I’m kind of a late bloomer you could say. I’d heard my Dad and my Brother talking about Bitcoin in the summer last year but my life was a tad busy and I didn’t really know what the hell they were talking about. Then we got to November and Dad started to quote me the price, which by then was steadily going upward. That piqued my interest so I gave in and asked him what it was all about. To be fair to my dad he introduced me, so he’s the smart one, but explaining cryptocurrencies and blockchain was never going to be his strong point. I messaged him and we agreed to that we were going to do this…………. Whatever this was!? 😱
That’s just the thing, deciding you are going to do it and actually being able to do it are two completely different things. We were both cramming YouTube videos one after the other to get a crash course on how to purchase Bitcoin. At this point Bitcoin was starting to increase in value at an exponential rate and the FOMO was kicking in.
The first move we made was to create a wallet with Blockchain.Info. I’m sure I heard it suggested and it seemed the logical place to start. Sign up was reasonably simple but what the hell was “two step verification?” They also wanted us to set up the 12 word password, which seemed a bit complicated, so we thought naa! We don’t need that.
We initially didn’t want to hand over personal documents so it became a challenge to find a site that didn’t need a passport. Etorro was the site of choice. We signed up, added the credit card details, uploaded our first amount and hit the buy button. Yipee we own Bitcoin! Never mind the fact that if we had purchased it when we first agreed it would have been $6000 per coin cheaper. Tss, Newbs!
Right, let’s move our Bitcoin to our shiny new Bitcoin wallet that we made. What the F….? There is no Bitcoin? Little did we know that you do not handle or take away your coins from Etorro. Lesson learned number 1.
The next challenge was to create a Coinbase account. The realisation kicks in that you have to give up your details to do this properly, in fact, it’s getting more stringent all the time. Signing up to Coinbase feels like a defeat. Everyone seems to complain about it and suggest using someone else but with limited knowledge, who? It was an uncomfortable process and we were just ahead of the impending rush, not that at the time we knew that, and completed the signup and verification.
£10! Bloody 10 quid of charges for our next batch of BTC. I guess it was a combination of those blood sucking banks and the ‘fiat making machine’ known as Coinbase. But at least we have some Bitcoin! Lovely Bitcoin. Let’s move it to our shiny new wallet. $30! You’re having a laugh! Why? What an awakening that was. Out of the frying pan into the fire! I thought we were moving away from robbing bastards and joining the more spiritual and enlightened crypto world. Of course, mining charges were hitting an all-time high at exactly the point we wanted to move our BTC. Forget that! It’s staying on Coinbase.
Mid to late December and the price of most coins were rocketing. We decide to dabble in the altcoin market. I had already set up a Bittrex account (which by the way, among other sites, doesn’t bloody work in Romania) and we were ready to rock. This time we purchased some Etherium to avoid the ridiculous transfer fees of BTC.
ETH at the ready we got the address of our Bittrex ETH wallet. OMG! It’s like 30 characters long. I copied and pasted, not trusting a single move along the whole process, and then with a magnifying glass checked every single letter and number. Then my hand slips on the mouse something weird happens, freaked out and checked it again. My heart starting to pound, battling the shakes! Shall we make a cup of tea first? No, oh ok. Here goes. That first send button was not a fun experience I can tell you. I absolutely expected it to just disappear. In fact we have a running joke about the scene from The Simpson’s in the bank when people are depositing their savings and the bank guy taps a few keys and sayssssssssssssssss “it’s gone!”
Aaand it's gone
The next revelation we had was that it didn’t appear in the Bittrex wallet straight away. There is nobody out there warning you about all these tiny little details. I had some vision of waving my phone around like a magic wand shouting “expelliarmus” and paying for my coffee. Not gonna happen folks. Not yet anyway.
Ok, now we can relax. Breathe. Bitcoin purchased, Altcoins purchased and moved. Shall I make that cup of tea now? Yes but I’ll just check the market pricesssssssswHAT!!!!! Holy S*#t! The ass has just dropped out of the market! You mean this thing goes down as well as up?
We’ve since bought some Steem which again I have to credit my Dad with the call. I made the account initially as storage for the coin but then discovered the world of Steemit. It’s easily been the most pleasant experience in crypto so far. It’s also the best way to explain crypto to a complete newbie because of the clear use case. People don’t seem to get Bitcoin because it’s not based on anything and its value is only perceived. Duuuhhhhhh, Fiat anyone!
Mainstream adoption is a long way off and it’s probably a good thing. The world of Cryptocurrency is in its infancy and will scare a lot of the masses away. We are fortunate to have some very smart and visionary people in this space that are going to iron out the problems and make it succeed. There will come a time when it will be ready, so hang in there, Hodl and keep on Steemin.
If you are interested in the subject of Mainstream adoption I have a link to my other post here.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers, Gaz.