Zhang Chu, a native of Suihua, Heilongjiang Province, has been working in Shanghai for seven years as a warehouse manager in a women’s clothing store on Taobao. We met him a few years ago when our company provided promotional services for the store. Zhang Chu worked in the taobao store is the “gold diamond”, the peak season to send thousands of orders every day, the warehouse work hard, but the salary has never been increased. Zhang has also tried to change jobs, but the salary offered by his new employers is similar.
Seeing that he was about to turn 30, his family introduced zhang Chu to a girlfriend. The girl was very straightforward: in Suihua, they wanted a house of no less than 90 square meters, no loan, room cost plus the woman’s name, “Meet the conditions to get married immediately, can’t get rid of”.
Zhang Chu’s savings over the years were only enough for the down payment, but his parents could not help him. When he was in a hurry, he heard his colleagues talking about “Bitcoin” and “ICO”. Although he did not understand, he was moved by the examples of getting rich overnight.
I heard that a lot of friends around me are “mining”, zhang chu often asked me on WeChat: “brother, your friends’ mining ‘to earn money?”
Zhang Chu gave up the idea of “mining” and began to teach himself how to fry coins after he knew that mining should be a “mining machine” and that it would take at least half a year to get his money back. He added a group of digital currencies in which he actively asked basic questions: “What is an ICO?” “What can an ICO token do?” “Where can I buy and sell it?” “Which exchange is the safest?”
Someone was annoyed by his question and directly said in the group: “group manager, in the future this kind of ‘white’ can not pull into the group? Everyone is so busy making money, who has time to pay attention to him?” Make Zhang Chu very embarrassed, then more diligent, look up online information.
Zhang’s favorite group is the “Road to Wealth and Freedom” group, named after li Xiaolai, the self-described “China’s richest Bitcoin”, who runs a multimillion-dollar column on a “knowledge platform”. Group manager has a set of standard rules, which means that every new person comes in and stays in the group:
“My goal is to lead everyone in the group to achieve wealth freedom by investing in blockchain assets. Bitcoin has increased by 5 million times in eight years, and Ripple has increased by 1.6 million times in four years. At that time, it only needed to invest 100 yuan in Bitcoin, and now it is worth 500 million yuan. Don’t be afraid to miss bitcoin, blockchain investment is still very early, there are many opportunities, I will lead you to find the next thousand times the value of the currency, less than 1000 times will never get off!”
“Every revolution is a redistribution of wealth, and I am no longer afraid of those rich people who have many houses, because in the future you will need many apartments to exchange my bitcoin!”
When group manager sends out this message, it says “@everyone”, and then everyone sends out hymns.
Speaking of group manager, zhang looked up with admiration: “this guy is really amazing. He has an estimated 50 million dollars worth of bitcoin in his hand. He has shown us screenshots and often goes to industry conferences in the us.
I advised him to be on guard against such people: “Is he the one who, after the freedom of wealth, leads you freely towards prosperity in the spirit of common prosperity? Be careful to be cut leek!”
Zhang Chu gave a embarrassed look and stopped talking to me.
Bitcoin continued to soar, and every time it went up, group manager would criticize everyone: “you guys are always trying to find a bottom, I told you, bitcoin under 10,000 is a bottom, you can enter at any time! They didn’t listen to me. Now it’s 20,000.”
Miss a moment of panic, before the obedient “get on the bus” all warmly agreed:
“Eat meat if you listen to the boss!”
“I think bitcoin will break 30,000 next month!”
Zhang Chu thought the price of Bitcoin was too high to buy, but now he regrets it a little. “Oh, If I had bought bitcoin two months ago, it has quadrupled now!”
So zhang Chu, who didn’t want to miss the chance, bought a bitcoin even though the price was high.
Later, recommended by group manager, zhang chu took out nearly half of his savings and bought seven or eight virtual coins with various names: xingxing coin, radar coin, MET, VRU, TMB, as well as the “malago coin” launched by xue manzi and li xiao.
Most of the coins, which come from a variety of sources, are cheap, ranging from a few yuan to 0.0003 yuan, but no information is available other than a “white paper.” Zhang chu didn’t know how to read the “white paper”, but repeatedly confirmed with group manager:
“Boss, can I get 300 stellar coins?”
“Boss, can I put in some XRP at 50 cents?”
The group manager will reply shortly after an hour or two: “what I recommend is all about me. It’s up to you whether you buy it or not. Don’t ask me.”
With the “eldest brother” ‘s approval, Zhang Chu looked through the currency prices of different exchanges on his mobile phone all day, hoping that he could also buy the legendary “hundredfold currency” and “thousandfold currency”.
