Hello, My name is Pairmike.
I was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. In elementary and high school, I was not a good student. All I wanted to do was act silly and have fun with my friends. After barely graduating high school, I joined the United States Air Force (USAF) and served for 4 years. There is major difference in which enlisted and officers are treated, respected, and paid in the military. A 4 year college degree is a requirement to become an officer in the USAF.
My time in the military taught me the importance and value of an education. I started taking college courses prior to getting out of the military.
College
After the military, I pursued my undergraduate studies and then graduate school, where obtained degrees in Computer Science. I've worked in this field for the past 20 years as a software engineer.
Investing
As a teenager, my uncle taught me about savings and investments, primarily Certificates of Deposits and Treasury Bills. While in the military, I started investing in mutual funds. In the mid 1990s, I began trading equities and options. Investing is a passion of mine and I'm constantly reading and learning.
Bitcoin
In March 2013, a friend told me about Bitcoin, but I didn't pay any attention to it. He mentioned it again and I took an in depth look and I became consumed. Initially, the Letstalkbitcoin.com podcast was my primary means of learning about this new technology.
I learned about the Liberty Movement, economics, how money works and the role of Federal Reserve, in addition to many other topics. October 2013, I met Dan Larimer at a conference where he presented Protoshares. His idea of a Decentralized Autonomous Corporation (DAC) that leveraged the BitShares toolkit seemed like great investment idea.
Crypto Related Investments
I saw the potential of the blockchain and I wanted to invest in it. I took a venture capitalist approach by investing in many different projects (investing small amounts over a large number of projects). Here are some of the projects I have invested in:
- Bitcoin
- BitShares
- Steem
- Feathercoin
- Bitshares
- Nxt
- The SuperNet
- Fibonacci.io (scam)
- Kaynecoin (not active)
- Dogecoin
- LTBCoin
- FoldingCoin
- Spells of Genesis
Crypto Trading
I do trade crypto currencies occasionally on Poloniex. Recently, I started trading equities on 1broker.com using Bitcoin as the funding currency. On this site you can trade several different equities with up to 15 times leverage.
Steemit
When I first read about Steemit in the bitsharestalk.com forum, I didn't pay too much attention to it. The more forum posts that I read the more interested I became. I created an account and started posting even before reading the whitepaper.
Steemit appeals to me because I'm a content creator. I create DJ videos, hosted a crypto currency podcast, compose music, post on my blog and other media outlets. Steemit is a natural extension to what I do already. Creating content is time consuming and often not financially sustainable. Some people do not realize the effort it takes to create content. It is a great deal of work.
Steemit can help to provide some meaningful financial rewards to content creators. I look forward to posting more articles on Steemit and engaging with other community members.
Thanks for reading my story,
Greetings pairmike! Thanks for the interesting intro.
Welcome, pairmike! Sounds like you have great experience with the blockchain world and I hope you share some insight here.
Content creation is a lot of work, but if its a labor of love, we do it. Financial gain can add even more incentive. Steemit brings this new possible income stream to creators; and it's exciting to see how this all unfolds!
Thank you. If you have specific questions. Let me know.
welcome! Glad to see a like minded person joining the platform. Live long and prosper!
Thank Cryptoctopus! I've been following your posts.
Great to have you here, Pairmike! Looking forward to read more of you! :)
Thanks, @steemswede!
happy steeming