A month and a half in the crypto-life of a beginner.
Hello there…
This is when a beginner (me) got involved in bitcoin, and the multiple emotions that followed in the first one and a half months.
How I met the bitcoin.
I am a software engineer and 2 years back I started working with a bunch of awesome people - building awesome applications, mainly in forex… The CTO (Chicken Tomato Onion) of that group of awesome people, was a more awesome geek with a love of building everything that requires a keyboard and a screen… Paul.
In my surprise, he knew (and still does) everything. And by everything... I mean EVERYTHING .As a result, and after few months of getting to know my way around an awesome idea fell on the table.
(Early 2016)
“Let’s build an exchange platform for bitcoin”, Paul said.
At that time BTC was around $370 (300 €). We had already built a “normal” forex exchange platform for the company, so we decided to alter the existing one for supporting BTC. At that moment (fool me) I did NOT buy not even 1 BTC, and I did NOT pay close attention… Unfortunately, I kept that attitude, and this great idea of Paul, for various factors went down the drain, and with it, my involvement with BTC.
2 years later, and after – for whatever reasons – I ended up to a different job, just after Christmas and before new year, I had this very nice discussion with that awesome ex-boss-of-mine geeky friend, mentioned above, who explained more and more about BTC, the Alt-coins and the crypto-world. Even though I was living in a cave for the past 2 years, I did hear somewhere that people were actually making money out of BTC for the past year (Jan-Dec 2017). He advised couple of ways to buy BTC, transfer to exchange etc. , and so the plan was simple… Put some money in to get me in the game, and get rich in a week or two…
Me at the time:
“I am so ready to be rich… so ready!”
Lets get rich (#NOT)
At this point and before going on with the story, I should mention the most valuable tips that I received from Paul:
- Do not spend more than you afford to lose
- Get in and spread your BTC, across many alts (also a small tip-list of alts was given)
- Read and learn about an alt before “voting” for it
- HODL
Of course, to show off my stupidity – Paul never said I’ll get rich in a week or a month… actually he never said that I’ll make any money. The whole conversation we got into was that it is a good idea to invest in alts. Translation in my head: “Get rich fast”.
After this slight parenthesis, the story goes on:
I signed up in Xapo, did all the processes, and wired-transferred 50€ ($62) to it, in order to buy some BTC and start.. few days later (4 to be exact), I was all set. Account was approved, money was there and I had JUST exchanged the aforementioned amount to BTC… I had now my first 0.00401368 BTC and I was good to go. I chose Poloniex, as Paul advised it for a good exchange place with plenty of alts to get going… So I copied the address and sent my beautiful BTC to Poloniex…
What happened? Did this really happen????
Naive me – jaw dropped when I saw the transfer being made:
Wait a sec… Did this thing called Xapo, transferred 17,1 € to Poloniex and kept 32,9 € for fees??? What kind of business is this? What did JUST happen? A 65% of the amount in fees???
Well.. I guessed there was no turning back at this point. What is done is done.... Swallowed this, and said to myself – It’s ok – Let’s start gambling…
I took my precious 17 € (0.00137375 BTC), and spent it in various alts. My mainly choices were LTC, XMR, ETH, XRP, ETC and STR. Why? The reason was simple… Paul said so (see b above)… Oh such a naive boy me … I DID follow his (a) and (b) tips.. I did not follow his (c) tip. Just took that blindly – which of course was a mistake.
The Next Days or My First Crush
Just before getting there… I did my part of reading at the beginning, I can say that. I read tips for beginners (starting from “what is bitcoin“ up to “how to trade like a boss” etc. - With an awesome overall tips for beginners I saw on reddit: https://redd.it/7maayb . I read about Bulls, Bears, Whales and all kind of animals...
I downloaded a bunch of BTC apps on my phone, and I was checking how it goes… EVERY.FIVE.MINUTES!!!
Note to self: DO NOT CHECK YOUR GAIN/LOSS EVERY 5 MINUTES!!!
For the next 10 days (we are at beginning of January already) things went smoothly.. Ups and downs… but then all hell broke lose.
My first crash: 15 to 17 of January.
“Ground control to Major Tom” . For 2 days I was looking the red numbers, and the sum of my amount to go down… very down... deep down!
At this point you’ll be like:
“But we are talking about ONLY 50 €”.
Yeap... You are absolutely right! For some strange reason I though I had a million in there… I was “devastated” ‘cause I felt that I lost a fortune! That I lost everything! Could not actually believe – It was a kind of a panic attack.
Think again
How I got back to think straight? I got a small talk and another tip from Paul.
“Dude – it’s a price correction - relax… when it reach the bottom –> BUY, when it goes up -> SELL… repeat until you have nothing left.”
So at the moment that everything was at the lowest level, I chipped in 50€ more. This time straight to XLM. I should mention at this point, that I got my head straight… I stopped panicking (thankfully I got my senses, back, fast) and for all cryptos I had, I read tens of articles, whitepapers, roadmaps and plans. Events and interviews.
From that moment all, I understood more and more what the whole “crypto” world is about… At first, I got in for the money… Now I am in for the investment and the principle.
A kind of course correction.
Started for the wrong reasons. Through the reading I got saw benefits, opportunities, reasoning, privacy and a new horizon for technology. From 18th of January up to last week I kept reading news, I invested more money to specific cryptos that I was really interested on their plans and technologies that they introduce (e.g. DGB), and eventually reached last week’s crush! Even though I was in for almost 1,5 months this was like a Deja-Vu, but with different –thankfully – reaction. This time I read more, I tried to understand why this happened again, and in such a small time frame. Which news brought this 2nd crush and of course, invested some more in the markets.
From now on
As said before, I entered for the short gain and the wrong reason. I understood that this was a mistake, and now I can see clearer and I can say, I do learn so much more. It was a good luck that I followed tip (a) of Paul and did not invest more that I could afford to lose… Now I am more glad that I am following all of his advises (especially (d) – HODL), and advises that I have read from other people of crypto communities.
I am glad that I am in this, and that I am in it, now for the right reasons… no matter the crushes, or the ups and downs…