On September 4, 2017, as soon as the policy of “closing the domestic digital currency exchange” came out, all kinds of “coins” immediately fell down, and those issuers who dared to make money just by relying on a “white paper” even disappeared instantly. This meant that tens of thousands of “coins” in Zhang Chu’s hands lost their value in an instant.
Zhang chu didn’t know what to do, but he was still respectfully asking group manager, “what should I do now?” and he had hundreds of other questions just like zhang chu.
Group manager is very calm:
“Don’t be afraid! The government is blocking the exchange! Not virtual currency! If you don’t understand the difference, quit the group! Don’t follow me!”
“Blockchain and virtual currency are the fourth scientific and technological revolution of mankind. The revolution will have twists and turns naturally, but it will never be extinguished! After this transition period, the price will definitely rise back! Virtual currency is to go to the center, no human government can block virtual currency! Do you understand?”
“Now if you cut meat to leave the field, come back in the future don’t come to look for me to cry!”
After hearing this, some people cheered themselves up loudly: “That’s right! No one can knock out the virtual currency! We must hold on!”
Others timidly ask: “What about the non-mainstream notes I bought? All are recommended by the boss, now they have directly dismissed the user base, there is no one to find!”
No one replied. Zhang tried to find a solution to the problem, but when he clicked on their profile pictures, he found that they had been kicked out of the group by group manager.
“Buy 3000 at that time, still create a fart industry now!”
Some hot ginger, general office, such as do not pay attention to thought air conditioning is too high, but a noisy noise soon exposed the heat source: on the corner of the machine, the main frame three layers from top to bottom, with 30 pieces neatly graphics card, turn a bunch of fans whirring, heat spread to the entire room – it was a “mill” “the etheric currency”.
Ether is considered the most promising digital currency after Bitcoin. Before the ginger always concern for a long time, always dare not start. Two months ago, the price of “ether” soared from 1,000 yuan to nearly 10,000 yuan. Jiang swollen his thigh and decided not to wait.
“Poker! Won the club young model, lost the sea to work!” Mr. Jiang likes to use the slogan of Qianbaou’s “treasure fans” to explain why he wants to stop the company’s in-house sensor project and start “mining” it with lots of time and cost.
Jiang always comes from Hubei province and is a top student at Wuhan University. As an outstanding technical personnel, he once worked in Shanghai Zhangjiang, with an annual salary of 500,000 yuan, Shanghai house, Shanghai brand car. When I met Mr. Jiang in the venture park, he was 38 years old and had left his job to start his own business for 3 years. In the past three years, he has spent all his savings, cycled to and from work every day to save money on parking, and his slovenly appearance is hard to believe at first sight.
Sometimes his friends jokingly advised him to go back to work, but Jiang always shook his head with a wry smile: “Who dares to do so when you are old? Now technology is advancing so fast, and I am the starting line with a fresh graduate in many new technologies. Why do you think others want to see me?”
Although it is self – mockery, but in the ginger always see their retreat is not much. In order to feed the team, Jiang always desperate for medical help. He would take any project and try any direction, but he could only make ends meet. Early last year, he developed an anxiety disorder that left him with severe chest pain and short of breath. When I returned to the company after a month’s rest, the team had broken up. Nearing the end of her reign, Jiang always felt that she had no way ahead and was at a loss.
In the summer of 2017, as Bitcoin soared and ICOs gradually took off, various digital currency creation myths began to circulate in the world: either a post-90s generation made tens of millions by investing in Bitcoin, or a college student raised hundreds of millions of dollars by a “white paper”.
Jiang could not sit still. “Oh, my God! My colleague bought Bitcoin in 2013 and recommended me to play with it. I thought it was interesting at that time, but I just didn’t buy it! At that time, I bought 3000 yuan, now I am a multimillionaire and have a farts!”
Over the next few days, Jiang would brainstorm with several other tech entrepreneurs at the incubator, discuss the next digital currency trend, discuss how to participate, and finally a group of tech workers came to the conclusion: “If you want to get rich, you need to ‘mine’ first!”
“Coin Circle” Ukiyoe
Bitcoin is hard to find, and the consensus is that now is a good time to bet on Ether. Jiang always online credit card bought 10 graphics cards, plus the motherboard, power supply, mining rack, etc., a total of less than 15,000.
“Mining machine” group up, connected to the “fish pond”, Ginger always started their own “mining” business.
The administrator of the incubator park soon noticed that the electricity in Jiang’s office was soaring. He asked jiang several times, but jiang always tried to evade it carefully. Then he moved the “mining machine” to the corner constantly and piled a pile of miscellaneous things around to muddle through.
Two months later, Jiang managed to dig up 2.6 “ethereal coins”. At the then-current price of about 3,000 yuan, jiang was still far from recovering the cost of the mining machine, so he was a little frustrated. The technology entrepreneurs in the incubator is another discussion, some said to continue to do, have a sense of not reliable to give up, Ginger always listen to the head big, indecisive.
