Hello Steemit Community!
Firstly I would like to say thanks to Gabriel Scheare and Amanda B Johnson for that lovely interview that that peaked my interest into this project (if you missed it see it here).
My name is Matthew Meek, however I am also known as itscrazybro in the Dash forums/subreddit. I am 25 years old and come from the land down under, also known as New Zealand. I have been active in the cryptocurrency community since mid 2013, yup just before the massive bitcoin run up and the absolutely insane altcoin bubble. I got extremely lucky with my entry into the space through investing a small fortune in a project called Megacoin which at the time was under a penny and at it's peak went to just over $3 and no I didn't sell at $3 :(
For those of you that don't know, Megacoin was launched on a .co.nz domain name which lead to huge speculation as to whether Kim Dotcom (owner of Mega) was involved. Turns out the New Zealand National News wanted to cover the story and at the time I was the only New Zealander in the forums so as it turns out I was on the News - here is the story (video has been archived) http://www.newshub.co.nz/business/megacoin-rises-in-financial-world-2014012218. Unfortunately they spun the story to only focus on the price which was a bummer but all in all it was a pretty insane welcome to the cryptocurrency space. Kim Dotcom even tweeted about it
.https://twitter.com/kimdotcom/status/425921037197254656
- kimdotcom
Soon after that interview someone complained about the domain name being hosted by an anonymous individual (kimoto the lead dev). This was not allowed in New Zealand so here was the follow up story by the same News channel http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/megacoin-website-taken-down-2014021117. After this individual complained the website was taken down and registered under my name (a New Zealander) in order to get it back up with out revealing the identity of kimoto (whom I still do not know to this date).
Around this point I sold out of Megacoin as it had begun crashing and I couldn't handle seeing my profits dwindle. It turned out to be a wise move as I sold with a 50x gain and avoided the crash down to it's pre pump price.
After this extreme start and the disappearance of the Megacoin lead dev I decided to stick with the stability of Bitcoin, and it stayed that way until recently, when I found Dash. Dash peaked my interest after reading an article mid 2015, on their soon to be released Decentralised Governance model. Upon reading that paper, I knew that I had found a project which I viewed as having a really good chance to succeed longterm. I have since then been slowly accumulating Dash and setting up Masternodes (collateralised full nodes) which allow me to vote on how Dash's monthly budget is allocated while also earning me a stake in 10% of the block reward which all masternodes are rewarded at random. If you want want to know more about Masternodes, I started a website to help people out www.dashmasternode.org. I am still active in the Dash community and really looking forward to what the future holds for it as the worlds first self-funding, self-governing cryptocurrency.
So that is basically my cryptocurrency story in which has lead me to this point where I am currently sitting in steemit.com typing away after watching that interview of Gabriel Scheare and Amanda B Johnson. I now look forward to continuing on with Dash while becoming and active member of the Steemit community!
P.S. if you wanted to know what I do outside of the cryptoshere (it's not as interesting as the story above) then I am the owner of a local business directory which is a physical directory distributed to Mount Maunganui households but it can also be found online www.mountmaunganui.net.nz.