My Bitcoin Beginnings: The One Who Thought He Beheld The World

How did you first hear about Cryptocurrencies? Do you have an interesting story to tell? I'll tell you mine.

I have always been fascinated by the concept of "Making Money Online." I would read pages upon pages on Affiliate Marketing, and Passive Income. Through my teenage years and early twenties, I had big dreams of living with the time I spent on the internet. I used to draw webcomics and hoped to live by earning from them one day. They weren't professional, but I enjoyed those days.

There was one problem regarding these dreams, however: PayPal didn't support my country, Libya.

Whatever way I found to make money online, it always went back to the issue of whether I had a PayPal account, and I couldn't get one.

I tried many ways to earn money online, but I didn't stick with any of them long enough to earn something substantial, (other than experience.) I might've been affected by the Shiny Object Syndrome, or maybe I was coping as I accepted that deep down, without PayPal I couldn't earn money through the internet.

All of that changed when I stumbled one day upon Bitcoin. I believe it was in 2014 when I first heard about Cryptocurrencies. It took me a few days to learn about it. The concept that caught my interest the most was Decentralization.

A currency for the unbanked. One that's not tied to a government. A currency that can't be stopped with Sanctions.

The world opened in front of me. At least, I believed so!

It didn't take long for me to have a Bitcoin wallet. I was frequently on Reddit at the time, and there have been a bunch of communities that engage in Tipping. People were giving each other Satoshis and mBTCs (fractions of Bitcoin) all over the place. I received my first bag of cryptocurrency from such Reddit communities.

I don't remember exactly where my first fractions of Bitcoin came from, but I remember feeling so happy at the time. Whether it was 2 cents or 10 cents, I felt I made progress with my online conversations.

I earned money via various methods with Bitcoin. The world opened to me after I discovered it. I'm a shy person with social anxiety problems, but I made a bunch of friends online.

Initially, I earned a few cents per day via faucet sites and Reddit tips. I was into ChangeTip communities when they were around.

I discovered I could get work on some Subreddits and Bitcointalk forums. I offered my services but mostly checked out the tasks people wanted workers to fulfill. One time, I've done an art gig for someone. It was one of my best pieces at the time. After that, I was heavily into gaming for a while. I entered the Steam games trading gray market. Each of those was its own story. Tell me in the comments if you want to hear about it.

My favorite way to earn was writing, though I didn't know where to get work. I started focusing on Writing after discovering cryptocurrency blogging platforms like Steemit/Hive and even Article. I'm still trying to learn how to become a better writer.

A lot of things changed since I started my Bitcoin journey. A lot of things stayed the same. Many new options have emerged for Online Payment to us in Libya these days. For one, getting a Mastercard became much easier, but there's still no PayPal.

Bitcoin is much more mainstream, but the transaction fees make it unappealing for use as a currency. I mostly moved into other cryptocurrencies nowadays.

I didn't change much after discovering Bitcoin, I'm still a shy person with social anxiety issues who overthinks a lot, but the world opened up for me more, I met more people (online) and I think I see the way to fulfill my dreams of living on my online time.

Thanks for reading.

P.S: Did your life change after discovering Bitcoin? Answer on comments.~

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<sup>- Images in this post are made using Clip Studio Paint. Get Free Trial Here! and iBisPaint.
- This article was originally published on CoinPayU Article. Republished here for archiving purposes.</sup>