2018 - The Start of My Crypto Journey

Steemians! Welcome to my new blog about my 2018 Crypto Journey. I have a feeling I am in very wild ride this.

I started with my first deposit into Coinbase on December 28, 2017. Basically, I was having one of those year-end moments telling myself, "I cannot have another year like 2017!"

December was a bad month for me. Just being in a funk. Not sure what to do for 2018. I had been following Bitcoin for several weeks, watching the run up to near $20,000. So, I did what most do. I started watching YouTube videos, and guess what I came across. Yup, you guessed it. Bitconnect!

I watched hours of videos on that program. Not naming names. Not blaming anyone. It was my responsibility to do my homework, and I did not.

So, feeling like I was missing out, again, I did what most people do. I opened an account with Coinbase, which was really simple. Set up user name and password, verify email address and identification, add my payment info, and it was done.

Next, I deposited $103.99 into Coinbase, of which $3.99 was the Coinbase fee. Oh, the fees! I had no idea the network fees were so high. Again, totally new to this. I researched and found out it was due to network congestion. Ok, fine. I deposed another $103.99 into Coinbase.

After setting up my Bitconnect account, which again, was very easy and standard procedure. I went back to Coinbase to make the transfer. More fees! When it was all said and done, I ended up with $160 on my first deposit into Bitconnect.

Bitconeeeeeeeeeect! Yes, I have seen the video. This was working out just fine. Getting my 1% interest per day, feel great!

I went through the process again and ended with a total of $550 in Bitconnect. I started hearing about the Bitconnect issues from the UK several weeks earlier, the cease and desist letters in the US, all of the issues with China and South Korean regulation. Oh boy. What was going to happen.

So, I started to diversify. I researched mining, and ended up with Hashflare. I wanted more Bitcoins, but Coincase had limited my deposit amount, so I went to LocalBitcoins.

LocalBitcoins was a little scary at first. Going to the bank to make cash deposits into other people's bank accounts, taking pictures of myself with my ID and the bank receipts. I felt like I was in some underground market and any minute I was going to get a knock at the door from the Feds.

Nonetheless, it all worked out fine. With the Bitcoins I bought on LocalBitcoins, I bought more cloud mining contacts on Hashflare.

So, to wrap up this first post, Bitconnect is gone. I feel really bad for people that lost way more than I did. My BCC investment, which I had to move over to HitBTC, is worth about $30 bucks right now, but Hashflare is going well.

My total investment in Hashlfare right now is $811.80, which is 3.88 TH/s for mining Bitcoin. That is generated about $4 - $6 per day, depending on the Bitcoin price, and I reinvest that on each payout.

In my next posts, I will continue to update everyone on my journey. I am looking for more cloud mining contracts, and possibly going to start trading on one of the exchanges.

Wish me luck!!!!