30 Jan 2014 / Huffington Post – When Leo Dominguez decided to sink his life savings — and a loan from his mother — into his bitcoin venture two years ago, his friends teased he was entering a Ponzi scheme. His father told him he was wasting his time and would lose all his money.
After the value of one bitcoin rose to $100 some five months ago, from $10 when he first invested, his long-time girlfriend Karen Williamson quit her insurance job to join him as a bitcoin entrepreneur.
“At that point, we knew were were on to something and it wasn’t just two years wasted,” Leo said.
Still, it was a tough decision to put all of their nest egg in a digital basket. Although Leo, 33, was beginning to turn a profit in internet currency, it was 30-year-old Karen’s job that earned the cash to pay the bills. “We had a bit of a panic attack the first couple weeks after I quit,” she recalled.
The value of bitcoin has since catapulted to about $900, and the couple shares nothing but optimism about the future of the virtual currency. Bitcoin is created and managed by a decentralized community rather than a central banking authority — and the couple believes there’s opportunity to build businesses in this uncharted space.
“With the latest price spike, [our investment] turned into a cash cow and we were able to finance our business and our personal lives from it,” Leo said from the couple’s home and office in Waterloo, Ont….. Read more
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/01/28/bitcoin-canada_n_4676044.html
