What's great about this story is that it's just beginning, it has not yet ended. But it started over 2 years ago with the meteoric rise of Bitcoin. Let's begin!
For those of you who can't make it to the end, here is the the TL;DR version:
2 years ago I jumped into the crypto world. I thought that I had already missed the boat with Bitcoin prices over $1000 so I looked for an alt currency to invest in. It was at this time I found NXT, a self labled 2.0 currency with promising features and it's own flaws. It was through the NXT forums that the idea for NEM came about and I was one of the original funders/stakeholders for the up and coming currency. After many launch delays, NEM finally hit the markets. Fast forward about a year to the present and my original stake that cost me roughly $60 is worth $21,518.85 or approximately a 35763.33% increase. What's better yet, this could very well only be the beginning. (picture below)
How I got Involved in Crypto Currencies?
In December of 2014 Bitcoin was getting a lot of press due to the soaring prices of each coin. Naturally, I was curious and started to investigate. I'll be the first to admit that the technology is way over my head. However, I understood the premise of decentralization and a public ledger. Having worked in banking consulting most of my adult life, I saw the potential real world applications for this technology. I decided to invest.
Given that Bitcoin was well over $1000 at the time, I figured I missed the ship. So I started looking for alternative currencies to invest in. A coin called NXT caught my eye as it promised to be the coin of the future, a coin that does not rely on power intensive miners but rather a Proof of Stake (POS) concept. This coin had just launched and went through a spike of its own but I decided this would be the coin that I would start investing in. I gradually started buying more and more NXT until I had a position I was comfortable with. Thus began my crypto adventure.
How and Why I Invested in NEM?
While NXT certainly had its advantages (and disadvantages), one issue that kept re-surfacing on the forums was the fact that the initial stakeholders had power over the network. In a sense they did. There were only 21 original stakeholders and since NXT is not mined that means at inception all coins that will ever exist exist on day 1. So 21 stakeholders split the 1 billion NXT. As soon as the coin launched they began selling at prices they set. This was an issue for a couple reasons. First, in POS blocks are rewarded to people connected to the network and is decided by your POS. Naturally, your POS is higher the more coins you hold. So the original stakeholders received the majority of the block rewards because they had the largest stakes. Second, the 'whales' could easily dictate and suppress the prices as they chose.
On the NXT forums, there was a lot of discussion on this topic with good points being raised for both sides. I won't go into detail. But know that out of this discussion arose an idea for another coin (a simple for of NXT) that would have a larger initial stakeholder pool and thus be a more decentralized currency. After a lot of upvotes the work began. There was a call for a tiered initial investment. The first 100 at this price, the second 100 at this price and so on. Everyone would receive an equal stake. Now, in the land of Cryptos, scams are a plenty and proving one legit or not can be difficult. For all I knew, the guys doing the investing round would take everyone's money and run. The investment tier got up to 600 NXT ($60) and I said screw it, lets do it. I could afford to lose $60. And with that small investment, I was in.
NEM is Delayed, Delayed and Finally Launches
What started out as a simple fork of NXT with greater distribution started to take form as a separate monster altogether. The devs started to talk about improving the hashing algorithm and decreasing block size, etc, etc. Again, most of this stuff went straight over my head but people were getting excited and so was I. The devs ended up starting from scratch and writing entirely knew code. Well, this took time and the launch days were delayed and delayed again. This angered some who started calling it a scam and some were probably legit worried as the stakes got up to about $1000 each before the funding was complete. But with my $60 investment, I wasn't too worried.
Well after over a year, the coin finally launched in March of 2015 and sure enough, when I downloaded my NEM wallet my stake was in there waiting for me.
So after launching the market value for NEM hovered around $3m USD or so. This meant that each stake was worth about $2500 if I recall correctly. Not a bad return on investment for my $60. But I had no intentions of selling. I wanted to see where this ride would lead and so far I'm glad I did. After about a year of trading up and down (I think the market value went below $1m and above $5m) something big finally happened.
