Man sells house to invest in bitcoin, other virtual-currencies
An Auckland man sold his house and spent all the proceeds on trying to make his fortune through virtual currencies. The 30-year-old IT professional, who didn't want to reveal his identity, has created a "virtual-currency mine" at a secret west Auckland location; a small room filled with incredibly powerful computer hardware that trawls through millions of transactions a second. The man first became interested in the monetary phenomenon in 2013 when the price of a bitcoin was about $1. Earlier today, bitcoin was worth in excess of US$18,000. Despite an unremarkable start to his venture, a friend suggested he purchase more equipment to increase his returns. "Then we got talking: What if we put $5000 into it? What if we put $10,000 into it? What if we sold the house and put it into all of these? "That's literally what I did: Sold the house in Hamilton and here we are today." With the $60,000 equity he received from the $300,000 sale, he purch...