Do you know those questions people often get in interviews: When and how did you come by crypto?
I thought it was about time to dive back in my own crypto history, and it's a good thing I did because my recollection of my beginnings in crypto turned out to be a little off from the facts. It's a good exercise maybe you should try as well.
What I remembered was that I used Poloniex before joining Steem. And in my mind I placed the time of joining Poloniex around 2 years before Steem, which is rather accurate, because I joined Steem in January 2018 and Poloniex in July 2015. Only half a year off.
I know I joined Steem because of @jongolson's relentless and excited emails about it (even back then!), and I joined Poloniex at the recommendation of an online friend I had back then.
At the time it was very easy to grow your bitcoin on Poloniex, by lending them at incredible APRs occasionally. And I didn't care nor understood the concept of "not your keys, not your crypto". What I understood was that it was risky, so I only bought a small fraction of BTC to play with (would be worth a bit these days, but I started spending it on things like... STEEM - which in a sense it's ok, because now they turned into HIVE).
What I didn't remember is that I toyed with crypto space before Poloniex.
For example, my Coinbase account was created in June 2014. Probably as a result of seeing an ad. And a month later I joined a crypto freelancing site which still exists. This one looks like I searched for intentionally. I was in a period when I did freelancing work as well. I don't think I took any kind of work on this site, but seems like I became curious enough about crypto to want to explore more and start earning. Strange how it all just erased from my mind.
In my crypto history dive, I also discovered a crypto-related scam that I joined in 2014, and also a few sites that seem in the faucet territory but didn't last the test of time. Curiously, I only joined freebitco.in - the granddaddy of crypto faucets - in 2018. Maybe the name didn't inspire trust, I don't recall why I kept avoiding it.
So, this summer I'll be in crypto technically for 8 years. But in the early days, I don't remember checking the prices of crypto much, I certainly didn't understand the cycles of bitcoin nor have I taken advantage of my time in crypto seriously. It was more of a hobby. That started with Steem, mainly.
I believe in that regard, my memory wasn't wrong. My real start in crypto was in 2016 when I began to lend my small bitcoin stash on Poloniex. I remember it took some time before I figured out how to buy bitcoin (there was no Binance then, Coinbase didn't have an option to add a card early on in my country, if I remember right), and then how to use the lending options.
It appears there are still many blurry things in my mind about what I did and didn't do in my early days in crypto. But at least I have some dates straight.
Do you remember how and when you started?