In 2016, I was working as a freelance graphic designer and web developer. One of my clients from Australia, a fitness trainer, needed a website. It was a three-week project, and I worked hard to deliver it on time. However, after completing the project, my client suddenly stopped responding.
At first, I sent him messages on WhatsApp every other day, trying not to be too pushy. But after some time, I realized he was ignoring me. After two weeks, his phone number stopped working. My messages were not getting delivered, and I started to worry.
A Tough Situation
Since I often outsourced projects, I had already paid the person who helped me with this website. Now, I was at a loss because I hadn’t received my payment. I contacted my friend Hussain in Australia and asked him to call my client to check if he was still in business. Unfortunately, Hussain’s calls also went unanswered, and the number remained inactive. This made me think that something serious had happened.
An Unexpected Message
After waiting for nearly two months, I finally received a message from my client’s number—but it wasn’t from him. His son messaged me, explaining that his father had a severe health issue and was in the hospital. That’s why he had been unreachable.
I explained to his son that I had completed the project but hadn’t been paid yet. After a week of discussion, he agreed that I deserved my payment. However, he told me that he couldn’t send cash to Pakistan.
My First Experience with Crypto
To solve this, he suggested paying me in cryptocurrency. At that time, I had no idea what crypto was. But since I had no other option, I accepted the offer. He sent me the payment in crypto, and I received it through Coinbase, a platform I had just heard about.
Even though the money was in my account, I had no idea how to withdraw it or whether it was even real. This was my first step into the world of crypto, and I had no clue what to do next.
The Start of Something New
This experience introduced me to cryptocurrency. What started as a way to recover a lost payment soon turned into my journey of learning about digital currency, blockchain, and investments. In my upcoming blogs, I will share more about my crypto journey, the challenges I faced, and the lessons I learned.
Stay tuned for the next part of my story!