In September, when the policy of “shutting down the domestic digital currency exchange” was introduced, Jiang decided that the bubble of digital currency was too big and had no value. So he dismantled the “mining machine” and sold the graphics card, ending his short “mining” career.
After a brief dip in December, digital currencies, led by Bitcoin, soared again, and by a surprising amount — close to 130,000 bitcoins, and “ether” passed the $1,000 mark.
At the same time, jiang angrily denounced himself: “My thinking is too technical. I think that bitcoin and Ether violate the principle of decentralization and have no future. I even think that bitcoin mining wastes energy and is not environmentally friendly… What’s that got to do with me?”
After much thought, Jiang decided to start mining again, but the market had changed — with the soaring price of ether coins, which used to cost 1,800 yuan for a graphics card, had now risen to 2,200 yuan. Mr. Jiang bought 30 of them and spent more than 60,000 yuan. It’s 20 more than before, but the competition is getting fiercer and it’s not nearly as good as it was a few months ago.
Jiang always a heartless, decided to increase investment, how know over the network, graphics card has been all out of stock – have been “mining” people bought out.
Jiang scraped together more than 200,000 yuan and decided to put it all into “etheric currency”, but such a scale of “mining machine” can not “dig” in the office, he began to look for “mines” in each suburb of Shanghai, every day dust.
Friends questioned him: “Virtual currency so unreliable things you play?”
Jiang turned pale and counted the accounts carefully with his friend: “A mining machine with 10 (display) cards invested 20,000 yuan can dig less than one ethereal coin every month. Ten mining machines invested 200,000 yuan can dig nearly 10 ethereal coins every month. Now the price of “Ethereal currency” is approaching 10,000 yuan. By the end of 2018, if ethereal currency can be successfully converted to the mode of “POS proof of Equity”, there will be no problem with the price of 30,000 yuan! If you take away the competitive force factor, there will always be 70 a year, which is more than 2 million…”
“Calculate electric charge, total investment is 30 tens of thousands, earn more than 2 million a year, where do you go looking for such yield rate?” Jiang always speaks well.
Friends do not understand, but still a face of disdain, Jiang total no longer pay attention to, soliloquize up: “time waits for no one, must build up the ‘mine’ before the year!
Eventually, Jiang found a suitable mine on Chongming Island.
evening, a busy day of ginger and partners looking for a barbecue stall lu String drink, talking about the prospect of the next year, very excited. Intrigued by their conversation, the grill owner sat down in between the dishes and asked, “Are you talking about Bitcoin?”
“One of my friends stopped barbecuing,” the boss continued. “Last year, he set up several whole Bitcoin mining machines. I heard he made a lot of money.
“Oh, we don’t dig for bitcoin, bitcoin has no future, we dig for ether.”
“What’s that? Better than bitcoin?”
Three people you a I a chat up, the owner of the barbecue stall several times to urge the boss to work, the boss ignored. After talking late into the night, the boss simply waived the bill and added a WeChat for “deep communication” with them.
“Leek” come in almost, open cut
“A day in the coin circle, a year in the world, the rhythm is too fast!”
At the end of the year, Sun Jian, who had no doubts, collapsed on the sofa in the company conference room. He just came back from Beijing and called several company backhands for a meeting. He wanted to know about the company’s operation during this period, but as they chatted, the topic came up on blockchain, ICO and virtual currency.
I got to know Sun Jian 6 years ago, when his company was still big and he was in a hurry to find an e-commerce partner. My friend introduced me to him, and though we didn’t cooperate in the end, we became friends. Over the years, Sun Jian has worked hard to develop the leather bag company into a game company with more than 100 employees.
Sun Jian likes to play Texas Hold ’em and plays cards with his friends every weekend. In the summer of 2017, he found several down-and-out poker friends before buying a house for a small third, suddenly rich, under questioning, only to know that some people are betting money made a fortune, some people are with others to do ICO partnership, raised a large amount of money.
But right now, the company of Sun Jian is immersed in trough however, borrow 10 million.
Sun Jian was not interested in Bitcoin at first, and he felt unreliable and deceptive. However, he saw his younger brother make a lot of money by it, while he stepped into a crisis, which made him psychologically unbalanced. After see digital currency increasingly hot, he began to use connections to many years to “money”, the second half of 2017, sun chien invested more than 100 chain had been to several blocks and ICO project, make “money” bosses around, he rarely came to office, occasionally and friends with a group of “money” to visit his game company more than 1000 square meters, with “power”.
