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How to become a crypto investor and make a killing on the market
The first thing that got me thinking seriously about crypto was an article on Gwyneth Paltrow’s website Goop in 2018. It was a Q&A with Bill Barhydt, founder of Abra, a remittance/wallet/investing platform all rolled into one.
The article has been updated since then, but it was these words that got me: If you’re like us, chances are you hear the word “Bitcoin” and your eyes glaze over a little. But as with much of the finance world – which deliberately uses obfuscating language – you just have to chip away at a few of the core ideas and suddenly, you find you’re not as out of the game as you thought.
This sentence is just as true now, by the way. And no, you aren’t too late.
I’ve always been obsessed with spotting trends, connecting dots and being ahead of the curve, while also possessing zero personal financial confidence. Sure, I worked as a hot stocks reporter for Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal during the dot.com boom, and served a stint on business desk of The National newspaper when it first launched in Abu Dhabi. Looking back, I realise I actually knew more than the average person does years ago. But when it came to my own finances, earnings, belief systems, spending and everything else to do with it, I bought into everything the world serves us about money, including fear, negativity, confusion, and shame.
For the first reason and not the second, I grew curious the more I heard about Bitcoin, which appeared on the scene a decade earlier.
The Q&A, which I read in my late 40s, when I knew no one else who was interested, was illuminating. It explained how buying crypto and storing it worked. That it was on a site run by Paltrow, a forward-thinker and female founder I admire, eased my fears.
The plain explanation and absence of crypto bros tossing around insider lingo helped me grasp the barest basics. Yet, even as I read, it felt like something I might learn about, but other people would actually do. Then came the true ‘aha’ moment: Barhydt explained the first investment a newcomer should make is time. How should we do that? “Buy $10 (Dh36) worth of Bitcoin,” he explained, “and get comfortable with the process.”
The plain explanation and absence of crypto bros tossing around insider lingo helped me grasp the barest basics. Yet, even as I read, it felt like something I might learn about, but other people would actually do. Then came the true ‘aha’ moment: Barhydt explained the first investment a newcomer should make is time. How should we do that? “Buy $10 (Dh36) worth of Bitcoin,” he explained, “and get comfortable with the process.”
Ann Marie Mcqueen
Looking back, he was sort of echoing the words of Satoshi Nakamoto, the still-anonymous ‘inventor’ of Bitcoin who published the white paper Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, explaining how this whole take-the-bank-out-of-the-equation works.
In 2009, Nakamoto reportedly said: “It might make sense just to get some in case it catches on.”
With one Goop article and a nudge from the universe under my belt, I became convinced this was an experiment I had to be a part of. I have no idea how I figured it out, but somehow I downloaded the wallet, stored the “keys” – the sequence of random words necessary to get the wallet back if I somehow lose access – and I still have that Abra wallet today.
I went beyond Barhydt’s recommendation to buy $25. I would check it periodically, then forget about it, then check it again. Along the way, I watched it go up and down. I forgot about it for a long time and when I remembered, it had gone up many multiples. I wasn’t rich and it didn’t change my life, but I got the picture. Barhydt (and Nakamoto) didn’t steer me wrong.
It took a long time to wrap my head around any of this, and I’m going to be honest with you – I still know very little in the grand scheme of things. But that’s more than most. While I’m part of several online communities for education and support, until a weekend in December I didn’t still actually know anyone in real life who was doing it. Then by chance I found out a friend of a friend had also taken the orange pill (is a Bitcoin enthusiast) and we spent most of the party talking about it. I met two other people the next day, both big investors, and I realised that those of us who see this, who are doing it and are excited about it, are part of some slow-growing society that’s growing less secret by the day.
Investing in crypto has changed everything in my life, and I’m going to write about all the ways that happened in future columns. For now, at the age of 54, I just want to let you know I’m thrilled to be a member.
And that with a small investment, a willingness to learn and some open-minded curiosity, you could be one too.
Ann Marie McQueen is an Abu Dhabi-based digital journalist, host of a new show launching on The Crypto Radio and founder of Hotflash inc, a global media platform providing evidence, expert and experienced-based information for women in midlife.
