According to Google, 1 Bitcoin is worth N2,888,576 (two million, eight hundred and eighty-eight thousand, five hundred and seventy-six naira). That’s a lot of money. Just half of it and you are a millionaire in naira.
But Bitcoin hasn’t always been the goldmine that it is today. In this chat with CryptoSpaceX main man, Ojikutu Israel, we explored the history, growth and future of Bitcoin.
Israel is the man behind CryptoSpaceX, a Twitter account dedicated to providing insights on Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies. With over 34k followers keenly engaging with his contents daily, there is no denying his understanding of the online currency.
Aside from researching and investing in Bitcoin, he is also working on his final year thesis as he rounds up his Bachelors Degree programme at Babcock University. Enjoy!
How Long Have You Been a Crypto Enthusiast and What Attracted You to the Online Currency?
That dates back to, I believe, 2017 – 2 years now. When I was in 200 level, I had been seeing it pop up once in a while online and one of my friends worked as a developer with a Crypto project.
So, I did some research on it and found out it’s an easy way to send/receive money between countries. Given that I was a freelancer then, I found that quite promising and started using it as a means of receiving money between people I do freelance gigs for abroad.
How Would You Describe Bitcoin Value Growth or Otherwise Within the Last Two Years? Upward, Downward or Unstable and How Has That Affected You?
I actually can’t remember the price of Bitcoin when I first started.
When I first came across it, the only thing I knew was that it’s a very expensive currency, but I can use it to send/receive money between countries and that was great for me.
Given I was a freelancer at the beginning, I didn’t care about the price, just it’s amazing utility. When I wanted to learn about how the price works and trading (a way to make money off the volatility of crypto), I met a Nigerian guy online and I paid 5k for a full lesson.
The training was supposed to cover how trading works. But this guy just sent me 2,300-pages ebook and asked me to read them all and never replied to me after that. It got me quite angry because I paid for lessons, not ebooks. So that discouraged me from even learning about the price.
How I eventually learnt about the price fluctuations was, I had this service I subscribed to (Reminato), which sends me daily emails on the current bitcoin/ethereum/litecoin/ripple prices.
Everyday I see the mail, I don’t really pay attention to it. But somehow the information in the mails was registering in my subconscious mind.
I watched bitcoin decrease in value from 2.5m naira then to 1.1m naira over some months. It didn’t occur to me how big the decrease was, it didn’t just jump there once, it happened over a few months.
One day, I was reading the email and clicking through the price. I was like, wasn’t this thing worth 2.5m naira some months back? What happened? That was the moment I really decided to see what’s more to bitcoin beyond sending and receiving money.
That is the lowest bitcoin has been since I learnt about crypto. After then, I started paying more attention to price and this thing started rising faster than it fell.
In about 2 weeks, it was at like 1.5m for 1 bitcoin, that’s already 400k gain in 2 weeks on a 1.1m investment. I figured if there’s anytime you learn about this thing, It’s now!
I did a lot of YouTube, registering in trading platforms, reading online. I wasn’t understanding most of what I was seeing but I still read/watched the content of it anyways, figured it’d make sense over time.
I bumped into other altcoins (alternative coins) and the thousands of crypto’s out there. Then litecoin (Ltc) was just about $25. I could afford a whole one. I didn’t know any technical analysis or anything, the only reason I bought litecoin was because I could afford a full one.
I bought about 5 Ltc then with all my pocket money and everyday, my money kept increasing. Some days registered slight decreases but more times than not, it increased and that alone was reason not to sell. I watched my 45k increase daily till it hit 90k, and it didn’t stop.
Long story short, by the time it hit 210k, I already had a better idea of how Cryptocurrencies work, so I sold them and apparently that was the best time to sell.
The feeling of just watching money rise and doing nothing was cool
In this time I watched bitcoin price as well rise from 1.5m naira to close to 4m naira
It was all insane, I didn’t know about it or had anyone to teach me but with time, I’ve been learning and understanding more, even up till now.
Also, knowledge of crypto made me meet people that helped me to become a better entrepreneur.
