Pulling up my Coinbase account I saw I had double my money. Joy. Then, suspicion set in. Why did I have double my money? I didn’t. I’d actually lost a lot of money. I didn’t know that yet.
What I saw was a big number. I logged into my bank account. I saw a big number. A big red number. My bank account showed a negative balance of 20,000 dollars. I never had that much money in my bank account before. I felt rich. Then I felt sad.
I checked my recent transactions on Coinbase. Bitcoin sent off to a mysterious address. My account couldn’t move any money. I knew what this was. I googled for answers, even though I already knew.
I got robbed.
I boggled at the screen of my computer for a few hours before talking a long walk. I thought of all the years I tucked away dollars into Coinbase like it was a savings account. I thought I was invulnerable. I thought I was special. I thought I did everything right.
I blamed myself. Days passed. I created a petition on Change.org against Coinbase. They wouldn’t answer my customer support inquiries. I wanted to believe there was hope that somehow, I’d still have the money I lost. Each day passed in mouring of my money, while at the same time believing I never lost a single cent.
Part of me even wanted to believe that the high balance on my account really meant what it said. That the money in there, once my account was restored, would be mine.
I wanted to believe I lost nothing. I lost a lot. I didn’t lose everything. My tunnel vision continued for two weeks, until I happened to check my trash folder in my email by chance, out of boredom.
There were plenty of emails from Coinbase there. They were talking to me the whole time. I fiddled with the settings on my email, I found out somehow someone put a filter to send any email with Coinbase on it into the trash.
My account got restored, somehow. Coinbase took 20,000 from my account, which they politely explained they were legally obligated to do, which included all of my money.
Well, nearly all. See, in the two weeks since I got hacked, the price of my money rose in value. So, I didn’t have a negative balance. I had about a hundred dollars worth left in my account.
I thought about what I was going to do. Was this the end? I lost so much. What did I still have?
Well, I actually happened to save up some money elsewhere. I orginally was afraid to send money off Coinbase, thinking Coinbase was safe, so I kept most of my money on Coinbase. I still sent off a good amount of money.
That month, I had a large credit card bill coming due. I got excited the month before and bought a computer with a credit card, thinking I’d sell off some crypto on Coinbase to pay it off next month, the month where I got hacked.
I decided to not pay the credit card. I decided that crypto would go up in value, and dollars wouldn’t. I decided on a strategy I typed down as, ‘pay minimums and pray’.
At the time, it felt like a revelation. It felt like freedom. The next month, I wrote a fantasy novel called “I Have A Dagger” and posted it online. I’m not that proud of the novel. Needs more editing than I want to give it. I’m proud that I got the writing done.
I’m proud that I learned to think in terms of what I have, instead of what I had.