After months of hearing hubby waxing lyrical about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency being the next "big" thing, my interest was further piqued by a friend in the US. Said friend, being a tech-head extraordinaire, had jumped right on the bandwagon as soon as Bitcoin launched in 2009, and has obviously made a sizeable profit since then. Now I have to admit, the prospect of mining - and needing ASICs to do so - had somewhat dampened my enthusiasm and confidence (I've seen videos of Chinese Bitcoin mines, and while I realise that those are large-scale, I can't help picturing all those cables scattered through my already-cluttered study). I'm a relatively intelligent person, so I'd figure it out eventually, but the thought of racking up industrial sized power bills at home (coupled with the startling information that a solo miner could expect to take 400+ years or so to mine the equivalent of 1 Bitcoin, SERIOUSLY?) I knew there had to be a better way! With great womanly glee, I discovered I could just buy one. Imagine my delight!
So hubby and I decided to take the plunge, better late than never, right? We have uni fees to pay for soon, and let's be honest, the interest earned from the banks is not exactly helping us out on that score. We have a bevy of crypto-knowledge gurus helping us out and steering us every step of the way (you know who you are gurus; thank you for being so generous with your valuable advice). And I am faithful to their consistent advice to "do the research, then research more". This is much easier said than done though, because half of the time I'm not quite sure I understand the dumbed down explanations I am constantly seeking out. On the upside though, I'm constantly buoyed by friends' tales of their own forays into this magical world of 0s and 1s; including one who "accidentally" made $14,500 by buying Ethereum to purchase something, changing his mind about his purchase, and then remembering months later that he still had the Ethereum, which had quadrupled in value (oh, how I long for this to happen to me). See my graphical representation of my perfect crypto-trading experience below.
It seems like such a no-brainer, what could possibly go wrong? I know, right! Watch this space ...