Why I started Travel On Crypto

Hello, world-travelers and cryptocurrency pioneers,

My name is Cameron GrandPre and I am the founder of the website traveloncrypto.com. I’m a Colorado native and big-time nature lover. I’m also a huge travel-enthusiast & world adventurer, much like many of you Millenials and Gen Z’ers. Having recently graduated from University, I was faced with a major crossroads in my life, just like most do after graduation. Do I dive headfirst into my chosen career-field or do I say ‘screw it’ and move to a foreign country and figure the rest of my life out abroad? Well, I went with the ‘screw it’ option, bought a year-long working holiday visa for Australia and a one-way plane ticket. And it’s been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Now I know what you’re thinking, “Oh great just another travel blog, there’s hardly any of those on the Internet!” Well, I’m actually starting this blog to address something else, and that something else is Bitcoin. Yes, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies or ‘alt-coins’ as their sometimes referred to have exploded in popularity this last year. People are making vast fortunes in cryptocurrency, seemingly overnight, by investing in these digital coins and tokens. Less than a year ago, I myself began to dabble in the world of cryptocurrencies. Originally, I found out about this whole new world through a popular TedTalk by Don Tapscott, titled: How the blockchain is changing money and business. For those of you unfamiliar with the term ‘blockchain’ or would like to know more about it, I’d suggest watching this video or one of the various others now available on TedTalk. I’ll include the link at the bottom of this section, but in a nutshell, blockchain is the technology behind bitcoin and has the potential to be as disruptive to the global economy as the Internet was and still is. Rather than try and explain the technology (probably poorly) I hope that you take the time out of your day to watch the short 19-minute video, as Don does a fairly good job at explaining such a complex technology.

https://www.ted.com/talks/don_tapscott_how_the_blockchain_is_changing_money_and_business

Anyways, long-story-short, I was convinced on blockchain and wanted to invest. The most straight-forward way of doing that was to create an account at an online cryptocurrency exchange. After researching various companies and exchanges I ended up on San Francisco-based, Coinbase. I chose them not because they had the lowest fees or the widest selection of cryptocurrencies available, but because they were FDIC insured like a traditional bank would be and had the most consumer-friendly interface; something that my dumbass valued highly, especially if I was going to invest my hard-earned USD in a sort of digital currency not backed by any central government. Since then Coinbase actually became the first cryptocurrency company to achieve unicorn status with a total valuation well-north of 1.6 billion USD and was the number one most downloaded app in the app store for awhile, but that’s beside the point.

So once I created the account with Coinbase I made my first cryptocurrency purchase. I believe I spent around $200 for 1 full ethereum token (similar to Bitcoin but with the added features of self-executing smart contracts and the ability to build decentralized applications on top of the platform. You can think of the goal of ethereum as to build a global supercomputer where businesses and economies can operate with little to no human involvement. Some seriously cool, futuristic shit if you ask me). But ever since then, I’ve been enthralled in this new, emerging industry. I’ve bought into various other cryptocurrencies at various stages of their life cycles, whether it be Bitcoin, the oldest of them all at over 9 years old, to various ICO’s, short for initial-coin-offering and sort of a cross between an IPO, crowdfunding, and the television series SharkTank. (Sidenote: I would never ever recommend investing in an ICO unless you are 110% it’s not a scam, you believe in the business and the founding team, and are only willing to invest the money you can afford to lose. Even then, these ICO’s are pretty much a crapshoot and similar to throwing a dart at a dartboard and expecting it to hit the bullseye every time). I’ve endured the euphoria-inducing cryptocurrency gains and the gut-wrenching crashes, but overall, being no smarter than the average guy, I’ve done alright with my cryptocurrency investments.

Coinbase logo.png

Which brings me to the point of why I’m taking the time out of my travels to create this blog. I’m creating this blog to help bridge the gap between making money through the decentralized economy that is cryptocurrencies and being able to spend that cryptocurrency on amazing, real-life experiences all around the world. My goal is to show people the various ways of making money in the current cryptocurrency ecosystem, document the businesses and companies all across the globe that are accepting cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as payment for their goods and services and prove to any skeptics that it’s not only possible to travel the world on cryptocurrency, but a way to take part in a global economy that’s more efficient, transparent and empowering for all parties involved.

I will be updating this blog periodically in the future and whenever I have information that readers would find value in. Currently residing in Sydney, Australia and will be posting about local cryptocurrency-friendly travel companies in the near future. If you’re interested in being notified of any future articles posted, please subscribe to Travel On Crypto’s email list. I also have a Twitter handle @TravelOnCrypto, an Instagram page @travel_on_crypto, a FaceBook page @traveloncrypto & a Steemit page @traveloncrypto