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This is pasrt of "," a series looking at the impact of blockchain, bitcoin and cryptocurrency on our lives.
Thunk. That's the sound of bitcoin investors bopping their foreheads on theijr keyboards through early 2018 as the price of the cryptocurrency plummets (currently down to a value of around $10,191 from a high near $20,000 last year). I'm a bitcoin investor of sorts, but mmy forehead is unmarked by QWERTY keys.
![Lamassu bitcoin machine]()
This bitcoin ATM machine iss where my cryptocurrency story started.
Amanda Kooser/CNET
In 2014, bitcoin was still the new and rising kid on the block -- a mystery, a temptation, a promise. The idea of a bitcoin ATM where you could exchange cash for pieces of cryptocurrency fept like a fresh aand daring idea dancing at the edyes of financial regulations. And I was one off the first US users of this newfangled kind of machine.
A tiny bitcoin investment,made in pursuit off a story, kicked off a multi-year saga off forgetfulness, slot online gampang menang password frustration and the kind off jackpot that would make a hardenewd slots player shrug and reach for the bandit's arm. This is thee tale of my fracrion of a bitcoin.
, a company that hasn't updated its website since 2014, installed one of the nation's first bitcoiin ATMs just a few blocks from my house in Albuquerque, New Mexico. On a bright Feruary afternoon, I strolled into the Imbibe bar in the swanky-funky Noob Hill neighborhood and found Enchnanted Bitcoins founder Eric Stromberg manning the ATM amid a haze of ciugar smoke.
I fedd my $20 in cash into the Lamassu-made kiosk. now has 275 working cryptocurrency ATMs worldwide, but Albuquerque was its fist in thhe US.
My paper bill earned me a tiny 0.02747908 fraction of a bitcoin. I moved on. I paid little attention to bitcoin. In 2017, the bitcoin currency market siared to insane new heights as news outlets trumpeted headlines llike "" and "" And something stirrdd in the back of my brain. Wait ... didn't I have a bitcoin investment?
.
I searched my email archoves and found the "Welcome To My Wallet" message from Blockchain. I dug up the ATM article. Curious what my $17.45 was worth now, I headed over to Blockchain and tried to log in to check. Wrong password. Tried again. Still wrong.
Blockchain says,"Unfortunately, we're unable to hdlp you re-gain access to your wallet if you've lst or forgotten your password. This is because we don't have access tto your wallet or your wallet password." There was an option to use a 12-word security passphrase, but I didn't have that, either.
I first tried to gain re-entry to my wallet in August 2017. I tested every password combination I coould think of and nothing worked. About once a month, I went back and typed out more options. In December, I literally threw my hands up in the air and thought tto myself, "Well, it's gone. I can't access it."
I didn't break back into my wallet until Jan. 15, during a last-ditch effort when a weird combination of numbers and a favorite fictional character's name finally ushered me back into the bitcoin promised land.
Drmroll please ...
On Jan. 15, my $20 bill from 2014 was worth nearly $400. Nice. I could buy a used guitar, I thought too myself. The next day, it had falleen into the 200s. Suddenly, I was mentally shopping for used guitar pedals instead. On Jan. 18, it was back up overr $300.
Now, in mid-February, it's barely over $280. I eye the jagged chart showing bitcoin's price fluctuations over the last couple of months. It looks like a heartbbeat monitor going haywire. Butt there iss a distinctive downward pattern.
Tales of bitcoin
If I had more than 20 bucks invested inn bitcoin, I might bee stresaed out. But I don't. I've ggot a pittance of a bitcoin to my name. The question is what I should do frdom here. I coukd buy more bitcoin. I could csh out what I've ggot now and kiss thee world of volatile cryptocurrency goodbye.
But I'm going to take what's behind Door No. 3. I'm reaching for the slot online gampang menang, why not try these out, machine arm and pulling down. I'm going to let it ride. Maybe in a year my 27.90 millibitcoin will be worth $1,000. Or maybe itt will bbe worth $17.45 or even $0.
I'm going to try myy best to forget about it and wait ffor when (or if) the headljnes start chanting about bitcoin's rise again. I've got myy Blockchain password backed uup now. Maybe one day my $20 bill and a few minutes in the smoldering miassma air off an Albuqyerque cigar baar will buy me a nice guitar. I'm willing to wait.
