If the class division in the cryptocurrency circle is between big guys and leeks, Zeng Wen says he is a leek. If you add another adjective, he is an old leek. This guy with a simple smile and a bit of wisdom in his eyes is Zeng Wen.
Zeng Wen, born in 1992, entered the cryptocurrency circle at the age of 26, that is, in 2017. In 28 days, he made more than 200,000 yuan from 5,000 yuan. He bought a washing machine and a water heater. He used to wash clothes by hand. He started to use a washing machine after entering the cryptocurrency circle. If someone asks him what industry he is in, he will say that he is an investor. In his definition, "Internet finance" is actually a derivative of speculation. It means that you have to speculate to have a chance to turn things around. If you treat it as an investment, you will lose everything. Because most people define speculative products as investment products, they will have the mentality of long-term holding of value investment. In his eyes, speculation is not a derogatory term. He believes that anything that can make money is a good thing, but it is inevitable that high returns are accompanied by high risks.
If he has no money, he would rather go home and farm than go back to work. He believes that others and himself have proven that the lower-class workers will not get rich and it is difficult to break through this existing class.
Involved in pyramid scheme by online girlfriend
Zeng Wen was born in a rural area of Ji'an, Jiangxi Province, and went out to work at the age of 14. For him, working at Foxconn was the most tiring. He had to run to the toilet, and when he came back a few minutes later, the assembly line was full of products again. People were more robotic than robots. When he had the least money during his working experience, he went hungry for several days and could only survive by relying on charity from friends.
I have worked as a network administrator, waiter, truck driver, etc., in electronics factories, garment factories, and marble factories. I claim to be an honest person. I think leaders and bosses are bullies, and I often suffer because the people in Murakami Town are fierce. Even when I was in school, I was often bullied. I am not good at talking, but I endured it.
Before the Spring Festival in 2014, Zeng Wen met a girl through QQ chat and started an online romance. The girl asked him to go to Hangzhou to work, looking forward to the days when the two of them would be together and work hard for the future together. So he couldn't wait to go to Hangzhou before the fifth day of the New Year, and brought a Nokia phone, which seemed to be out of service. There was an overpass next to the Hangzhou Building, and they agreed to meet there. The girl went there as scheduled to pick up Zeng Wen. When they were having dinner together in the evening, because he said that making money is not easy, the girl paid the money and kissed him when she left. It was the first time I was kissed by a girl, and my heart was pounding and full of joy.
The next day, his girlfriend did not bring Zeng Wen into the factory but into a pyramid scheme. There were two rooms there, women slept on beds and men slept on the floor. Someone squeezed toothpaste for brushing teeth, someone washed feet for slippers, and everyone helped each other. Zeng Wen felt that this environment was much better than working as a migrant worker. People in the factory called each other boss and shook hands. There was harmony and no intrigue. Everyone was very positive and spoke positive words like chicken blood. This was the warmth he had never enjoyed when working outside. In short, wherever he went, he felt that it was his place to turn things around and change his fate. In the name of opening a store with his girlfriend, he asked his parents for more than 60,000 yuan and handed it over to the organization.
In the end, only more than 1,000 yuan of the "investment" of more than 60,000 yuan remained, and I left the pyramid scheme after a year. After I left, I felt that I had to do things according to the rules in the pyramid scheme. Although it was a pyramid scheme, I felt that there were good things in it, such as the boss mentality and the idea of not working for others.
Playing the Ponzi scheme game and accumulating huge debts
Around 2015, "Internet finance" was popular, and Zeng Wen also joined this trend and participated in the promotion of Jiedaibao. Because one person will be given 20 yuan for registering with real name, and can also develop subordinate agents, and the hierarchical profits will be directly returned to his account. He saw that someone had just created a group of 2,000 people to promote Jiedaibao, so he followed others and could make about two or three hundred a day, which was much more considerable for him than working. After going deeper, he started to do mutual aid funds, that is, if you put 3,000 on the platform, you will have a 45% return after 3 days, and you can get back more than 4,000 including principal and interest. Zeng Wen has hundreds of people registered under him, and he has never thought about the pyramid scheme game of funds. He only knows that this thing is very profitable and can make more money than working.