You Threw Around Some Words Some of Us Laymen May Not Understand. Bitcoin, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple Prices… What is the Relationship Between These Terms?
Bitcoin, Litecoin, ethereum, ripple, they’re all types of Cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin was the first Cryptocurrency to be created. It was created by a guy/group of guys called “Satoshi Nakamoto”. No one knows his/her identity or if it’s one person or a group (I’ll be using he for easier reference). He’s believed to be dead because his wallet is inactive.
A Cryptocurrency is digital money:
You know how you have traditional mails & digital mails (emails)
Traditional chatting (talking face to face) and digital chatting (WhatsApp)
Traditional Classrooms/Interviews & Digital Classrooms/Interviews
Traditional cash (naira, dollar, euro etc) and digital cash (bitcoin, litecoin, ethereum, and thousands other crypto’s)
Bitcoin cuts out the government and banks, making it money for the people and by the people that’s not controlled by any central authority but by the millions of miners around the world.
I should probably add that bitcoin is built on the blockchain, all cryptocurrencies are built on the blockchain.
The blockchain is a public ledger, a very big public ledger where Bitcoin/Cryptocurrency transactions are stored. If you know the meaning of a ledger you could have an idea of what the blockchain is.
There’s the bitcoin blockchain
Ethereum blockchain
Binance-Chain among others
What Is the Attitude of World Leaders Towards Bitcoin as It Stands? Bringing It Home, What Is the Attitude of Nigerian Government to It?
Well, world leaders don’t necessarily like it, it takes the power of controlling money out of their hands.
Surely Nigeria/Nigerian Government is nowhere near adoption of crypto’s as an actual currency. They are like they see it as a speculative investment people want to make that’s what I presume.
The goal of we bitcoiners is adoption.
That is, for people and government to recognize Bitcoin as actual money and use it as a means of exchange. Walking into somewhere like Shoprite picking all you need and your total is calculated in bitcoin, not naira.
Basically bitcoin replacing all world currencies and becoming 1 currency all over the world. For instance, if the price of a car is 1 Bitcoin in US, it’s 1 Bitcoin in Iraq or Mozambique. Everything would be perfectly balanced.
Although some governments and Institutions already accept Bitcoin as a means of exchange.
Portugal don’t take tax on Bitcoin. New Zealanders can have their salaries paid in bitcoin. There are stores/malls that are accepting bitcoin now in UK/US and some other parts of the world. Lamborghini accepts payment in Bitcoin.
This is what I mean when I say the future of money, Adoption, worldwide adoption.
Nigeria has a large population. There’s a lot of potential in the cryptocurrency field here and that’s what I’d like to take advantage of and strike while it’s still early.
How Would You Describe Bitcoin Investment Risk – Would You Say It’s a High Risk or Low Risk Investment?
If you’re patient, you’ve researched the system and trust the system like I do, it’s low risk.
Bitcoin is the best performing asset in 2019. It’s beating all stocks and assets in profits.
Remember when I said bitcoin was 2.5m at a time. Someone that bought then, if he wasn’t patient would’ve sold it all at 1.1m. That’s over 50% loss, not knowing that if he was patient it could’ve gone back up by a lot when it rose back to 4m.
Bitcoin may fall, all stocks fall. But it always rises again.. always. Stocks fall to the point companies have to close up. But except you shut down every computer in the world, Bitcoin isn’t closing up. If it’s not closing up, it’s gonna rise again, it’s just a matter of time.
Long term Bitcoin investment is low risk, Short term, however, is very high risk.
Perhaps There Is Anything Else You Want to Say on a Final Note
People should learn from my story. Yes, it will be complicated at first. Yes you may not understand it. You may even lose some money for not trusting the system, but learning about Bitcoin is very worth it.
Ask yourself: would you rather know about Bitcoin and own some Bitcoin now knowing that there’s a chance, it’ll be the future of money making you rich by doing nothing else than own it? Or pass up the opportunity of knowing and buying Bitcoin and if/when it does eventually become a standard, you live in regret saying had I known? Think about it!