Hey everyone, I wanted to introduce myself, My name is Kai and I am a female in my 40's so I don't exactly fit the mold of the "generation" that is embracing this new opportunity.
Like everyone else, I had heard about this bitcoin thing years ago, followed the crowd........and dismissed it!. Although it did tweak my interest.
6-6-2017 I went to a training event in my field and a presentation on Cryptocurrency peaked my interest again. Specifically conversations by the tech geeks about this thing called Ripple. Back in my college days and for a few years I amateurishly traded stocks but that was before the internet......
I think like many people my age, some things about digital currency make perfect sense and I particularly love the speed, deregulation, open market, the opportunity for a global economy, where women in prohibitive cultures can anonymously accumulate their own wealth etc........but then I had to google the definition of altcoin and then two factor authentication and API etc.
The idea versus reality has been sobering and frustrating.
I researched and researched and established accounts on coinbase, poloniex, wallets etc. I put a little money into the "system" and since then I can't seem to catch a break;
6-16-2017, After watching multiple videos and reading articles I found a guy on Steemit called quickfingersluc that finally explained things in a way my brain understood. I started watching a video and planned to binge watch in a couple of days.....but between Friday and Sunday ALL of his videos had been removed.
6-20-2017 I bought a few hundred dollars of Ethereum on Coinbase and initiated a transfer to Poloniex .....and....nothing. A notice came up on coinbase they were experiencing difficulties with Ethereum but eventually my transfer showed success, at least on the Coinbase side of things. Poloniex has not acknowledged 'receipt' of the Ethereum and now they have a notice up that all Ethereum deposits and withdrawals are halted until?????
I tried to deposit $ into Coinbase from my bank account to try and avoid the fee. The purchase triggered a bitcoin purchase but then said the funds would not be available for my use for a week while the transfer cleared my bank.....bitcoin went down in price :(.
6-23-2017 I Attempted to obtain higher levels of verification and uploaded my ID....After several attempts over several days Coinbase finally accepted and verified my identification and within seconds disabled my account because my ID was from a state that they don't operate in even though I live in a state that does (we are military and having DL's and ID's from multiple states and frequent moves are "normal" to us). So I submitted a ticket for help and am just hoping they restore my account and at the very least give me my couple hundred bucks back?? or even read my request?
6-24-2017 I tried to establish a coinbase in my husbands name, but the credit card put a fraud alert on the transaction and now his coinbase account is frozen until ID is authenticated, of which they have rejected the military ID and a US Passport as not being "supported".
Disenchanted with Poloniex holding my Ethereum hostage while the price continues to decline I decided to give Kraken a go. I am waiting for Kraken verification but it has twice cycled out so I can't add USD funds to it.
So no Coinbase accounts functioning X2, Kraken is out but maybe my third attempt at verification is going to work and I opened a Bittrex account but need to learn more about how that one works. So with all of my accounts combined on Coinigy I have about $62 available, oh I mean accessible, to do my first trade!
So it's a little sobering reality. This deregulation currency of opportunity is showing to be unreliable and I have a new appreciation for the recourse I would have if the above had occurred in financial industries with oversight and controls.
I can't seem to find any advice or forums online that people can help you out with your questions. Initially I would have liked some advice or direction on trading training but now I also need help navigating basic access to the trading platforms to do my first trade.
Does anyone else have a similar story? did you prevail? or give up? I sure would like to know if there are others out there that can share a support setting for this new world (well new to me) .