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In My Own Words: A 16-Year-Old Shares His Thoughts on the Crypto Space

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As a 16-year-old high school student born in 2002, I believe I have witnessed one of the most concentrated times of technological change in the history of our society. From watching movies on VHS, to witnessing self-driving cars become a norm in today’s society, I believe that when it comes to technical innovation, anything is possible. I think that this applies to cryptocurrency as well. In my opinion, cryptocurrency will play a large role in our future based on what I have seen in the news, on the internet, and most importantly, at my school.

My Bitcoin Story

When I initially heard about Bitcoin, around May of 2016, one Bitcoin was worth around $450. I was 14 years old, and the concept seemed ridiculous to me. At the time I believed there was no way that anything besides the dollar bill would be used to purchase real things in the United States. I mean how does something that isn’t even tangible hold value; and so much of it at that? Skeptical and confused about Bitcoin, I was convinced that mainstream, tangible currencies would be the only acceptable currencies in the long term.

But, with school starting and my mind thinking of hundreds of other things, I rarely thought of Bitcoin and only talked about it with a few of my peers who had invested in it early on. But a few months later, everything changed.

Halfway through my freshman year of high school in January 2017, Bitcoin passed the $1,000 mark for the first time on the first day of the year. That’s when I decided to take out my savings to purchase one full Bitcoin. I was initially worried about my decision but as time passed my investment remained steady, slowly but surely rising in value. Then, in September 2017, Bitcoin inexplicably took off.

School was starting up again, and, as I started 10th grade, I noticed that cryptocurrency had become a hot topic, as students from every grade discussed and debated which cryptocurrency was the most reliable. Cryptocurrency-themed clubs started up on my campus and more and more students, parents, as well as faculty, began pouring their funds into digital currencies.

In fact, crypto became so popular that by early November 2017, I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a single person in the school who didn’t know what cryptocurrency was. People knew I had experience in crypto and began to come to me for advice and knowledge about the subject, and I inserted myself into as many conversations about the subject as possible when I had the chance.

Happy with my earnings, in November I cashed out. The price was slightly over $9,000 and I had earned enough to pay back what I had borrowed and put savings in the bank in case I ever needed it. But the price just kept climbing, and my classmates and I all watched as it broke $10,000, and then $11,000, and so on. We all felt as if it was a bubble waiting to burst but it just kept miracuously climbing.

Websites such as Youtube and Instagram were full of jokes, statistics, and ads about cryptocurrency. People exclaimed with excitement about how much they had made. In fact, one of the teachers at my school quit after he sold all of his cryptocurrency, mainly Bitcoin, close to the peak of its value. He had been investing for months, so his return was incredibly high and the profit he made from investing in Bitcoin was enough so he could comfortably let go of his work and explore the world. It was at that moment that I realized that Bitcoin, something that I couldn’t even touch, had so much value. It made me believe that digital currencies had the potential to change the future for many people.

Bitcoin reached its record high in December of 2017, but then proceeded to drop. At school the conversation about cryptocurrency suddenly seemed to sport some sort of negative connotation as it turned into more of a joke. Some stayed strong and maintained their investments in alternative currencies while others bought out and vowed to never buy back in. This continued until months later, when the talk died out and only investors who had bought in early really cared.

To this day, some of my peers remain optimistic and believe that cryptocurrency has not had its last hoorah, while others think it was just a popular fad to be left in the past. Personally I believe cryptocurrency is limitless, and the odds of it rising again are much higher than the odds of it falling again. Within days of me writing this article Bitcoin had a 10% increase and whether it will rapidly skyrocket like the first time or steadily increase over time and integrate itself in society, I believe that cryptocurrency will inevitably disrupt our financial systems and revolutionize our definition of money itself.

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