Amid the swirling tides of crypto, where doubt and despair can often capsize even the steadiest of ships, Maximous found his anchor in the Shiba Inu community. His journey, from a cautious investor to a dedicated moderator, is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of a shared vision. Join us as we navigate the stormy seas of crypto alongside Maximous, discovering the unwavering faith that has guided him through the trials and tribulations of the ShibArmy.
Hi there. My name is Maximous, and I joined the ShibArmy back in 2021.
My crypto journey started way before, while crypto was just a fancy concept, and its success was still a little hard to imagine. I was not even an investor back then. In fact, it all started in 2012, when I tried to do some mining on a random coin with my laptop, perhaps for a couple of months. Then I gave up since the result of this mining was worth pennies, and I assumed it would be a waste of time. And I forgot about crypto for a few years.
Later, in 2017, a friend asked me, “Have you checked that Bitcoin thing? It’s digital money, now it’s worth $800!”
And I replied, “Yeah, I don’t really feel confident about it… I need to research…”
So, I did some research, and I understood the concept, and I decided to buy a little bit. My money was so limited back then, so my first crypto was bought using that old token I mined in 2012, $70 worth. Then I ended up investing $400 from my savings and bought around 0.5 BTC. I feel dumb for not holding, but this was also because I had my first bad experience with a crypto exchange in 2017.
The centralized exchange where I bought my crypto, BTC-e, unfortunately was hacked. That exchange made a comeback later with a new name (WEX) to compensate the users, and I recovered my money in dollar value but still lost a lot if we consider how much the crypto would be worth.
That was when I started to see crypto as a serious investment. In Q4 2017, I invested my savings in altcoins, even convinced my parents to put some money on it, and in Q1 2018 my investment pumped so much, and I was so hyped… But guess what, I haven’t taken profits, and it dumped way below my entry price, and I got REKT. Lessons learned, but of course, I gave up on crypto for a few more years because I was feeling ashamed of myself for getting REKT and losing money like that.
A few years passed, and in 2021 I looked at my wallet again. The value that was left was not much – around $1000. I ended up buying my first SHIB in May 2021 when the pump started.
From that moment onward, I started following what the Shib team was doing more closely, following all the announcements, the posts done by Ryoshi where he described the vision he had for Shib, and later the release of the Shiba Inu Woof Paper. I saw Shytoshi Kusama joining the team, then Kaal, and I already saw a lot of potential in Shib and a strong sense of commitment from the team. So, I started to be more active in the old Shiba Inu Discord.
I always had some sense of justice and always tried to help other fellow investors, since I often saw lots of misinformed people and even people spreading negativity about Shib. For that reason, I started doing my best to help the community by spreading awareness and sharing accurate information to those who ask about Shib-related topics. I was just a community member, but since I was invested in Shib, it felt like the right thing to do.
It was during 2021 and 2022 that I had my first contact with well-known people in the community, such as Lucie, Nur0 (Nurofen back then) and many others. But in 2022, the old Shiba Inu Discord became very negative and full of FUD, which was making me uncomfortable and gradually making me become less active there.
One day, I noticed a post by Lucie on X (then Twitter), where she explained she was willing to have a positive group where Shib supporters could feel at peace from the ongoing negativity. I immediately decided to contact Lucie and ask her if I could join, and I was happy that she accepted me and made me feel at home. From that moment onward, I started recovering from that toxicity that was happening. It was like a group of friends who shared a common interest, which was the project we supported and invested in.
A few months later, the ongoing negativity was blown out of proportion, and it became more obvious that it was being caused by some staff members of the Shiba Inu Discord, and those individuals were eventually kicked out of the team.
This instability generated the need to create a positive social forum for the community, and as decided by Shytoshi, there was no choice but to create a new Discord. DaVinci and Lucie were appointed to assist in this complex task, which was executed amazingly well despite all the challenges.
But as part of this complex task, they needed trusted moderators, and I couldn’t believe when I was one of the suggested few ones to become a trainee moderator. I was kind of in shock and a little afraid to fail since I had no experience as moderator before and there was so much to learn. But I decided to give it a try and hope for the best.
DaVinci worked day and night to build the Shibarium Technology Discord – the channels, the roles, the bots, events, and incentives – and of course, at the same time, helping us moderate and helping the moderators to learn. It was crucial for our evolution.
There were a few things that gave me the courage to move on. The support of the other moderators and admins was there, of course, but there were other community members who were positive and supportive since the beginning, such as Sand and Shiba Baby, who became real friends since the early days of Shibarium Technology Discord. Both also became moderators, thanks to their commitment and hard work. This is how true supporters stand out from the rest of the community: through hard work and dedication.
If you ask me if this Discord journey was easy, I must be honest. It was never easy. Especially during the first months since the supporters of that negativity were targeting us pretty badly. They tried to make the Discord creation attempt to fail, and they tried all they could to cause chaos, so it felt a little like war or a battle against the negativity. During the Shibarium L2 launch, there were some intense attacks again, but things started to calm down afterward.
Apart from helping on Discord as moderator and providing support to the community, I’m also happy that I was given the chance to contribute in other ways by participating in Lucie’s Twitter/X Shibarium Spaces, and help with moderating the Shibarium Tech Telegram group. I’m just one of them because there are many awesome volunteers who dedicate their free time to help making Shib even greater and more positive.
Looking back to where Shiba Inu started, the progress we see today is remarkable, and considering everything that Shytoshi and Kaal shared so far, I’m pretty sure that in a few months, next year, or later, we will look back once again and we will feel even more that the progress and evolution are remarkable!
And if I look back to where my journey with Shib started, I must say I feel proud of being part of it as a volunteer.
Shib is an outstanding project with an awesome and strong community, and I feel very grateful to Lucie, DaVinci, and the entire Shib team for the trust and the chance to become a part of this amazing adventure. Woof!
