So far 2017 has been a whirlwind year, and it's only getting started. Global Turmoil continues to dominate the narrative.
Financial chaos in Venezuela, a political tornado in Brazil, an impending downturn in the Global economy, and the rise of Crypto-Currency.
My first exposure to Cryptocurrency started in 2013 when the popular meme of a Shiba Inu took the internet by storm. I took to reddit as I usually did, and chatter about this new cryptocurrency "Dogecoin" began to spread like wildfire. Now, I missed the boat on mining Bitcoin and Litecoin, and with minimal financial resources, Dogecoin had a great community, and looked like a fun way to possibly make some money.
I took my R9-270x and fired up cgminer and away I went. I learned a lot during this time, I managed to save up for 3 more GPU's and I had a total of 4 R9-270x's in a milk crate in my bedroom. I still remember my mom complaining about the heat pouring from the bedroom lol. Today, people have some pretty fancy home rigs, but for me this was amazing and I was proud.
Now Dogecoin never took off like the other cryptos today, but I learned some valuable lessons that set me up for the future.
I learned how to run a reliable mining rig, basic trading skills, and furthered my knowledge of Bitcoin and Blockchain technology.
In 2016, Ethereum catches my attention, and I give it another go. I build another mining rig, this time with 4 RX-470's and some investment capital. I begin to mine Ethereum, and trade it on Poloniex. As I write this, Ethereum has gone from $8 in early February 2017 to $120+ in May.
In my opinion, cryptocurrency is the future, this is much like the dot com boom of the 90's. It had a meteoric rise, and a crash. Crypto may experience a crash as well, but over the long run, it will be an integral part of our every day lives.
Dip your toes in, and only invest what you can afford to lose. But make no mistake, these are exciting times we are living in.
With so much uncertainty in the U.S. economy and that state of the current financial system, expect cryptocurrency interest to boom in the coming months. So do yourself a favor and start learning now, you'll be glad you did.