Ask HN: I make $30k/month thanks to Bitcoin. What should I do?
I used to be one of the biggest Bitcoin miners, back when the difficulty level was low enough that CPU mining was the norm. These days people mine with video cards but I am mostly out of the game...
Anyway, I have accumulated enough Bitcoins (73k BTC) and the exchange rate has skyrocketed so much ($27/BTC as I am typing) that I am currently selling on a daily basis as many as possible via MtGox. They have a limit of $1000/day, so I am effectively making $30k/month. (I do plan to report this income to the IRS and am about to hire a tax accountant.)
But the question I have asked myself is: what should I do with that money? Or what would you do if you were in my situation? I am a typical geek with a successful technical career: well-paid Senior Developer position, as an H1B visa holder, working for a large US company. I enjoy my job, but to be truthful I have always wanted to found a startup. However, as an H1B holder, I cannot start a company in the US.
If I quit my job I will be bored and run out of money after a few years.
If I return to my home country to found the startup I will regret the opportunities I may have in the US.
If I keep my current job I will regret the opportunities of not starting a startup today.
34 comments
[ 5.3 ms ] story [ 87.7 ms ] threadthat said, i'd prolly cash out half and start a mining pool. get a garage/basement, invest 10k in some serious GPU shit and get at it. with the prices continuing to go up, you should come out ahead.
It's hard not to have ideas for startups based on Bitcoins honestly.
You may be interested in putting some of the money you are making into ensuring Bitcoin is a success. For example, at the moment I think that MtGox predominance in the market is a bad thing for the future of Bitcoin.
Also, don't give BTC to people who just ask for them, like me: 1BNbVQBhfb8G4yG81bbcXWQmt7uDLrVrk3
I am simply cashing out as fast as I can, in the short term, in order to diversify my wealth across BTC and USD to spread risk. I own the equivalent of $2 million in Bitcoins, so I would probably want to sell a quarter or a third of that.
send me 20 BTC to 172LLtd45L9AunPJBWWsf3D15UeqMidqxZ and I will paypal you 538$ right now.
it's just that i am sitting in .de and my bank wont let me transfer € to mtgox (been trying sine BTC was at 11, sniff).
worth a try, i guess. let me know if you change your mind, i would greatly! appreciate and pledge a 0,1BTC donation to bitcoinfaucet if you do^^
shameless plug [or you could just buy some gold: http://bitcoincommodities.wordpress.com] /shameless plug
If you feel generous, 1Mgem1HSyeigrzaBajR3RHnC3qXUQd2LLs :-)
Can you spare some Bitcents for this non-profit I volunteer for? Maybe you can find an accountant that thinks anonymous Bitcoin donations are tax deductible. :D
1NsFNk9nq8h5XnzHLdwLL7ysK63F69NJt4
http://singinst.org/donate/
I am looking at raising some funds to develop this idea:
http://www.bitrific.com/2011/05/summery-simple-startup-idea-...
"for webmasters and writers to collect and present summaries of articles to help solve the 'tl;dr' problem"
Does it interest you?
You mentioned wanting to start a company with the money so find co-founders. From there create an operating agreement and register the company in a legal way that you can be an employee and owner (Inc, c-Corp etc). Obviously you will need to get a lawyer to do the appropriate wrangling but there are many ways to do this. Phantom shares, options etc.
Alternatively, you could do what one multi-national investor I know did and turn yourself into a company and sell shares of yourself to other investors. From there you can start up subsidiaries in whatever country through whatever standard private company (Inc, C-Corp) legal forms are permissible for a multinational to set up subsidiaries. Again consult appropriate lawyers, but I do know it is possible. This guy runs investment firms in India and America and has companies that run all over the place. It is possible when you have the money to do it. And if you want to create value its a good way to go if you find you have a nose for investments/opportunities.
Best of luck and congratulations on your new found wealth.
(Taken from http://neosmart.net/donations.php)
When you finally have your wealth sorted, enter negotiations with your employer from a position of strength. If you really do actually like your job and think what you're doing is important, maybe see if you can roll some wealth into the business as an investor as well as an employee providing yourself with a motivation boost in performance in the process. If you don't like your job perhaps negotiating better conditions or conditions more suited to pursuing your own business interests is a better path.
