Peter McCormack, a publicist, investor and creator of podcast wrote yesterday in the British newspaper The Guardian about his experience of earning more than USD $ 1 million by investing in the main cryptocurrency and then losing them. The interesting thing is how, despite that, he remains an optimist in relation to Bitcoin.
With more than 45,000 followers on Twitter, McCormack defines himself as a guru, expert, visionary, evangelist and adviser to ICO.
Here we present a translation of most of your article, which you can read in English by clicking here.
Get to Bitcoin
"Until 2016, I ran an advertising agency in London. At our best, we were very successful; had a team of 35 people, a turnover of 3 million pounds sterling and a Covent Garden office. When the agency closed, I decided to invest in Bitcoin. "
"At the beginning I deposited 5,000 sterling (approximately USD $ 6,400); At that time, January 2017, the bitcoins cost about 600 US dollars, so I bought seven or eight and spent the rest on other cryptocurrencies. But in the following weeks I was hooked and I spent a lot of money: 23,000 pounds (almost USD $ 30,000) in total. I remember telling people, 'I really think the value of Bitcoin could go up to USD $ 2,000 this year.' I could never have predicted that it would reach its peak at 10 times that.
"By the middle of spring of 2017, my investment had increased to about USD $ 300,000, and for the summer it was half a million. The interest of the media for Bitcoin was growing and the friends kept asking how they could get in, so I started a group on Facebook, then a website and finally a podcast dedicated to the topic. As excitement increased, more and more people became involved, forming the conditions for a bubble; but many of us were too caught up in the uproar to be cautious. "
The climax
"By the end of 2017, Bitcoin had reached almost USD $ 20,000 and my portfolio had skyrocketed to about 1.2 million dollars. That's when I got a little out of control. I have always been an entrepreneur, and since I was a child I dreamed of buying my local football club, Bedford Town, becoming president and putting them in the league. I thought that the project could cost 5 million pounds sterling (USD $ 6.4 million), so that was the figure I decided to aspire to. I figured I could get there in six months. "
"At that time I was traveling around the world doing interviews for my podcast, taking my friends to expensive restaurants and buying extravagant gifts for my family. I am not the kind of person who keeps everything for the future, and although I donated 6,000 pounds (USD $ 7,700) to the local hospital, but much of my expenses were quite frivolous. It could have been wiser to buy a couple of houses, but I became too ambitious. This I felt as my only chance to achieve that childhood dream. "
The fall
"At the end of January 2018 the bubble burst and the Bitcoin value suddenly dropped. There were some falls during 2017, but he recovered, so he was not too worried. But during the rest of 2018, I saw it fall lower and lower, along with the other cryptocurrencies I had invested in, thinking all the time: 'Well, it does not make sense to sell now ...' That was my attitude throughout the last year, as the value of Bitcoin continued to fall. Almost everything that had accumulated was annihilated. "
"There are many who invested much more than me and ended up with much greater losses. I wish I had got rid of everything before the bubble burst, but I do not waste too much time with regrets. I have earned money in the past through hard work and I have enjoyed it more. At this moment, I am enjoying doing my podcast, which provides more than enough money to live. I have sold most of my bitcoins, which are currently worth about $ 4,000 each, to give me a cushion in case my business has a bad month. But if I had to choose between the $ 1.2 million and the podcast that I do, I would let the money go again. I love what I do now. "
The conviction
"I still believe that Bitcoin is a force for good. I recently interviewed Alex Gladstein, of the Human Rights Foundation, who explained how people who live in authoritarian regimes help people prosper; For example, women in Afghanistan who are not allowed to open bank accounts can continue to work and collect with bitcoins. It is a step in the right direction. My main goal now is to explore how Bitcoin could help stabilize an increasingly volatile world. "
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jan/11/experience-i-lost-1m-on-bitcoin