It was late in 2013 and being well and truly wrapped up in digital currency thanks to Bitcoin, i of course needed to subscribe some of my time and attention to another fantastic and wimsicla digital currency project.
The project was called Ethereum and for the life of me i can not recal what attracted me to it, perhaps it was the fact i was mentally engrossed in the developing digital currency ecosphere, and had become well (thanks to my stint on the worlds first digital currency course) and truly enamoured with the potential of the new technology, almost blindly so. (Thinking back – i have a feeling the project found me)
The Asset
The asset was called Ether and if i am perfectly honest with you i am not entirely sure what i was doing getting involved (likely speculating for fun and of course for a potential profit). What I did know at the time, was that they promised the possibility of something they (the developers) referred to as a “world computer”, they also promised many more features than bitcoin, the then standing king of “much more features” that one interested and infatuated with the digital currency space; could not bring themelf to ignore. The asset – Ether – would serve to power this super “world computer” and so those holding this asset would be able to power applications on the Ethereum network, sounds like something new i thought; the asset as an energy rather than a simple currency.
The Users
I am certain i was not the only one wrapped up in this fantastical enndevoaur, although I could not yet prove it. In fact, quite the opposite – i was sure it was just me and a bunch of geeked out developers (that were clearly somewhat libertarian minded in their beliefs given the value propositions of the platform) however, at that time (and somewhat still today) i am not entirely sure what my beliefs are when it comes to the crypto-space, and maybe that’s ok.
Sign me up!
I tapped my email address in to the required fields on the website and waited for an automated email response. I was in! God knows how, why or who made this connection but it had been made and so my time and attention had become tied up for the following few years, an attention tied up in a new digital project entitled Ethereum, but what was Ethereum? And how on earth did i become the holder of the digital asset Ether?
This post is not about Ethereum, for that information you can click here. This post is about my experience discovering Ethereum and so this post is my personal experience of discovery. That is all.
Clueless
I was part of something, something that often felt beyond my understanding but always felt like it might well be something awesome; something more awesome than i could fully comprehend sure, but something i was willing to watch and comprehend over time, and yes that was a fair bit of time, enough time infact to make me lose some of my faith in the founding developers vision.
Vision?
Wait there was a vision? Yes! there of course was a vision, but that does not mean it was realisable, in fact quite the opposite, there was much work to be done, so much work to realise the vision that many lost their nerve, so much so that they let go of their Ether, myself include.