Don't be like me... first post to Steemit

What a crazy 8 months it has been...

I got into cryptocurrency this past summer. After years of considering I throw some money into the space, I finally took the plunge. Almost immediately my portfolio grew and I was hooked. I started getting into alt-coins and having intense discussions about blockchain adoption with friends and co-workers. I started to get family members involved, started to teach others the ways of this exciting technology. I became a firm believer in the crypto future.

Everything was going well, my portfolio grew, and fell, but I always seemed to be up. I got in early enough, I thought... I kept my initial investments small, $50 here, $100 there. Nothing I couldn't lose, right?

Well winter came and as most know the crypto space exploded in Dec 2017. One of my random $100 investments rocketed into another galaxy. I suddenly had $30k I had never seen before. RaiBlocks (XRB) had turned into a 360x token for me. What a Christmas it had been, my god.

Plans formed, my fiance and I were ecstatic. Our recently flooded/destroyed finished basement, we can fix it now! Our wedding, we can plan the wedding now! It's amazing how quickly your dreams can come true with an influx of finances like that. There was only one problem.. BitGrail.

I had left my tokens on the exchange. NEVER. EVER. DO. THIS.

I knew better, for christs sake, I work in IT-Security. I preached the exchange risk to everyone, except I did not practice it entirely myself. The cost of the token was so low for so long, I just figured it would be fine. As soon as the price took off, the exchange was overwhelmed, then there was an issue with withdrawals, then it was fixed but you needed to be verified, then verification was mandatory, UGHH......

As most know, BitGrail is now insolvent. 17Million XRB were stolen. Police are currently investigating the hack. Dreams crushed.

My random token because the majority of my portfolio, and for a brief while every pressing goal in my life seemed obtainable. Then it was stripped of me. What a gutting feeling.. I can not imagine how others feel because they certainly lost WAY more than I did but, it is just a horrible feeling to lose so much so quickly.

All I can do at this point is learn from my mistakes, mistakes I already knew to avoid. Do everything you can to remove any and all holdings from exchanges. Don't be like me...