their fun job. For me, it was a lifestyle that unintentionally threw me into people who passively admired cryptocurrency and knowledge related to blockchain.
I got onto Coinbase and we had a brief conversation. Fast forward nearly three months and between my 1st BTC purchase and increased, but still limited, knowledge on ETH and LTC, was holding about $140 in compared to the $20 I put in from the get go. I was astonished. Never been poor, but bruh I ain't coming to you from Beverly Hills. This co-worker you may passively wonder: $30,000+ between BTC, ETH, LTC. He would work entire games, get food, sit down and pop open his app to new raffle entries. Meanwhile, his wallet was growing like monster on Power Rangers.
Hindsight is 2020 so I'll end this rant saying 2 things: (1) in the world of DeFi, Crypto, blockchain, there's going to be risk associated with everything. Take the chances you feel comfortable with and I promise to do the same. (2) The day is coming where we'll have a contract for a professional player paid almost entirely in crypto. We almost had one this past year in 2019, it dissolved. When are teams going to learn the value in taking crypto? Next year, I want to go to game with a ticket entirely paid for by the ETH in my wallet.
