My name is Graham, and I’m a journalist. While my job doesn’t exactly pay very much money, I love it. Journalism lets me poke around in places I shouldn’t be, ask uncomfortable questions, meet interesting people and tell their stories. It also beats the hell out of stacking shelves.

But journalism is also in a bit of a nosedive these days, even when politics is left out of the equation. A few months ago I left the Netherlands – where I had been working for two years – and came back home to my native Ireland. Freelancing wasn’t paying the bills in Amsterdam, and I longed to be back around my old friends, sitting in a pub garden drinking tasty pints.

Since I’ve came back, jobs have been few and far between. Like I said, journalism is in a nosedive. But I’ve had plenty of time to chat to new and old faces, and something is brewing – In Ireland and around the world.

Craic and Cryptocurrency

Over traditional Irish music and pints of Guinness, young Irish people are comparing their altcoin portfolios and debating which coin is going to moon next. Guys I went to school with – guys who never left my sleepy little town - are moving their savings out of the ever-trustworthy Credit Unions and into Bitcoin.

A good friend in the Netherlands had plenty of experience and some trading success in cryptocurrency, but I never really paid attention to just how revolutionary it was as an idea. He was a techie, and I dismissed it as something that a handful of techies were going to make megabucks on. Something inaccessible to the layman.

That all changed when I got home and heard the pub talk. I got the gut feeling that far from being a bubble about to burst any day, cryptocurrency is only in its infancy. I couldn’t let the revolution happen around me without jumping on board.

On the road

So I dived in headfirst and devoured any information I could. I read books, lurked on forums, and talked to anyone who knew anything about this brave new world. My gut feeling only got stronger the more new information I took in.

But there’s a steep learning curve, and plenty of ways to get involved. Did I want to invest in bitcoin and let my investment slowly mature? Did I want to back projects and ICOs I truly believed in? Or did I want to play with day trading shitcoins for a few euros here and there? I decided to do as much of everything as I could, but I needed a goal.

Coming from Amsterdam, where I relied on public transportation and my €10 bicycle (bought with a handful of old-school fiat currency from a junkie), I realized that I had to get myself some wheels. Once the Irish winter kicks in, I’ll definitely need a car.

I once owned an Audi A4. It was an old car, but I love working on old cars, and this one was a lovely specimen. I sold it before I left for Amsterdam, and bitterly regret that decision now. What better goal than to buy another one, and what better way to do it than with cryptocurrency? Time to get to work.

A handful of altcoins

Before I really knew anything about crypto, I threw a couple of hundred euros into the Tezos ICO. I believed the team, and a friend recommended it. I’ve since read a lot of criticism, but I stand by my decision. I’ll either hold on to my Tezzies and profit in a few years, helping out what I consider to be a good vision, or I’ll make the team millionaires and learn a valuable lesson about the importance of research.

But that’s for another day. Tezzies aren’t traded yet, and won’t be for a few months at least. In the interim, I jumped into altcoins I thought had some more immediate potential. Starting with just 90 euros, I bought some IOTA at 29 cents and some NEO at 32 dollars.

The last few weeks were good to me, and I’ve seen my first profits. I’ve followed these coins’ as they skyrocketed over the last week, and think I’m going to hold on to these for a while, as I believe in both these projects, as well as their potential for profit.

Modest Gains

Onwards and upwards

Whether I’m right or wrong, I’m definitely hooked. I’m still reading and watching everything I can about this new world of cryptocurrencies, and I’ll be buying more coins as soon as I can. I’ll also be lurking here and contributing what I can to the Steemit community, crypto-related, journalism-related, or otherwise.

And the car. Now it seems cheap to jump off this train as soon as I can afford a car, so I’m not going to. This is a rabbit hole I’m not coming back out of.

I genuinely believe that cryptocurrency has the power to either make a lot of the financial sector obsolete, or at the very least scare the shit out of bankers: both worthy goals. So if I can convince whoever sells me the car to accept payment in bitcoin, I’ll consider this first stage of my journey a success.

Cheers, and thanks for having me.