Back in 2013, my tech-savvy friend Jack bought 10 bitcoins for $100 each, mostly out of curiosity. At the time, we laughed at him, calling it "Monopoly money." Fast forward to 2017, and Bitcoin's value skyrocketed to nearly $20,000 per coin. One evening at our favorite pub, Jack pulled out his phone and showed us his digital wallet. The numbers didn't lie—he was sitting on a small fortune. Our jaws dropped. Jack didn't sell at the peak, but he did cash out enough to pay off his student loans and buy a new car. The rest, he said, was for "the future." Nowadays, whenever someone mentions cryptocurrencies, I think of Jack's grin and wonder what the future holds for this digital gold.