The student sells selfies for $1 million and doesn’t tell his parents.

Time-lapse videos are not a new trend. Years ago, there were viral videos in which a person unwound photos from several years in a few minutes and thus made the personal change visible. Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali also wanted to show such a clip as a small show for his graduation ceremony at Semarang University in Java, Indonesia and more info here why he’s a millionaire now.

On January 10, he began posting his photos “for fun” He offered all the images as non-fungible tokens (NFT) and started with around three US dollars unit prices. NFT makes it possible to assign digital images to a clear owner – although they remain accessible to everyone on the web. The technology is based on the blockchain. However, unlike the digital coins, the NFT movements are unique and not easily interchangeable – in English, “non-fungible”.

Up to $6300 for just a selfie

Hundreds of people grabbed it to his amazement, sometimes at significantly higher prices. Payments of up to 2 ethers for a picture, which currently corresponds to around 6300 US dollars, resulted in a hefty sum. A total of 372 ethers were accumulated before the last photo changed hands. At today’s rate, that’s $1,166,547. No wonder the Indonesian tax authorities reported via Twitter and kindly reminded him of his duties; after that, he also publicly promised to settle his unexpected tax debt.

The newly crowned millionaire still has one hurdle to overcome – his parents still don’t know anything about his fortune, he revealed to the AFP news agency. As a result, he said he could not tell them about the sale of his paintings last week. However, after the story went through the press, the conversation should have taken place by now.

He asks the new owners of his pictures to treat them responsibly. Given his newly amassed fortune, it’s safe to assume they’ll forgive their son. In Indonesia, the average monthly income is around 170 US dollars. Converted, this means that the young man’s pictures flushed the equivalent of 572 years of average wages into his account before he even started his career. So he should probably be able to cope with the defacement of one of his selfies.

The man dropped out of university for his hobby – with which he now earns one million euros a month.

John Paul Baric has always been what he describes as a computer geek from Austin, Texas. However, he came into contact with cryptocurrencies for the first time in 2012 when he bought Bitcoin worth 1200 euros. As a result, he has founded a million-dollar business with virtual currency and even dropped out of college for it.

The 24-year-old told the British media that he knew from the start that he wouldn’t last long at the university and only enrolled because of the experience. However, he earned his first million in his parents’ basement before his 18th birthday.

Become a millionaire with bitcoin mining

In 2013, Baric was asked to create his business plan for a school project. His idea: was to set up a so-called “mining rig”. In other words: Baric wanted to create his Bitcoin, which is also called “mining” in the scene. It requires graphics cards that work faster with their chips than classic central processors.

“After finalising the plan, I started buying graphics cards on eBay and running the machines in a milk crate at my house,” Baric told The Mirror. At that time, he was just 13 years old and always pretended to gamble online to be able to mine more Bitcoin. Then, in 2017, at the age of 17, he built an entire Bitcoin mining facility in his parents’ basement and dropped out of university.

Cryptocurrencies pose a risk.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are very volatile. It means their value can fluctuate significantly from one moment to the next. While this involves a high level of risk, the return can be very high at the same time. Baric didn’t care: “I liked that I didn’t have to be a certain age to buy the coins, but I didn’t expect Bitcoin to hit the way it did,” he explains.

He then started selling mining rigs online and hiring some of his friends who built rigs full-time. “The company made more than two million dollars in sales in my parents’ basement,” reports Baric. Today, he makes $40,000 a day from his crypto operation. He uses 1,300 computers and employs a total of 23 people.