How it all started...

---

The story of my Bitcoin journey starts somewhere around mid May of 2017, when I purchased my first $50 worth of BTC, which at the time was barely breaking the $2,000 price threshold, and sent it directly to Poloniex, where I started "trading" altcoins. I only heard about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies a week before from a random friend of a friend, that showed us what Bitcoin was, and said something which I will never forget: "This is something for the future, whoever gets into crypto, never gets out, never forgets about it - it's like Pandora's box, and it has already been opened." Sure enough, that idea crept in so I started doing research, browsing the internet trying to find out what Bitcoin is, how it works and what it can do. The next week I was ready to start investing and trading crypto, and so I did. However my funds quickly started to run out due to the silly trades I was making, so I started thinking about different ways of making more BTC.

That's when I found out about Steemit from a YouTube video of @jerrybanfield explaining how the Steem ecosystem works. I got hooked immediately, signed up, and started posting, and experimenting. I have done lots of content, from daily price update posts to guides and more, content that I was proud of as well as content that I wasn't all that happy about. But nevertheless my Steem Power was growing, slowly but surely, I then also started powering up more Steem to the platform from the BTC I was buying with my own money every month, and things were going well. I was making money from crypto hand over fist, and that's when I made one of the worst decisions of my life - to start powering down, even tho it was close to the all time high prices, during the end of 2017 and early 2018 when the prices were reaching $6 or even $7 and to convert those funds to other altcoins. I did not take into account the compounding power of the Steem ecosystem however, and the benefits I would have had if I kept all of that Steem Power and continued to grow it to this day.

Sure enough the bear market started to happen. Prices started to plummet and the thousands of dollars I made the past half year or so started to disappear. I was panicking and doing exactly the opposite of what I was supposed to do, I was selling the altcoins that were getting hit the hardest, and buying up more altcoins that appeared to be more "stable" - or so I thought. I kept doing this for the next few months, all throughout the decline in markets to the point I was left with only 10% of the total worth of what I had just 6 months before. I was down to my last $1,500 which I decided to finally convert into BTC, and start leverage trading on BitMEX. Fast forward another 2 weeks, and I was liquidated for my entire account. I was left with nothing - all the crypto I have earned and bought out of my hard worked money was gone.

So I needed to take a decision. To come up with a plan. To not give up on this amazing opportunity that crypto has bestowed upon us to be able to secure our own financial freedom. I cannot see myself living in a world where someone else controls my money - therefore my time and freedom - and to just slave away my youth, my energy, my creativity to some corporation that I don't represent anything to, that I'm just as or even more worthless and expandable than a piece of hardware they own. I will not wake up one day, maybe 5, 10 or 20 years from now to find out that all my work is gone - is frozen in a bank account, represented by numbers on a screen, that I cannot even physically withdraw - for someone to tell me I cannot access my funds, or that they are gone. I will not accept that my government is stealing from me and from all of its citizens with mechanisms like taxation (debatable topic, I know) or inflation. Yes, inflation, my country has about 4% inflation a year, and it's growing - it's like reverse interest. Instead of gaining 4% a year let's say, for holding your money in a bank account, you're losing 4% a year - and it's compounding - you lose more as time goes by, you lose more if you increase your holdings, and you might just lose everything if a financial collapse happens.

This is the reality we live in - we either accept it and try to find ways to get out, or just ignore it and let it drag us down with it. So enough ranting - it's time for me to start my journey once again. This time, with more experience, more knowledge, and a better plan for the road ahead. Maybe Bitcoin is not the answer in the long run, but is sure beats any other option that we have at this moment. So starting today, my focus is to find ways of converting my time and effort not into fiat money - but into a more secure store of wealth medium like Bitcoin. Today I start my journey once again, my ROAD TO ONE BITCOIN.

Where I am today...

