“I quit my job and left on a round-the-world trip” — Mr Smith, anonymous software engineer.

After finishing college in 2008, Mr Smith (not his real name) began working at a typical large technology company in Silicon Valley. He got on well with his “equally geeky” colleagues.

In 2010, he invested $3,000. With the price of bitcoin only US 15 cents at the time, that means he had almost 20,000 bitcoin. “I knew from the very start that I was playing the long game. I wanted to see how high it could go,” he said.

Mr Smith had almost forgotten about his investment 3 years later, when it popped up in the news. With the price rising by 10% or more every single day, he sold 2,000 coins when the price hit $350. When the price hit $800 a few days later, he sold another 2,000 coins. He’d already netted $2.3 million. “I quit my job and left on a round-the-world trip.”

Today, he spends his time travelling the world in luxury. He flies first class to 5-star restaurants where he enjoys elite chef-prepared meals for every meal. In the 30 days before he was interviewed by Forbes, he’d visited Singapore, New York City, Las Vegas, Monaco, Moscow, back to New York City, Zurich and Hong Kong. His net worth is likely somewhere between a hundred million dollars and a billion dollars.

“He’s constantly talking about Bitcoin,” his girlfriend said, “If he starts talking about it, he’ll never stop. Ever.”