Zeng Wen made nearly 200,000 yuan through the operation of the Ponzi scheme and bought his first luxury Apple phone. Then he had a few hundred yuan meal. Before, he spent 20 or 30 yuan at most. He went to a foot bath with friends, took a bath and massaged. He bought the clock of the girl there and asked her to go out for supper and sing songs for a few hundred yuan. In the past, it was the kind of coin-operated ones. He felt a little sad to spend thousands of yuan at a time. He had never spent money so lavishly before.
Later, the bubble of the capital market became too big, and the funds could not be operated. The platform ran away directly. As there were too many platforms, they switched them. They knew it was a scam but they wanted to bet on who could run faster. Finally, the capital markets collapsed one after another, Zeng Wen failed in loan investment, and owed 300,000 foreign debts. At the end of 2016, he did not dare to go back to his hometown. All the relatives and friends in the address book were sending messages to collect debts, and they all sent messages that threatened to kill the whole family. His parents were very desperate and felt that their son was useless. And the whole village knew his current situation. His parents advised him to turn himself in to the court, but he did not dare to go when he heard that he might go to jail.
After owing foreign debts, I dare not think about other things. I work on projects and recruit people all day long. If I go back to work, the money won't be enough, so I can only go down this path.
The cryptocurrency world is going through ups and downs, but I believe we can turn things around
In 2017, digital currencies soared rapidly. Zeng Wen saw an opportunity to turn things around and borrowed 5,000 yuan to join the cryptocurrency circle. The market can be described as crazy. In just 28 days, he made 280,000 yuan with 5,000 yuan. When he first saw this thing, he invested directly. Everyone was crazy to the extreme, so crazy that they didn't even read the white paper and directly poured money into it. At that time, when a website issued coins, everyone rushed to grab them, causing abnormal network jams, and some people couldn't get in at all. He had several currencies that rose by dozens or hundreds of times. Later, he played more and more smoothly and could make tens of thousands of yuan every day. He posted those profit screenshots in futures groups, exchange user groups, etc. When he made 100 bitcoins (the highest price of bitcoin was about 140,000 RMB per bitcoin at the end of 2017), he would send coins to the group to show his strength and satisfy his vanity of being applauded.
At that time, he slept only 5 hours a day, kept an eye on the market trend, bought low and sold high, and felt that it was easier to make money with coins at any time. When he had 1.2 million, he gave his parents tens of thousands of yuan, which was never so much money before. He also bought the largest 55-inch TV in the village for his family. Later, everyone in the village knew about it. Because many people in the village wore jewelry, Zeng Wen also bought rings for his parents. That was the happiest moment for him.
The rapidly rising Bitcoin suddenly reached a turning point at the end of 2017. The market value of Bitcoin increased by $100 billion in 24 hours, leading all virtual currencies into a long bear market. Finally, Bitcoin fell below the psychological barrier of $10,000. When playing futures, the most loss was more than 1.2 million in one night.
Zeng Wen's wealth is almost zero. At the beginning of this year, he went to a small city in Zhejiang, rented a small room, and specialized in cryptocurrency trading. He was unwilling to stay in his hometown because the environment was not good and the cost of living was too low and comfortable. He was particularly afraid of falling into a comfortable working track and felt that it was dangerous. In the countryside, you can only see motorcycles, and in the city, there are Mercedes-Benz and BMW everywhere. Looking at other people's luxury cars and houses, you will have pressure and motivation to do more things, so as not to wear down your fighting spirit. Unlike before, he believes that he can turn over in the cryptocurrency circle, and his self-confidence comes from his past wonderful experiences. At the same time, he is also extremely optimistic. He believes that as long as he is full of optimism, good things will come with it, otherwise he will ignore you. He thinks that his mentality has changed, his thoughts have changed, and his pattern has changed. Before, I felt that it was expensive to take a 5-yuan bus to work, but now it is a small amount of money to take a taxi when I go out. I will not go back after my thinking pattern has improved.
If you ask him how much he knows about Bitcoin and the underlying technology of blockchain, he will answer that these are things that programmers should know. He thinks he is just a participant and there is no need to delve into it. He just needs to find a way to gain benefits from it. He does not know much about digital currency, but just follows the trend and hopes to get a share of the market.
He thinks he has no education and no ability, and plans to make money in high-risk and high-return industries all his life. He even hopes that his spouse will be as adventurous as he is, thinking that only in this way can they have a common language. He still considers himself as a grassroots person, and he needs at least 10 million to barely break into the ceiling of the middle class, but this is not the top goal, because 10 million cannot even buy a good house in a first-tier city.