---

Today I find myself being jobless for more than a month now. Money is starting to get tight, but at least I'm not feeling the burden of going to work in the morning, doing the same thing day in and day out that I'm expected to do, having to put up a fake smile to feed the illusion of my coworkers and my higher-ups that we are so blessed to be working in a cubicle, in front of a screen, with our time and performance being monitored to the second. It saddens me even more to see that my peers are embracing the obviously painful brainwashing that is going on, and that are actively participating and even trying to "open my eyes" to the wonderful opportunity we have been given, to trade our most precious commodity - time - in exchange for pieces of soon-to-be worthless paper or even worse digits on a screen, and fill the pockets and bank accounts of the corporation.

You think Bitcoin is a ponzi-scheme? Then you never worked in a multi-national corporation. Or maybe you have, but you were blinded by the absurdity of the illusion they have created. That you should be thankful for the security that they are offering you - when in reality, you are the one offering them the security - you are working and spending your time so that they don't have to. I know the world is not fair, and never has been, but I will at least not willingly participate and incarcerate myself for the rest of my life just because this is the agreed-upon social construct that the people in charge have created and fed to us every single day of our lives.

The battle is not lost however. There are ways out, there always have been and always will be. Maybe it's not Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies, maybe it's not a financial instrument, maybe it's something else, something I haven't heard about yet, or come to experience. But one thing is for sure, that I will never find that thing that brings me freedom if I don't look for it, if I do what I'm "supposed" to do. I would rather suffer in poverty, than to become a pawn in someone else's game for life. Why do I say it's a game, a ponzi-scheme? The biggest ponzi-scheme in human history? Because the people who join at the bottom are the ones who pay for it all. The money gets funneled up towards the top, just like in any corporation - the supervisor gets paid more for the good work that the employees under him do, the manager gets paid even more for the good job the supervisors are doing, the director of the department is getting paid much more for the good work the managers are doing, and so on...

But I guess that's just how the world works, right? We should just do what we're told and move up the ladder. But what if I don't want to "feed the ponzi"? What if I don't want to be someone's source of income nor do I want to become the one that makes his money from other people's work? It is a struggle, a problem that doesn't have an easy solution. It was made to be hard, it was meant to not be found by everyone. But my mission is to find that balance, to find my way of contributing to the world while also getting to enjoy the work that I'm doing, the world around me, and most importantly, the freedom that we were all born with.

The journey ahead...

---

It would be foolish for me to say that I know how things will be going for me in the future - what my journey will look like, but for now I know what I have to do. I have to start from the bottom - as I've already reached it - and slowly but surely work my way towards my obtaining my freedom, be it through knowledge, experience or financial independence.

Starting today I will embark on a journey that will take time, and most importantly, patience. Lots and lots of patience as well as self control. I have seen the good and the bad that can come from investing your time, your effort and your wealth - and I am ready to not make the same mistakes again, but to learn from them, make better decisions for the future, and paving my road to success with the failures I had, putting them behind me, building the foundation for bigger and better things.

Not to drag this any longer, the first item on the agenda is to start accumulating Bitcoin - this time, the right way. No more gambling away my funds, no more dreaming about 1000x returns, no more unnecessary risks. But in doing this I will need help, making back the money I lost will not be easy, nor will it be fast, but I will get there eventually. Right now things are extremely slow, but my expectations are for the future - for the long term. Right now I am starting from nothing, and I plan on keeping track everyday of my progress, as an exercise of patience and self-control, right here, on this platform.

Everyday I will be posting my progress, together with my thoughts, my plans, and how I see the markets for example, or what is happening in the world around us in terms of financial events as well as sharing the same strategies that I will be using to accumulate Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies or Steem with everyone. So feel free to tune in, share your thoughts, your ideas, or even show your support - this is what this platform is all about. I will be working on a lot of content, not just a daily update of my holdings or the crypto prices , but guides and tutorials on how you can do the same. Sharing the knowledge I have gained along the way.

As an ending note, I would like to thank you for reading all the way through. I hope you found my story so far helpful, or motivating even, and if you did, maybe you would like to follow my story in the future - my road to one Bitcoin, or support me with a vote or resteem. I know everyone took huge hits during this bear market. There's people who lost everything they owned, I only lost my savings. And I hope that it will encourage you to keep going, not give up, learn from your mistakes - and mine - and get back into the game. We already hit bottom, from here on... there's only one direction we can go!