Bitcoin Success Stories

There are so many posts and articles on the technical aspects of the cryptocurrencies. I also mainly write about techy and how stuff works topics. But the stories that I enjoy most are about real people. Just like you and me. I always feel inspired and happy reading about true success stories from ordinary people. Cryptocurrencies aim to make the world a better place, let’s see how they’ve changed some people’s worlds or how people are changing the world with Bitcoin.

Erik Finman’s Story

Erik Finman is a young man. He was very happy as a child. He was home schooled and he

loved it. Later on his parents got more busy and he had to go to a public high school. Similarly to many other teenagers he wasn’t doing brilliantly at school. He had anxiety and skipped school on many occasions, literally shivering. Many of us have felt the same.

When he was a teenager his brother got into Bitcoin. He told Erik about it and sibling rivalry kicked in. His brother boasted about having purchased lots of Bitcoins, so Erik saved up and got some coins of his own. Just to beat his brother at something. With the money he had saved he now had about a 100 BTC and no idea what to do with it. You can see where this story is going, right?

Just before his finals he started reading a book by Alexis Ohanan. This book told him that he could do anything he wanted without anyone’s permission on the internet. This gave him the idea to start Botangle. Botangle’s idea was to replace school. Because he was having such a hard time at school yet he had acquired a lot of knowledge whilst being home schooled and attending various physics courses, he believed that the normal schooling system in place nowadays is not the best solution. He failed his tests and started a company.

Then suddenly Bitcoin price skyrocketed and this 15 year old kid suddenly had $100 000 in his pocket. He invested it into his business. You would now think that it was an instant success, right? Unfortunately not. He soon realized that running a company with 20 employees was really hard. He sought help from the internet. He wrote a post on reddit and it blew up rather quickly. He started to get lots of useful tips and advice from people.

After this reddit post went viral he was approached by a journalist who wanted to do a story about him. That was published in Mashable and started trending very quickly. After this article was published many people started getting in touch, he got offers from venture capitalists to invest into his company. He was still the same 15 year old boy and couldn’t believe it. He didn’t make a billion dollars out of it but got an internship in Silicon Valley instead. He loved every minute of it and started some new projects from the experience he got.

He wants to encourage all young people to go out and try new things. Just do it! He’s now also given Ted Talks. What a great young man. I am interested to see how far the journey takes him.

Roger Ver’s Story

Roger Ver, also nicknamed the Bitcoin Jesus, sure has an interesting story of his own. Roger, born 1979, is an early investor in Bitcoin startups. He’s also started many himself and is a true believer and Bitcoin evangelist. Roger is a truly inspiring and charismatic character and often openly talks about the possibilities of cryptos and new upcoming innovations.

He’s also had some tough times in the past, one could argue that that was entirely his fault but hey, the man did his time and moved on. I am talking about his sentence of 10 months in federal prison. He sold firecrackers on Ebay and the U.S. Department of Justice was not happy as he didn’t have a licence for dealing with explosives. He renounced his US citizenship a few years back and was denied a visa to return because the US Embassy in Barbados believed he might “become an illegal immigrant”.

Enough about that. So what makes Roger Ver the Bitcoin Jesus? He’s an early Bitcoin adopter and investor. His passion for cryptocurrencies has and still does help this field develop and gain more interest. He’s invested in various Bitcoin startups in the past few years. Some of them are Blockchain, Bitpay, Ripple, Kraken, Purse etc. The list is even longer. I love what Roger Ver has said about Bitcoin:

“Many people mistakenly feel like it’s too late to get involved with Bitcoin. That’s like thinking that it’s too late to start using the Internet. Things are just getting started, and there is a world full of opportunity for anyone who chooses to get involved.”

I absolutely agree with this. On many occasions when I speak about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies a lot of people say – well it’s too late now anyways, the bubble is over. Yes you’re probably not going to get rich overnight with some coins you easily mined back in 2009 and forgot about but that’s not the point. This field is developing rapidly and bringing so many new opportunities with it.

Roger has said that Bitcoin is the most important invention in history since the internet. I have to agree mostly. Sure, there are huge inventions in healthcare that have saved millions of lives but aside from that – Bitcoin can revolutionize almost everything. Speaking of healthcare – Estonia’s e-health systems are soon to be built on blockchain. Guardtime has recently signed a contract with the Estonian government to secure over 1 million health records. Great work guys, I wouldn’t want my records to go missing or even worse being hacked. And there are so many more uses for blockchain-tech and Bitcoin. From rebuilding the financial system to securing data to smart contracts. We are living in exciting times and the opportunities are vast.

So I love the thought that he keeps promoting – It is not too late. Invest or by all means start your own cryptocurrency business. There are vast opportunities out there. We live in the era where you can really do anything. Go learn and revolutionize! Big kudos to Roger Ver for being an inspiration. Many great people and ideas just needed that one nudge from someone. Be it someone else’s success story or someone boosting your confidence. We need great entrepreneurs and leaders to spread the confidence and help people get inspired to chase their dreams and become what they truly want to be even if they didn’t see how it would manifest at first.

Start your own Bitcoin success! Don’t have any coins? Get some here!