Steemit
I had heard of Bitcoin, even looked into mining it about 5 years ago, but it seemed way too complicated. So I just went back to writing code and affiliate marketing and forgot about it for a while.
I ran into Steemit a little over a year ago on Reddit and gave it a shot between side jobs. Then the sidejobs never ended. And then I didn't really have much to write about except coding, because I was doing it all the time. And general coding didn't make much here or anywhere really. I have published two books and it came to about $5 an hour. But it got me jobs.
Numerai
So a few months before finding Steemit, I was handed a book on machine learning at work and told, "Go learn this. We have a project for you." I kind of let drop I wanted to learn machine learning and wasn't sure if anyone would let me just jump in. Now was my chance, but I really had no clue how to start. I had become interested in AI during the "AI Winter" period, when everything seemed possible but the infastructure wasn't there to handle it. Now AI was working and I didn't want to pass it up. I knew machine learning was moving fast and books were slow, so I subscribed to every Reddit I could find on machine learning.
I spent a month reading the book and barely picking up anything. I needed a real-life project. Not a "hello world" toy project. And I eventually found it on Reddit, the Numerai stock market contest. And I was right. Real life taught me a lot. In the first 3 tournaments, I placed #8, #3 and #4 respectively and won about $2400 for my effort. Then they switched to only Bitcoin payments and I went to work on another side project.
Numeraire
Fast forward to about a month ago. I'm clicking through my blog. Clicking links. Making sure things work. I have neglected it for quite a few years and wanted to start blogging again like I do about every year now. I clicked on the link to my Numerai tournaments ranking and it's a 404. So I log in. Everything is new and shiny. And I have a little over 3700 Numeraire tokens. Okay, whatever. Look up the price and I changed my mind.
Finally a Use for this Blog that Fits
So I started reading all I could about cryptocurrency. And I finally have something new to write about that other people might want to know. About a month later, I've done some trading, have a few different coins and my portfolio has increased in value 20%. But that's jumping ahead and this is just the beginning of the story I hope to tell with this blog.