Just imagine becoming a millionaire at the early age of 18. Would you continue with your education? Erik Finman certainly didn’t think so, which is why he bet his parents that if he had a seven-figure bank balance by the time he reached adulthood, he wouldn’t have to enroll in University.
Finman, who reached a healthy bank statement at an incredibly young age, is one of the latest success stories to emerge from the rise in the value of Bitcoin, which is a P2P system for online payments that does not require a central authority.
The high school dropout – he quit when he was just 15 years old – started to invest in the coins that, just seven years ago, would have been worth practically nothing. In May, bitcoins celebrated ‘Bitcoin Pizza Day’, a day where 10,000 bitcoins were used to purchase two pizzas. Now, one bitcoin is worth $2,500, or £1,950.
There are a number of analysts who speculate that in ten years time, bitcoins will be worth $10,000 per coin (£7856). Finman seems to agree with this forecast as he told CNBC “I think Bitcoin is going to be worth a couple hundred thousand to a million dollars a coin.” And seeing as Finman already owns 403 bitcoins, the 18-year old is well on his way to making a fortune. In fact, Finman’s share is already worth $1.09 million, or £860,000.
His journey began when Finman’s grandmother gave him $1,000, or £7,900, as gift. Instead of spending that on what most teenagers would with that amount of cash, Finman decided to spend it on Bitcoin. Two years later, he sold that for $100,000 ($79,000).
In 2015, Finman created an online education company called Botangle, and he was offered either $100,000 or 300 bitcoins to it. To people’s surprise, he chose Bitcoin, which was worth just $200 per coin at the time.
When asked whether he planned on returning to an educational institution, Finman said that he doesn’t see the point and would prefer to learn on the job. He said: “The way the education system is structured now, I wouldn’t recommend it. It doesn’t work for anyone. I would recommend the internet, which is all free. You can learn a million times more off Youtube and Wikipedia.”
Along with bitcoin, Finman has invested in other cryptocurrencies such as ethereum and litecoin.
At first, Bitcoin was considered to be a digital competitor to currencies used all over the globe, however, it became so popular that large financial institutions from across the world have now been focusing on how to make their transactions even faster and cheaper.
Featured Image: twitter
