Hello! I’m Aaron, now living in Colorado by way of Wisconsin. I’ve been intrigued by cryptocurrencies for about 6 months, but officially fell down the rabbit hole in April.
Cardano is the project that excites me most in the space. The ethos behind Cardano is something I tend to agree with. I am excited to see it continue to grow.
Ultimately, I think “money” in the world is changing, and I believe Cardano can be a crucial part of that change.
Welcome to the forum, awesome foresight you have 
Welcome! Thanks for posting. Let us know if you have questions.
hello @lightningthey, welcome to the community bro!
i’m curious where did your intrigue start from?
and as you fell down the rabbit hole, how did you come across cardano?
i’m genuinely curious about people’s journey to/discovery of crypto and cardano.
My intrigue in cyrpto started simply as an investment opportunity. I met someone in 2019 that made a couple million dollars after buying Bitcoin in the early 2010s. Hmmmm, this made me want to explore the space further. Then, through Coinbase Earn, I began learning a little more about altcoins, and started to believe in some of the capabilities that cryptocurrencies have to improve upon issues I saw in the global banking system, specifically money transfer and foreign exchange.
The first crypto I invested in was Tezos. Proof-of-Stake made sense to me as a great alternative to Proof-of-Work, and “smart contracts” were something I didn’t understand but that I could buy into from what I was learning. I purchased a couple hundred dollars of Tezos on Coinbase (at around $1.50 per) and planned on holding it. However, I got into a small car accident a couple weeks later, and sold it all (at around $1.80). I was pleased at the small return, but then was a little FOMO-saddened as Tezos began climbing in the weeks that followed.
I distantly followed crypto markets over the next few months in early 2020. Then, in March, we had COVID-19 change everyone’s day-to-day. I had a lot more time on my hands, and the internet became my lockdown best friend.
After the markets tanked, I bought the dip with some stocks that I liked, and made some nice returns in late March and early April. I invest what I can afford to lose, so while I wasn’t making millions, I made a couple hundred bucks off of a $600 initial investment. This was exciting, so I started consuming more investment-related media, some of which kept talking about Bitcoin and crypto, so I looked back at the price of Tezos and noticed it was again at the $1.50-$1.80 range. That FOMO came back, so again I bought some.
This time, however, I began doing a little more due diligence, and began exploring the community behind the coin. I think this is the official start of my rabbit hole. I was learning about Bitcoin, cryptography, Libertarian ideals, and the internet-based social structures of different projects in the space. This is not to say I was agreeing with everything. I read The Bitcoin Standard, and while it was very informative, some of the political beliefs expressed by Saifedean Ammous made me (and still make me) a little nervous. His artist-bashing is just stupid, in my opinion. But I very much liked the idea of being more in control of my own wealth.
I started to become disenchanted with the Tezos community in part because of certain dramas, but also because they seemed to be spinning their tires and lacked a forward-looking vision for growth. I saw a comment on reddit in which someone referenced these same hesitations, and said they were much more bullish on ALGO.
So, I began researching Algorand. It was much more comforting to me to have a project based upon academic rigor, and to have a mind like Silvio Micali behind it. It wasn’t long into this mini Algo rabbit hole that I discovered Cardano. I watched the whiteboard video, observed the community, and researched the people behind the project. I then bought my first ADA.
That’s where I am now. I am still very much learning about the crypto-space, and the science behind it. But I love the Cardano approach to growth, and I want to be here to watch it. And now, encouraged by the community, I am trying to figure out how I can be part of that growth. It’s a fun problem to solve!
I’ m told it’s always warm and sunny in Colorado.
Unless it snows… but yes, the statement is true!
haha 
I wonder who says that… 
Hope you’re enjoying it here, @lightningthey You live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. All the best to you 