With your experience in the bitcoin markets you might also be in a position to simply finance a really good bitcoin focused startup. I had an idea that I was going to try for myself but turns out I don't have the capital necessary to do so, so you're welcome to it if you like;
Create a superfluid buying agent consisting of two components, a basic exchange service like MtGox that cashes btc to a fiat currency on the backend, and frontend merchant widgets that update a given fiat currency price displayed in BTC to the actual user. This would give your users the ability to shop on any traditional internet shopping site and pay with btc transparently, you would assumedly implement the dynamic pricing in btc using a browser plugin of some description.
Further automate your trades so if the market is rising you hold btc, if it's falling you instantly liquidate to fiat for your received btc. It turns out to be basically a transparent way to accrue more btc in an upwards moving market and act as a fee charging instant electronic funds transfer provider in a downwards moving market. The dynamic pricing protects you from the volatility in the exchange rates.
Whatever you decide to do, good luck, and congratulations on spotting an early opportunity.
Do you have an idea you are set on? I am kicking myself today because I sold most of my few hundred bitcoins right before the market went nuts. I would love to have a technical cofounder and/or a small amount of seed money if you would consider me.
First, you should decide what you want. What you really want. It may take weeks, months and even years, but there is no other way if you want to live your life without regret.
Don't ask others what should you do with money. Spend them on your goal. Your goal, not others goal.
And, always good to contact an immigration lawyer to know exactly what you are legally allowed to do (I guess you can afford one now).
There was another thing I was reading about a while ago (but no sure what the case is with that), which states that you can get a special visa if you open up your own company (as an immigrant) which hires more than 5 people.
My perspective is that you do want to continue living like you live now. If you are happy with your job, stay there for now, because it is not easy to find a good job. Also you can get a lot of xp and grow. You can have oppurtunities like you say and you will make a carrier. Something to be proud of. When you outgrow that job, you can think of your own business.
Of course I want to suggest to you to help me carry the burden and give me some of that large amount. It would be a nice reward for this advice, but I do not want anything in return for this, I give it to you unconditionally. However I do find myself in need of €2,500 to pursue my own dream. I do have a dream, and it is now that I have the chance to make it real. That is because now I do have time and I'm young, if I wait to long, I will end up in this society witouth any prospects and live a normal live. So if you are open to investing in someone's dream, please feel free to do so. I know this is what I want deep in side and will make me happy. Donation can be done on this adress: 1Q5JMqpGcGo7cz7eqrhuivyLsSCzTY9CQ5 I thank you in advance and I hope you can use my advice. If you need anything else ask me here.
Regarding the startup, money is not an issue, why not go back to your country for a while and then come back to the US opening your startup with an e-2 visa ($50000 minimum investment and if you want you can also be an employee somewhere else, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-2_visa) (IANAL)?
I read something about this visa somewhere, if it really works as it seems it could be perfect for you. The immigration layer someone else recommended should be able to assist with this. Good luck, btw.
(Quite funny that nearly everyone is posting his bitcoin address, guys, it's time to buy some GPUs :D) (or ... what come next in bitcoin mining? memristors?)
Would you ever invest in bitcoin related startups?
If so email me bitstarter@gmail.com
Thanks!
Sure, things may go well and prices may rise more. But it's only a matter of time before governments start going after BitCoin.
Oh, wait. That started yesterday: http://venturebeat.com/2011/06/08/government-crackdown-on-bi...
Seriously though, I'd just cash out and keep your job. I'd also freeze around 80% of the money, so that you're not tempted to spend it all at once but still have play money. Have you attempted to get American citizenry? That would straighten out the main tangle there.
You are now at the point of having no need to work, ever again, as long as you don't squander your wealth. Your first priority is to enjoy life - do whatever you enjoy most, without regard for whether it pays. If you'd rather have your current job than have an equal amount of free time, keep it. On the other hand, you can fit a lot of hobbies and socializing into the time a day job would have taken. Whatever you do, don't sit idle, that's less fun than you'd think.
You can probably find a way to found a startup in spite of your visa status; talk to a lawyer, you can afford it. Depending on what skills you have, there are a lot of nonprofits that would love to have you - and one great thing about volunteering is that, unlike working for money, it doesn't have to come with obligations or time commitments if you don't want them. Visiting the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (singinst.org) would probably be a great use of your time.