My Beginnings
Image By: Santeri Viinamäki
My beginnings in the world of Cryptocurrencies came to me at a Christmas day party back in 2014, standing there with a beer in one hand and my other hand inside my jean pocket looking on at the kids running around in the center of the living room in my sister in laws rental home up in the foothills. My wife’s cousin's husband Andrew came up beside me while I was standing there and started to make small chit chat with me about the holidays and how everything was coming together. We carried on the conversation, delving into the latest movies that had recently came out in the movie theaters, talking about “The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy,” which was playing on the TV, and how we loved what was happening in it and about the book. It was then that I started talking to Andrew about how I was into computers and programming and to be honest, I am not quite sure how computers came up in the conversation other than my assumption that I had been into computers since I could remember. In the military I had taught myself how to program in the barracks while everyone else went out drinking and partying. I guess you can say I seemed odd or different from everyone else who were into that stuff, but me I enjoyed occupying my time with computers and technology. Maybe, now that I think about it, I may have brought up the year I was overseas during the holidays and couldn’t come home and so I was reminiscing about how I would utilize my time teaching myself programming.
So it was then that Andrew started to discuss about how he knows a friend from his work using graphic cards to mine Bitcoin, which definitely peaked my interest since I am so into that kind of stuff and such an avid learner when it comes to new and more exciting things. Then Andrew explained more with me and excitedly informed me that his friend not only was doing mining but was making good money from it. That he had it all setup in his living room, the mining machines with graphic cards in them. At this point in time, I was extremely curious and wanted to know more, so went on a frantic frenzy and started to ask multiple questions about the workings and process of how to achieve this, already in my mind, ideas rolling in warp speed of how to make money. You see, I am always in search of how to make an income and any new ideas or better ways of doing while having fun and even better, able to earn while doing what I love is always an exciting expenditure. I still didn’t fully understand the whole structure of it all, but I was pretty determined to find out more about it. After the holidays were over, I had established a better understanding of how to Bitcoin worked, and what I could do to get started.
First Month
January was the first real time where I felt completely ready to implement and originate my own ideas on the project and dig up any informative articles on the topic of bitcoin. I was a complete and utter amateur to all of the world Cryptocurrencies, I knew that, however I was eager and more than willing to begin learning all I could. I had all the time in the world at this point, due to the fact that I was out of work suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and rolling in and out of the Veterans Affair hospital, it only made sense to me to pick a new hobby that may one day become my life, at least that was the hope I was aiming for. Much to my surprise, Cryptocurrencies changed my life. With time on my hands and the amazing and wonderful support of my wife, I started to introduce and incorporate ideas to see what I could do to earn making Bitcoins.
Having at the time, feeling I arrived late in the game as it was, I no sooner learned that mining Bitcoin was becoming more difficult than I had initially thought it would be. I found myself cascading down a slippery slope due to the lack of equipment needed to begin the mining which quickly became beyond what I was capable of doing. Among all of this, I began looking to CPU mineable coins and that’s when I came across MinerGate and with infinite time to spare, I spent time learning how to point my desktops toward MinerGate, realizing how crucial it was for me to keep my systems consistently running at full speed and arriving to the point that electricity was going to be used up for the constant running of the computers for mining. At this time, my wife and I were compensating for the utilities being used.
Crypto Noob
Being new in crypto, I made plenty of mistakes. Being somewhat skeptical of faucets, it took me a few months to get started using them. When I finally started using various facets I used the funds to buy cloud mining. One of the first places I found that did cloud mining at the time was CEX.io. I progressed to Scrypt.cc, before it was hacked, then on to EoBot which also has a faucet, and pays in different coins.
In all this I've watched Bitcoin go from $900 all the way down to $150, and then back up to where it is today. There have been several ups and downs, but overall the time I have spent in both collecting, and making Bitcoin has helped save the day. There have been a few times I used the Bitcoins I made to buy Gyft cards.
In January, I had checked the balance of one of my wallets, Bitcoin was around $900 and the total value in the wallet was around $6. With the recent spike in Bitcoin that same wallet now has a value of close to $100. Looking back, the reason Bitcoin now holds the value it does is due to those of us who have used them over the years to make purchases. Although at times I wish I still had all of the coins I have had. But don't we all, however, it was not for the fact that people have been using Bitcoins to buy things, from places such as NewEgg, and other retailers that now accept Bitcoin, this mass adoption we are seeing may never have come about.
Current Involvement
Within the last month, I made the decisions to move beyond just collecting from faucets, and start taking my enthusiasm of cryptocurrencies to the next level. I found a couple communities of crypto-enthusiast, some are developers, who have been working on a coin, and so I decided to volunteer, I took on the job of Social Media promotion. For me this is something new, but I want to see the project succeed, and start working on being more active in the cryptocurrency world! Looking to start making new connections, and become more active in the crypto community.Thank you for reading this far, looking forward to finding out about how you got started in cryptocurrencies. Please leave a comment with how you got started!
You can find me at:
[Discord](http://cryp.li/ICZ54GRa) [Twitter](http://cryp.li/i1BXa) [CryptoInfo](http://cryp.li/SJCubE)
Looking to get started with faucets, here are a few I use to get you started!
MoonBitcoin
MoonLitecoin
MoonDogecoin
MoonDash
BonusBitcoin
BitFun
FreeBitcoins - Clams
You can also join TheCryptoChat several faucets, as well as a great friendly group of people to chat with!
Looking for Cloud Mining
Eobot
Hashflare
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