NEM News Announcement and the Brexit
Admittedly, I did not pay to much attention to the crypto world in 2015 and it wasn't until the Brexit happened that I decided to check my holdings in NEM and NXT. I was pleasantly surprised to see that NEM's market value was over $100m USD which meant my stake was valued at close to $30k USD. Holy Shit! That was a cool day. The price rise has been attributed to the Brexit and the partnerships NEM has made with banks in Asia.
So What's Next?
I'm holding! I've told a few friends about this and they all think I'm crazy for not selling. But why? $30k is nice but it's not life changing. It's a new car or a down payment on a house. Neither of which I own. This $60 is either going to turn into an early retirement or it's going to go to $0. I have no plans on selling unless it means I can walk away from it all.
In Conclusion
We live in exciting times. The blockchain technology is truly revolutionary, similar to computers in the 70's and 80's. There are still plenty of opportunities to get involved and to invest (SteemIt anyone?). Anyways, I thought I would share my wild and crazy ride through the crypto world. Hope you enjoyed!
just think about the fact that putting all of your 30.000 eggs in one place is not a very smart move.
so you should think about diversfication of your asset.
it is now more likely for other "assets" to grow like this.
you could hold it anyway. just putting some % of your earned Value into new potential assets for maybe hit that kind of growth again.
But If something go wrong you dont loose everything at once.
this is no advice for selling or buying something
Yep @joshbrelauer, understand the diversification principles. But cryptos don't represent my entire portfolio, I have many other investments. Cryptos are the investments that I don't care if they go bust or not. Hit a home run or go home.
diversification can have more than 1 level :).
as i said this is no advice. but believe me there is so much more potential stuff outside in cryptospace.
i invested in nxt in 2013. it was a nice ride and it seemed to have potential. NEM was a good choice.
do you think it can do anoter 100% ?or 200+% ? increase in the next months.
I think Nem has a lot of potential. They are really starting to make a name for themselves in Asia. The tech is slick and the POI algo is a nice change from mining.
ill check this.
thanks for pointing it out. I myself is trying to identify the new valuable asset hitting the market instead of trying to catch a running boat
Any advice for investing in Steem?
Honestly @joelinux, I'm new here myself, trying to figure out this system and all it has to offer. Maybe will have some advice in the weeks to come.
Wonder why it's getting the down votes?
Do you really believe in NEM? Does it add anything than other crypotcurrencies? I invest a little in it a few weeks back, but i traded it back because of the big dump that it had..
One of the main attractions is the POI or proof of importance algo. It rewards the users that are most important to the network and not the largest stakeholders.
i would consider to sell a portion and diversify your investment. So far this was a great choice, but what i learnt in the past - keep your greed in check and make it a little bit stable.
Upvote because I found interesting your story about how you got from Nxt to XEM.
However I think there is some part which you left uncounted. You invested 60 USD in Nxt and you got 600 NXT. Next you said:
Did you invested another 60 USD in NEM or how did you get from Nxt to XEM?
Again, thank you for your explanation on how did you get involved with Nem :)
Solid article. Good to see I'm not the only one who thinks like this. The coin market will be turbulent for the upcoming year(s) but I really believe in the blockchain as a technology. We do need to look better at the insights of every coin. What team is behind it, is there any management. How strong is the product, is there any product at all? Besides coinmarketcap.com there is: https://www.coincheckup.com The site that lets you check all there is to know about the team, product, communication transparency, advisors and investment statistics on every crypto.
Solid blog. I fully understand what you're talking about. The coin market will be turbulent for the upcoming year(s) but I really believe in the blockchain as a technology. I was researching a way to do better investment analysis on the current cryptos. I was wondering if anyone of you uses: https://www.coincheckup.com This site did all the research for you. It's truly amazing. Check for example: https://www.coincheckup.com/coins/Bitcoin#analysis For a complete Bitcoin Investment research report.
Awesome Post! Seeing this in 2018 your stake is now worth nearly a Million dollars! all from a $60 investment thats the beauty of crypto