In 2017, bitcoin seemed almost unstoppable as investors and consumers poured money into the cryptocurrency.
For one Dutch businessman and father of three, it was the year to make a radical change. Didi Taihuttu sold almost everything he owned, including his business, house and car, and put all that money into bitcoin. He bet everything he had, and everything his family had, on a decentralized cryptocurrency future.
When Mr. Taihuttu first bought into bitcoin in February 2017—with the price around $1,000—he told The Wall Street Journal he was “in it for the long run.” He held on to his investment even as it hit historic highs of almost $20,000. Then came the bitcoin crash.
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When we next caught up with Mr. Taihuttu in April 2018, its value had dropped by around two-thirds. Nevertheless, Mr. Taihuttu said he still had “the same amount of bitcoins” and was enjoying a life with his wife and kids “out of the system” on a beach in Thailand. From there, he and his family took to the roads of Europe in a campervan, exploring all the places where bitcoin was accepted as a means of payment.
In this episode of Moving Upstream, we follow the yearlong journey of Didi Taihuttu and his family, as he seeks to find a new, cryptocurrency way of life.
Write to Thomas Di Fonzo at tom.difonzo@wsj.com