Atok's Journal Entry 1: Intro to Crypto

Atok's Journal

In the 3rd quarter of 2021, I witnessed a young man reverse his fortunes in 3 months. When I was his age, I was in a similar predicament that took a decade to escape. That decade altered the trajectory of my life significantly, and I wondered what my life would have been without that albatross weighing me down. Now, I asked if I could use time differently on the back of my life path, so I asked this young man to tell me how he did it.

He showed me a picture of a rock. Not a photograph, just a computer-colored drawing, like a stone boulder in a cartoon.

"This rock sold for 1.3 million dollars." He showed me animals in spacesuits. "These were bought for 50 ADA in March, but if you'd like one today, it will cost 5000 ADA. Someone even bought #3506 for 400K ADA." Just a picture on the internet, like a sticker you can't peel or stick anywhere. There was no way that picture was worth more than my house. How much would I pay for it? At the most, I'd pay $5 if I was in love with it; it was the only one in the world, maybe $10. It confounded me, who would do this? He said thousands of people were buying, selling, and trading graphics like these, and that is how he had erased 35K in debt.

I thought of my college debts 30 years ago and the dangerous world I navigated to get out of that. He had escaped with very few repercussions without even leaving his bedroom in only 3 months.

I knew about collectible things; about TOPPS baseball cards worth more than the gum they came with, comic books, vinyl records, stamps, branded ephemera, that if one held them in good to mint condition for years, it could be sold for lottery amounts. I'd read with fascination stories about finding a Picasso at a garage sale or some unique book, forgotten. None of the prized possessions I had tried to hold onto had survived my tumultuous journey; New in Box Optimus Prime, A Millennial Falcon playset, a Cabbage Patch doll, pottery stamped "Occupied Japan," all lost over time.

He mentioned that not all the images minted would return like the rock, space buddy, or ape, but the space was so new that many opportunities were opening every day. This was a new world at a time when I thought most new worlds had been explored or were out of my reach. I'd never go to the depths of the ocean, I'd never go into space, but I could enter this world, and I would only have to transform the stagnant currency sitting at 1% in my saving account to the new currency that I could stake for a 5% return instead. Then if I wanted to buy some of these NFT's I could pick and choose my favorites. Since they were electronic, they wouldn't get left behind if I went through a messy move, they wouldn't get destroyed in a fire, stolen by an ex, they'd be safe on the "blockchain" forever.

I moved 8k of the savings and transmuted it through Coinbase into the currency of Cardano- ADA. I
was going to try to find my own Philosophers Stone. At the time of my transmutation, ADA was at 2.25, so my spending ADA was quickly halved to less than 4kADA. I staked 2K and took 2K to the marketplace. That was my beginning.

Next: Journal 2 - A Viral Behavior