My journey in the cryptocurrency world - Part 1 : Onboarding

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This post belongs to a series of posts describing my journey in the Cryptocurrency world. Others parts here:

My journey in the cryptocurrency world - Part 0

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Greedy.

Let's face it, my journey around the 10th of June 2017 began with a discovery. A shock. This: 

If you are here, you obviously know this chart. I heard about bitcoin and blockchain a long time ago, a few years ago. But it didn't strike me until I  discovered recently this huge increase in BTC value.  Almost 2500 - 3000 dollars for 1 Bitcoin ?! Really ?!  And then, I immediately did what everyone have done before me in my shoes: some researches. 

• That story of a student who became millionaire by investing 27 bucks
• That story of two pizza bought with 10 000 Bitcoin in 2010 - meaning that the pizza would cost around $10M in 2017

Plenty of tales true stories about people becoming rich instantaneously. Cryptomillionnaire. Cryptobillionnaire. I arrived on the Reddit forums and it was wild. Especially in the /ethtrader forum. Full of Lambo memes. Regular Joes wondering which color they will pick for their Lamborghinis. It was wild, it was crazy. 

First Pick.

At that moment, I documented myself . Ton of posts. I wanted badly to be part of this. I mean, if I invest 100 bucks, can I have also a 5000% increase within months ? What about 1000 bucks ? Could I become rich as my lucky peers ? Why not ? 

I did some researches and find out Ethereum. Second in market cap, and a huge increase so far. I didn't think about it too long and I stepped in at 284$. I spent around 550$ and I looked with satisfaction at my 1.91 ETH. I was sure that I will earn a lot of money now. It was simple: If 1 Bitcoin was 3000 $, so will be 1 Eth within months. I mean, I studied it (and even I don't understand all the technical parts), and it looked very promising. So my 550$ would become 5500$ very soon. And you know what ? The dream become true quite quickly. The Ethereum increase to 300$, 350$, 400$. Within days. literally DAYS. Again, on reddit forums, it was wild and crazy. I was proud and I consolidated my position by buying other Eth at 300$ and 380$.

Wrong.

I was fool and stupid. 

The Ethereum price dropped as quickly as it has increased the past week. Now, almost one month later, it's around 250$, less than the value I first jumped with. No Lamborghini. Actually, virtually, I lost money so far.

So, what did I do wrong ?

• I learnt the expression after that event: FOMO. Fear Of Missing Out. Fear to lose money if I don't jump in immediately
• I didn't take time to understand the situation: I was blind, and I didn't see the huge increase of Ethereum value, just before I jumped in: 400%. I was so fool to think that this rate will be sustainable... 
• I didn't take time to understand the situation: Why should I invest on Ethereum ? Why not other coins ? Why the Eth token is valuable and how ?

It's a first important lesson for me and I'm glad to learn it quickly:

Never invest your money before doing your homework.  

• Why should you invest money in something and not something else ? 
• What can you expect ? 
• When ?