What would you do with $3.3 million in the bank? Actually, let us rephrase that: What would you do with $3.3 million in the bank as a 19-year-old kid? If you’re anything like Erik Finman, the answer is simple: you build a robotic suit. But more on that later.
If Finman’s name sounds faintly familiar it’s because he is known in certain internet circles for being the world’s youngest bitcoin millionaire.
He’s that fabled — both fêted and jealously hated — of things: the “early adopter” success story. Aged 12, Finman was introduced to cryptocurrency in a somewhat unlikely way: at an anti-capitalist protest.
Before long bitcoin was everything to Finman, he hated school. One teacher told him to drop out and go work in McDonald’s because that was all I was going to amount to in life.
Eventually, he dropped out altogether.
Finman made an agreement with his parents — both of whom hold PhDs — that if he had made his first million by 18 he wouldn’t have to go to college. He did, so he didn’t. Instead, he did what plenty of young brash internet-savvy rich kids would do. He travelled. He took part in a Reddit AMA and gave a TedX talk
The kid started with $1000 he got for inheritance which got him almost 100 bitcoins. At its height, on 15 December 2017, a single Bitcoin reached $17,900. (Its price quickly dropped by one-third in 24 hours, and today is around the $8,200 mark.)
At present, Finman owns 401 bitcoins, which carries a current value of just under $3.3 million.
So back to the Octopus suit.
The suit, which is really more of a wearable robotic prosthesis, is a 3-D modelled suit made on the four-armed contraption belonging to Doctor Octopus in the Spider-Man comics.
The idea is that these highly advanced mechanical arms can give their wearer the ability to augment their abilities with the addition of four extra limbs.
But here’s the kicker. The suit is not his.
It was made for a 10-year-old kid named Aristou Meehan. A son to one of Finman’s mentors, who suffers from hypermobility issues.
Way to go Finman!
