The Road to Redemption – This is My Story

As DeepOnion bids farewell to its 40-week airdrop program, many speculate that the value of DeepOnion will increase significantly, but only time will tell. One thing is for sure, with the active team heading up this project, there is no doubt that DeepOnion will be a significant contributor to the increasing success of the crypto-market. I am grateful I had the opportunity to become a member of this tight-knit community and contribute to DeepOnion’s mission and vision; however, my initial interests in DeepOnion were not what they are today. Here is my story.

It began back in January of 2018. I was surfing the Net gathering information on undervalued, high return potential altcoins. I came across the article Best Undervalued Altcoins to Buy on Cryptopia in 2018 (Fair Reporters, 2018) that listed DeepOnion as one of those coins with everything going for it in the right direction. Here is an excerpt from that article:

So I decided to take a chance and buy a small amount of Onions. The exchange from which I purchased my Onions is not relevant, but the decision I made after my purchase is. I decided to leave my Onions within the exchange, a decision that I would later regret. Following my purchase I periodically, OK daily, even hourly, pull up Coinmarketcap.com and reviewed the prices of crypto to see how well DeepOnion was doing. I never thought to log in to the exchange to check up on my Onions, for in the back of my mind I thought keeping them on the exchange was a safe action. After about a week or so I decided to log in to the exchange and what I discovered made no sense to me, where were all my Onions? After reviewing transaction logs, I was able to determine that another user on the same exchange somehow hacked my account, traded my Onions for Bitcoin and then transferred the Bitcoin other to them. Mind you, I had two-factor authentication enabled and used a strong and secure password, so how this person was able to hack my account is still a mystery to me. I immediately opened up a support ticket; however, reading posts from others that encountered a similar event, I got the notion that I was never going to see my stolen Onions recovered.

Bright Skies Ahead

Although the event left me jaded, I did not give up on crypto and DeepOnion, so I decided to buy some more Onions with the faction of a Bitcoin I had in a different exchange. I confidentially made my Onion purchase, but this time I did something different, I immediately transferred the Onions to the official DeepOnion wallet which I downloaded and installed on my PC. Alas, I felt that my Onions were safe and out of any hackers reach. Those that are not familiar with the DeepOnion wallet, you can send and receive Onions anonymously, put the wallet in stalking mode, and it has a feature called DeepVault which allows you to verify file integrity through cryptographic hashing.

Not satisfied in writing off my loss, I researched ways that I could somehow recoup what I lost, and that’s when it finally hit me. While on the DeepOnion forum I came across information on an AirDrop / Bounty program that DeepOnion made available to members. So the opportunity was there, and my plan was simple, stay active on the community forum, write an article a week promoting DeepOnion, get paid in Onions for my work, recover the amount of Onions stolen from me. Seemed simple enough; however, I quickly found out that I had my work cut out because there were only nine weeks left of the current AirDrop / Bounty program and I had to adhere to the rules set forth for the program. Here are all the steps I needed to take to request my first bounty payment:

1. Create Bitcointalk account and stay active on the Bitcointalk forum. For those of you that do not know, Bitcointalk.org is one of the oldest discussion forums regarding cryptocurrency, housing more information on cryptocurrency than anyone knows what to do with.
2. Create a Steemit account, so that I can post my articles on the Steemit site as well as the DeepOnion community forum.
3. Stay active on the DeepOnion community forum for the week of bounty request. That was easy because the community forum is made up of very active members that strongly support the DeepOnion cause and the future of cryptocurrency in general, so plenty of discussions to engage in and create a sense of comradery.
4. Write an article with a focus on promoting DeepOnion. Sounds easy right? Well, it wasn't because I learned later that the quality, content, promotional value, and member interest all played a part in how many Onions I was awarded for my article

The Outcome of my Efforts

Sticking to my plan, I wrote and published one article each week for which I received bounty payments. The payments varied based on the content and promotion value of each article. Special thanks to @Bykardinal at DeepOnion for providing me assistance with the bounty program. Messages sent to @Bykardinal and the core team were always promptly responded to which confirmed to me their commitment to the success of the DeepOnion project. I am happy to say that the total value of Onions I earned for my articles, thus far, equals to about 75% of that which was stolen from me. That value will change once I receive bounty payment for this, my final article, which I am hopeful will bring me that much closer to the value of what was originally stolen from me. Here is a listing of all the articles I wrote:

• 10 Ways to Help DeepOnion Dominate
• DeepOnion: All about the Name
• The Rise of the Privacy Token
• What Makes a Cryptocurrency Coin or Token Great?
• Keep Your Cryptocurrency Investments Safe by Utilizing a Crypto Wallet
• Crypto Investments in the Red: "HODL"
• Helpful Crypto Posts and Tweets Wanted
• A Cryptocurrency That Stands to Be More Than Just an Investment

The Takeaway

Although I do not wish for anyone to have their accounts hacked and cryptocurrency stole, this road to redemption, from this event, has taught me more than I imagined, far beyond just keeping my cryptocurrency safe. You see, in the beginning, my effort was strictly focused on the bounty payments, but as I completed each article, I realized how much I was learning about DeepOnion and cryptocurrency in general. Discussions with friends went quickly from “crypto, not sure the details, but you got to invest” to “crypto, this is the real deal, and it’s around to stay, and here’s why.” My loss and recovery efforts put me in a position of research and discovery which I now use to help promote and educate others in this fast-growing sector. Take the time to strengthen your understanding of the crypto-market starting with DeepOnion. Their community forum is second to none with more information about DeepOnion, and cryptocurrency in general, than you’ll know what to do with. Take the time to learn more and help spread the word on the future of cryptocurrency and DeepOnion.

References

FairReporters.com (2008, January 11) Best Undervalued Altcoins to Buy on Cryptopia in 2018. Retrieved from http://fairreporters.net/economy/best-undervalued-altcoins-to-buy-on-cryptopia/