“Deep within it, the Abyss creeps into your mind. Eventually, it’ll get your body as well. Unlike the curse from the 6th Layer, those don’t manifest immediately. For every expedition, you’ll stand at the precipice of death and insanity, twisting the skin off your head.” – Ozen

The Edge of chaos. 

My crypto journey is a bit on the eccentric side. It all started when I had to make a crucial online payment. I tried using Paypal only to be told that my country was “banned”, something about “high-risk country” for fraud🤮. Out of frustration, I began to search for an alternative. It was then that a friend recommended bitcoin. Within a couple of minutes, I had set up a wallet, got some bitcoin from him, and made the payment. The site accepted bitcoin making things easy. It was truly my aha moment. After this incident, I decided to find out more about bitcoin.

The range of surface exploration

I joined a couple of groups purporting to educate folks on bitcoin and crypto. Unfortunately, it was mostly about trading, the leverage kind. Hear me out, leverage trading in crypto is “rat poison ^ 1000”, no kidding, play with leverage and you get burnt, mentally and fiscally. And for plebs(newbies), being onboarded to crypto through trading, especially leverage is a sure way to experience massive disappointment. Although I had the fortune to experience the innovative prowess of bitcoin firsthand, I quickly forgot after joining the groups due to all the talks about pumping, and short-term gains using leverage. 

The Great Fault 

Hearing all the talk about gains, I decided to give leverage trading a try, with great excitement, I opened a trading account, well the rest is a painful history, probably one of the darkest times in my life. despair paid me a visit and settled in and didn’t want to leave. My life savings was the first to get liquidated, 😝, followed by my business capital😑 and money I borrowed hoping to make it all back in one trade. off course, the borrowed money got liquidated in one trade. I still feel the pains so am going to cap this section here.😎

The Sea of liquidated corpses

I was told there would be Lambos! And yet My life savings, my business capital, and borrowed money were all gone. Evaporated, poof. like that, years of savings was lost over a few couple of months, and I had gotten into debt plus my business was now experiencing a liquidity crisis. I had been thrown into the sea of liquidated corpses, I slipped into depression. Nothing seemed to work. Not crypto and certainly not my business. I had become cryptophobic(developed a hatred towards crypto) in the process. So I decided to quit crypto for good. 

Awakening

I was done with crypto, I decided to get back to work and build from nothing. And yet I had no idea crypto had other plans for me. For some inexplicable reason, I stumbled upon “The Bitcoin Standard” and started reading it. Everything changed. I began to understand the real innovation and problems that bitcoin and crypto solve. I had mentally begun to change, orange pilled, a third eye began to open, I started to read everything I can about crypto innovation and use cases, and started listening to podcasts and watching educational videos. 

A few months in, I began to call government bullshit mostly in my head of course😝😃, the traditional financial system was all a giant pile of crap designed to keep some part of the world perpetually oppressed, oops. It was like I had become an outsider to the system. Seeing so many wrongs with the world all of a sudden. Mind blown. I had opted out and opted into a new system. Seems there was something here.

The Capital of the Unreturned

A better new world order! 

I gradually realized that bitcoin and for that matter, crypto has forever changed the world. And yet the world was not fully aware, that bitcoin/crypto is a disruptive innovation creatively destroying almost everything in its way. Starting with government-issued currency, a better replacement with bitcoin, a new open financial system accessible anywhere in the world by anyone - Defi, a way to take control and ownership of people's creations - NFTs, a new form of organization for coordinating to solve almost any kind of problem and create value - DAOs.

It was gradually sinking in, Crypto is a new system with endless opportunities available to everyone. The first of its kind! True and pure, not yet tainted by oligarchs, governments, and big corp. Once I began to truly understand crypto, I realize that leverage trading and get-rich-quick schemes are just human greed and not sustainable in the long term. Real innovation and impact were happening. I surrendered to the force and joined the ride down the rabbit hole. I have never looked back since. 

The new Me!

Am now full-time crypto. A DAOpunk with most of my activities in BanklessDAO. The vision of  BanklessDAO resonates with me a lot. Educating and onboarding people to crypto to take advantage of the endless opportunities, and become self-sovereign while culturally evolving us into better versions of ourselves is a compelling thesis. A thesis I believe is strongly needed for the African continent - thus my strong contributions to Bankless Africa too.  

The Journey continues

Looking back at all the despair, it was not bad because I stuck around and discovered the real crypto. I have become a full-fledged adventurer with more curiosity, courage, and wit in exploring this chasm for which even darkness is no match. For those who offer up their minds and curiosity and challenge crypto abyss, it might just offer them a real opportunity to enter a new world. An abyss, with endless opportunities, despair, and most importantly, a way to escape a terrible system rigged with unfairness and restrictions.

Thanks for swinging by ✌🏾💯🎊😎

references

Made in Abyss anime

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