September 28, 2021
Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past few years, you have heard of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and perhaps other cryptocurrencies. It’s pretty hard not to have heard of them, particularly in the last year. They are everywhere and everyone seems to have a tale to tell of how they made a fortune or lost a fortune with crypto. Heck, I bet a significant portion of my readers have even begun to dabble in Bitcoin, Ethereum or other digital currencies. It seems like new coins seem pop up every month.
I have personally become absolutely fascinated by digital currency in the past couple of years.
Let me tell you my story.
In 2019, I found myself a bit short on my required continuing legal education hours. As lawyers, we must take a certain number of courses every year to maintain our standards and keep up with the times.
While searching through courses that I could use to complete my hours, I came across a new Certificate Program being offered by Osgoode Hall entitled “Blockchain, Smart Contracts and the Law”. I had heard of Bitcoin and heard rumblings about the underlying technology, Blockchain, and how it was potentially one of the most important technological innovations since the Internet itself. I though this program would be a good way to satisfy my law society annual education requirements and at the same thing learn about something new.
So, I enrolled.
Little did I know what a paradigm shift that course would bring to my life. It literally launched a completely new aspect to my law practice. I attended the program and was blown away by both the technology and the application of blockchain. I immediately became interested in Blockchain’s first use case, Bitcoin. I started to learn all that I could about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Before long, I had opened my first crypto account at Coinbase, the world’s largest and most well-known cryptocurrency exchange. I began earning some free crypto with their educational earn and learn offerings. Then I started to invest $50 every so often and watched my account slowly grow. At times, I watched my account jump 20% or more in weeks. At other times, I watched it plummet 20% or more in weeks. All throughout, I became more and more interested in learning more about both cryptocurrency and blockchain.
I started reading everything I could get my hands on relating to blockchain and digital currency. I completed a couple of online specialization programs in blockchain and even began learning to program smart contracts, a component of many digital currencies. My intrigue with crypto was so keen that in February of 2020, I began a Master of Science degree program in Blockchain and Digital Currency from the University of Nicosia in Cypress. I am currently halfway through the program and will complete my master’s degree in May 2022.
My goal in taking the master’s program was to be able to consult in the space as well as teach others about blockchain and crypto. In early 2021, I thought to myself that if I was going to be successful in teaching about crypto, I had better have a very broad personal experience in all things crypto.
So I started to do pretty much anything crypto related. I began investing more seriously in crypto. I began paying for things with crypto. I opened accounts with many of the new decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and parked some funds there, just so I could learn all about the platform and how DeFi worked. I even began mining crypto. (I know, I know, I am geeking out here. What is DeFi, you ask? What the heck is mining? Well, they are just some of the things you can do with blockchain and crypto. I’ll get to all of this cool stuff in future newsletters, promise!)
Today, not a single day goes by where I am not doing something crypto related.
I love the space so much that I naturally end up talking crypto with many of my clients, colleagues, and associates during our meetings and dealings. Most clients are fascinated and want to know more.
So, I figured I would channel my growing knowledge and expertise on all things crypto related in a section of my newsletter devoted strictly to Blockchain and Digital Currency.
You can expect my monthly newsletter to include all sorts of information on Digital Currency ranging from simple informational pieces to more in-depth guides and strategies on how to use, invest in, and get involved with crypto. I hope that you enjoy the information as much as I enjoy sharing it with you.
Next month, we will tackle the question of whether Bitcoin is indeed “currency” or whether it is something else.
Until then, invest wisely and don’t get caught without at least a little bit of crypto in your investment portfolio.
Pat Filice
P.S.: Above, I talk about how I earned some Free Crypto on Coinbase. If you would like to learn a few different ways to earn free crypto, drop me a note and I will share with you a guide I wrote with 10 different ways to earn crypto risk-free.