Half a year of hard work is not in vain, Sun Jian finally also blended in the “circle”, and began to move toward his ultimate goal – to issue THEIR own ICO token. He reprinted his business card — and “blockchain investors” came out on top.
After several backbones reported the progress of the company’s next few game projects, Sun Jian frowned. In the past, he would be involved in every project in every detail, but after seeing how fast the coin circle was making money, Sun jian was in no mood to continue running his own company.
“Do you know Wang, the manager of XX Game, who cooperated with us on a project before?”
Subordinates nod, Sun Jian lit a cigarette – he had quit, but this six months of high intensity of the long-distance travel let him up again: “He and others issued a coin partnership, before the exchange gave me some limit, I spent less than 100 thousand to buy, you guess how much now? 1.2 million! He estimated that he had more than 700,000 yuan in his hand!”
Subordinates were shocked, someone pinched point to calculate: “Wow, that he is not immediately earned 8 million!”
“Yes, but I don’t keep this coin. I’ll see the market again and drop it directly.” Sun chien explains: “this’ token ‘is’ air coin”, “white paper” said project doesn’t even have a executive team, they immediately after exchange on their plate, pull a ten times as much as dozens of times, such as “leek” are into it they open cut, the cut after the currency can’t be banker to flange, impossible to rise again.”
“So why would the exchange let it issue?” Subordinates don’t understand.
Sun Jian laughed: “The exchange which tube those? The ‘coin’ above it is more the better, the more frequent trading the better, the family is the drought and flood protection, no matter your price goes up and down, the family takes charge, like ‘fire currency’ this kind, the exchange a day light handling charge to get tens of millions of dollars!”
“But you can rest assured that what we are going to do is an application based on blockchain that will actually hit the ground. We can’t do ‘air coins’ like they do, and it won’t go far.” Sun gave his subordinates a pep talk — he plans to spin off parts of his team to focus on blockchain projects after several projects are completed.
“Coin circle” Ukiyo-e
Chen Qiang, the company’s deputy general manager and shareholder, has been very opposed to Sun jian’s decision to transform, and on several occasions the two even clashed on the table in the conference room. Chen qiang accused Sun Jian of becoming a “gambler” because he was lost in the bubble of virtual currency. Sun Jian criticized Chen for being too brain-dead and not understanding the opportunity: “Look at Renren, Xunlei and Kodak, which of them didn’t use the blockchain concept to double their share prices and come back to life? With so much competition in the game industry, what’s wrong with me trying to find new growth points for everyone?”
Chen was eventually persuaded by Sun to try to buy some “ether coins”. He entered the field at 6,000 yuan, and by early January 2018, the “ether” had soared to 10,000 yuan per coin. Sun Jian not without satisfaction ridicule Chen Qiang: “how, exciting?”
But the stimulus did not last long. On January 17th the bad news came: China decided to withdraw more virtual currencies and South Korea formally imposed a higher tax on exchanges. The price of the currency dropped sharply, and in less than a day, the ether currency dropped from a high of 10,000 yuan to a range of 5,000 yuan.
Chen Qiang learned the dangerous “coin circle”, regardless of Sun Jian’s dissuasion, “cut the meat” leave. And Sun Jian not only continue to hold, but also from the company to move a sum of money to catch the bottom.
I asked Sun Jian, “Aren’t you afraid?”
Sun Jian’s face was expressionless, but his eyes were firm: “What are you afraid of? I’m going to hold it for the long term. You know, there are a lot of people out there today selling like crazy, but there are also a lot of people out there buying like crazy!”
Afterword.
Zhang Chu did not withdraw from the group after the air coin in his hand was zeroed, and he still paid attention to all kinds of good and bad news within the group. The bitcoin he bought for more than 30,000 yuan has now risen to 60,000 yuan, while the pomelos he bought for more than 20 yuan are now fluctuating around 50 yuan. During the New Year, after bargaining with his wife, he bought a new house of 80 square meters in his hometown loan, and now he is trying his best to repay the loan.
Mr. Jiang’s mine was set up, but the price of ether soon dropped to about 5,000 yuan. Jiang has no funds to maintain the daily operation of the mine, the power supply bureau found that the abnormal consumption of electricity and then sent someone to check. At present, Jiang always decided to sell the “mining machine”, to find a new job, with wages to speculation currency.
Sun Jian spent money to find someone to write a “white paper”, and someone to help him send a coin, but because the exchange can not afford the expensive fees on the currency, is still in the speculation.
For the coin ring, the New Year is a great time. The currency price fluctuates violently and falls sharply from time to time, while the article published by the authoritative media “proposing to introduce the block chain support policy” is regarded by many currency speculators as a signal of policy warming. More and more people rushed to enter the currency as if they were beating a bloody clock.
This time “tuyere”, no one wants to miss.
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