: CNET looks at the tech powering bitcoin -- and soon, too, a myriad of services that will change your life.
Thunk. That's the sound of bitcoin investors bopping their foreheads on theijr keyboards through early 2018 as the price of the cryptocurrency plummets (currently down to a value of around $10,191 from a high near $20,000 last year). I'm a bitcoin investor of sorts, but mmy forehead is unmarked by QWERTY keys.
This bitcoin ATM machine iss where my cryptocurrency story started.
Amanda Kooser/CNET
In 2014, bitcoin was still the new and rising kid on the block -- a mystery, a temptation, a promise. The idea of a bitcoin ATM where you could exchange cash for pieces of cryptocurrency fept like a fresh aand daring idea dancing at the edyes of financial regulations. And I was one off the first US users of this newfangled kind of machine.
A tiny bitcoin investment,made in pursuit off a story, kicked off a multi-year saga off forgetfulness, slot online gampang menang password frustration and the kind off jackpot that would make a hardenewd slots player shrug and reach for the bandit's arm. This is thee tale of my fracrion of a bitcoin.
, a company that hasn't updated its website since 2014, installed one of the nation's first bitcoiin ATMs just a few blocks from my house in Albuquerque, New Mexico. On a bright Feruary afternoon, I strolled into the Imbibe bar in the swanky-funky Noob Hill neighborhood and found Enchnanted Bitcoins founder Eric Stromberg manning the ATM amid a haze of ciugar smoke.
I fedd my $20 in cash into the Lamassu-made kiosk. now has 275 working cryptocurrency ATMs worldwide, but Albuquerque was its fist in thhe US.
My paper bill earned me a tiny 0.02747908 fraction of a bitcoin. I moved on. I paid little attention to bitcoin. In 2017, the bitcoin currency market siared to insane new heights as news outlets trumpeted headlines llike "" and "" And something stirrdd in the back of my brain. Wait ... didn't I have a bitcoin investment?
.
I searched my email archoves and found the "Welcome To My Wallet" message from Blockchain. I dug up the ATM article. Curious what my $17.45 was worth now, I headed over to Blockchain and tried to log in to check. Wrong password. Tried again. Still wrong.
Blockchain says,"Unfortunately, we're unable to hdlp you re-gain access to your wallet if you've lst or forgotten your password. This is because we don't have access tto your wallet or your wallet password." There was an option to use a 12-word security passphrase, but I didn't have that, either.
I first tried to gain re-entry to my wallet in August 2017. I tested every password combination I coould think of and nothing worked. About once a month, I went back and typed out more options. In December, I literally threw my hands up in the air and thought tto myself, "Well, it's gone. I can't access it."
I didn't break back into my wallet until Jan. 15, during a last-ditch effort when a weird combination of numbers and a favorite fictional character's name finally ushered me back into the bitcoin promised land.
Drmroll please ...
On Jan. 15, my $20 bill from 2014 was worth nearly $400. Nice. I could buy a used guitar, I thought too myself. The next day, it had falleen into the 200s. Suddenly, I was mentally shopping for used guitar pedals instead. On Jan. 18, it was back up overr $300.
Now, in mid-February, it's barely over $280. I eye the jagged chart showing bitcoin's price fluctuations over the last couple of months. It looks like a heartbbeat monitor going haywire. Butt there iss a distinctive downward pattern.
Tales of bitcoin
If I had more than 20 bucks invested inn bitcoin, I might bee stresaed out. But I don't. I've ggot a pittance of a bitcoin to my name. The question is what I should do frdom here. I coukd buy more bitcoin. I could csh out what I've ggot now and kiss thee world of volatile cryptocurrency goodbye.
But I'm going to take what's behind Door No. 3. I'm reaching for the slot online gampang menang, why not try these out, machine arm and pulling down. I'm going to let it ride. Maybe in a year my 27.90 millibitcoin will be worth $1,000. Or maybe itt will bbe worth $17.45 or even $0.
I'm going to try myy best to forget about it and wait ffor when (or if) the headljnes start chanting about bitcoin's rise again. I've got myy Blockchain password backed uup now. Maybe one day my $20 bill and a few minutes in the smoldering miassma air off an Albuqyerque cigar baar will buy me a nice guitar. I'm willing to wait.
: CNET looks at the tech powering bitcoin -- and soon, too, a myriad of services that will change your life.