You have more HP than I do. I know it is like you said because you paid to power up. Had I left my Steem account where it was instead of powering down as I was getting tired of how some elites rigged and controlled everything I would have started out my HIVE at around 25,000. I am pretty good at missing opportunities.
One opportunity I didn't miss was starting on steemit within the first week of it going public. That ended up being quite the boon.
Right place, right time.
I knew about bitcoin when it was less than $0.01/coin. I bought a Pizza instead. I knew about bitcoin when it was $1000/coin. I had a coin. I sold it and bought some things. A few of them I actually needed. Mostly just things I wanted.
I made quite a bit of money and spent probably 40% of it right away on steemit.
I walked into a guitar store, bought a new amp and guitar paid for completely from writing there and I remember telling the guy in the store "I'm paying for this with magic internet money".
I had quite a few Ethereum. Sold those.
I had a bunch of Binance Coin... I think 75 at one point. Sold those.
All of those things exploded...
Now I own quite a few cryptos and I am just sitting on them.
I am not much of a gambler.
I was working on open source exchanges before Bitcoin. I contended that an exchange that cleared transactions in real time would obviate the majority of SEC regulations which are aimed at exchanges like NYSE and NASDAQ which depend on batch transactions run through clearing houses.
The problem the world faced was that the SEC could charge any exchange of a variety of transgressions such as trading securities without a brokerage license.
I created an exchange where people could buy and sell one of a kind digital images to demonstrate the idea, but got nowhere.
I did not buy Bitcoin because I thought that the SEC, FTC and other groups were bound to suppress the coins.
Every time there is a dip in BTC, I expect an army of regulators to march in with jail sentences and impossibly fines.
As for my amount of HIVE. I have more than I really want. But I have to admit, it would be fun to have the dolphin badge.
I actually want to start selling off the HIVE and start living. I am hoping for a nice little price jump before I do so; However, I realize that I could end up holding a sticky pollen covered bag.
Hah. I actually made the same claim to some friends right before I went out and bought that pizza. :)