I started with crypto back in 2011. Long story short I mined about 200 BTC in about 6-7 months and sold most of them to pay my electricity bill.

That is almost like the guy who bought pizza with 10 000 bitcoin. Later I lost money with MTGOX and got out of Crypto somewhere in 2013.

Four years later I got back into mining ETH just before the last bull run and started accumulating bitcoin by mining with my PC and trying to find the right investments for my money. It did not help that in the middle of the last bull run I lost my job. I was thinking that it's feasible to live on the earnings from cloud mining (big mistake). As of today, my venture with them is profitable, but that's about 3 and a half years later, back then, It did not look anywhere near that. I had invested about 600 USD in Hashflare and got from it about 0.016 Bitcoin before they stopped paying due to too high maintenance fees.

My main point here is that I have stopped telling the people around me about the missed opportunities. "If you bought just 10 days ago this coin for 50 bucks you would now have money to get the car you want". The reason for this is that it doesn't help. Most will think this is some kind of scam - Ponzi or pyramid, that there's no real value in Crypto.

Also, it doesn't help the widely popular HYIP websites that are literally Ponzi schemes that promise you unrealistic ROI on your returns before they stop paying and steal all your money. The internet is actually full of those and you should avoid them at any cost. When I see someone on social media trying to promote(for referrals) them I always try to speak to them about this, but people not always listen.

So, how my view changed? Now I am looking at Bitcoin and Crypto as my retirement fund. I'm about 40 now and looking to quit a 9 to 5 job in the next few years with enough passive income from crypto so I can live without being worried about anything.

I even started an Etsy t-shirt shop to earn more money than I can put into crypto. I have several crypto-related shirts that you guys might like. Links are under the pictures.

My main point here is the fact that for me Crypto is not a short-term method to earn some bucks, but the general solution for the world's finances.

If anyone wants a t-shirt they are can directly order from the website(shipping is from any continent) or welcome to write in the comments so I can provide my contact details and would give 10% discount for payments in crypto :)

Thanks for reading.