When I talk to friends, colleagues and acquaintances about cryptocurrencies, the first question I'm usually asked is "Is it real?" then questions like "How long have you been involved?" "How much have you made?" begin to follow.
I brace up myself and prepare for the long haul because I am backed by my profit margin of about $1,500 in cryptos excluding profits I have spent.
While that may not be much, I am however very proud to be exactly 1 year old in this digital money sector. My first few months were dedicated to much reading and familiarisation. Multiple times, I failed at getting it. I didn't understand the basic concept of "Money you can't see". I struggled to accept that there could be a virtual currency with no centralisation and with real value. The only name I could hear then (January 2017) was Bitcoin
By the time I was ready to begin my first stages of crypto involvement, my brother in-law who introduced it to me sent about 0.12 BTC to my bitcoin address.
At the time, it was about 60,000 Nigerian Nairas. I vowed never to fail him. I told him I was going to maximise this opportunity and generate profit while recycling my investment. In fact, I thought I knew it all.. till I lost every fraction of my investment to a bitcoin doubling website of which I'm sure majority of you know were rampant at a point. So a lot of naive people were caught believing they were real. I was completely devasted. I quickly ran the calculations and saw that with the Bitcoin boom/surge, my 0.12 BTC would have been worth a lot.
In the good light and to shorten this story, I dust myself up not long after I was down and started investing in profitable ICOs with money earned from my basic salary. My biggest ICO yet is ELECTRONEUM. Additionally, I dedicate a percent of my salary to buying Ethereum and Bitcoin in fractions for holding purposes while I have a certain amount I dedicate to just trading. I wouldn't say I am where I want to be but I'm sure as hell not where I used to be.
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THE SCARE OF CRYPTOCURRENCY FOR THE AVERAGE AFRICAN
So why are most Africans still not interested in bitcoin and other altcoins? are they scared? poor? uneducated? or unaware? Frankly, I would go with 'unawareness' and 'lack of finance'
I have taken my time to create a little poll that lets my friends answer questions about cryptocurrency and I had over 500 engagements from my 4k+ Facebook friends. I tried, I guess..
Before I published this poll, I thought to myself that most survey takers would choose inadequate finance as their answer. Heck! I was so wrong. Lack of money is not the first of hindering factors for Africans to join the digital money train. I believe it is in fact 'unawareness'.
Different magnitude of knowledge for different levels of crypto professionalism.
The ones who do not know at all do not invest at all.
The ones who know a little are scared they don't know enough to be involved.
The ones who have a fair idea about cryptocurrency have either lost their monies to scammers or have become overwhelmed by their day jobs that their knowledge of bitcoin and altcoins is not enough to take them away from.
The ones who know substantially enough to make money are very few.
The moment I figured this out, I started a personal consultation operative. I have learned, I now make enough money and I'm willing to teach others to follow. The main criteria I use in accepting a student into my program is their risk appetite.
It is my pleasure to share with you that I have about five (5) people that learn from me and have made money in cryptocurrencies. Although my service is no longer free, it is still a small project to a good cause.
The digital money sector has just begun. What are you doing to create awareness amongst your friends?
Thanks for reading.. do drop a comment below if you enjoyed this piece and share with me the biggest ICO you ever invested in.
Also, I'd like you to suggest accounts you think I might love to follow.
Thanks again.
Welcome to Steem @louisajlo. Feel free to follow me @kanasite and upvote. Cheers :)
Thank you very much for the helpful info. I am probably going to start soon. I hope that I can get into some nice indie coins soon. I also Like the idea of mining for coin too.
I'm glad the post helped. And yes coins that are being mined tend to have a longer generative market activity as that is what keeps the blockchain alive.
any thoughts on Cardano? I really like Charles Hackenson(I think). It's not a minded one- it's usage of the product that "mines" the blockchain.
I don't know much about Cardano, I thought its premise was centred on protocol building for privacy and stuffs like that?!