Ben Simpson recounts dropping out of school at 17 to run a sports-uniforms business that sent monthly payments to factories in China. Frustrated by slow, costly bank transfers and paperwork, he was introduced to Bitcoin via Coinbase, which prompted a six-month deep dive that caused him to abandon his successful business and pursue cryptocurrency full-time.
So I dropped out of school when I was 17 and I was making sports uniforms in China, selling them to teams back in Tassie. So we had all the local basketball contracts and I was sending a heap of money to China every month as a 17 year old. The banks are like, what the hell is going on here? And it was slow. It took seven days. The currency conversion was terrible. It was wild. And, you know, every transaction that would block it, they would stop it and, you know, they'd be asking questions, had to fill out paperwork. It was. It was a nightmare. So I was literally looking for alternatives. And an old friend of mine, you know, introduced me to bitcoin, sent me some money on Coinbase. When I was like, 17, I was like, OK, the fuck just happened? Asked the Chinese factory that I had if they take bitcoin, obviously they said no. The light bulb moment for me was the sending of bitcoin on Coinbase. Didn't really understand what happened. And I went on this six month journey of just going completely down the rabbit hole. I've got rid of my business and I don't know why. The business was doing great and I literally just threw it to the side and went, I'm going all in on crypto.
