Crypto is here to stay, but don't trust its get-rich-quick persona, author says

Writer, entrepreneur, and influencer Nathaniel "Nat" Eliason sat down with ABC News to discuss his new book, "Crypto Confidential: Winning and Losing Millions in the New Frontier of Finance."

Eliason needed to make money quickly, so he turned to the most promising get-rich-quick opportunity at the time, crypto. By 2022, he was deeply involved in the world of cryptocurrency.

As a self-taught programmer, Eliason's journey was a roller-coaster of earning and losing millions of dollars, a testament to his determination and resourcefulness. His new book lays out his learning journey and is a source of inspiration for others.

Eliason talked about the good, bad, and ugly in his cryptocurrency journey.

ABC NEWS: In 2021, writer and entrepreneur Nat Eliason was unemployed with a baby on the way. He needed a quick way to make money and as much as possible, so Nat turned to the most promising get-rich-quick opportunity of the time: crypto. By 2022, Nat was deep inside the world of crypto as a self-taught programmer who earned and lost millions of dollars. He shares his journey in a new book, "Crypto Confidential: Winning and Losing Millions in the New Frontier of Finance. "

Joining us now, Nat Eliason. Thank you so much for being here tonight. We really appreciate it.

NAT: Yeah, thank you so much for having me on.

ABC NEWS: Nat, I want to get straight to it because I have a lot of questions. Your journey into the world of crypto began as a need for financial security. How did it go? Give me the good, bad and ugly as quickly as you can.

NAT: Well, it started where a lot of people's journey started then. Trying to day trade Dogecoin on my phone after seeing Elon Musk and whoever else talking about it online and, in the span of a year, it went from moving around a couple hundred or a couple thousand dollars to looking at my, at least my paper amount of crypto that I had. And seeing that it had passed over $10 million and did not get nearly all of that, any most of it back out. But to see that kind of rise and fall in such a short time period was a pretty, pretty wild experience.

ABC NEWS: You write, "Getting rich is a long, slow, steady process. Get a job. Do your work. Get promoted. Invest in your 401 K. But what if there were a faster way?" In today's economic climate, we all know this is all we're talking about as we creep closer to the election. There are a lot of families struggling out there, and a lot of people that are going to be saying, like, I would like a really quick way to get rich. Did your experiences in the crypto world shape your views on the conventional path to financial success?

NAT: It definitely shaped my views on how appealing the get-rich-quick idea is, and how deceptive it can be. Something I share a lot in the book are the many ways that the game is rigged against you behind the scenes. If your goal is to try to make as much money as fast as possible, try to follow in the footsteps of people that you see on Twitter or on other social media sharing their wins. And it really gave me a lot more respect for trying to actually get good at a skill, make money slower, be more patient with it, because often when you get really quick wins, they disappear just as quickly.

ABC NEWS: So then to follow up on that, I mean, would you recommend this to the average person? I mean, you know, if I'm having a conversation with my mom this afternoon, do I need to tell her: 'Let's let's talk about crypto'?

NAT: I definitely believe that crypto is going to become a larger and larger part of our financial and tech lives, but a lot of it will be in the background. It certainly won't be a day trading Dogecoin on your phone. I think that the big ones like Bitcoin and Ethereum are going to slowly continue to become more relevant in our day-to-day lives.

ABC NEWS: And we know the first tip you're going to give people is to read your book before starting to invest and look down these different avenues. But can you give us some more practical steps for the average people, myself included, when you're talking about the crypto space or places like this.

NAT: I think that, on the one level, if you're just looking at it financially, then you don't have to overthink it, right? Bitcoin and Ethereum have kind of been the big ones. They've been here for the longest. And right now you can buy the Bitcoin ETF in your Vanguard account or one of your other trading accounts. And Ethereum will be able to do that soon, too. So you don't have to overthink that side of it. But what I would encourage people to do is to look into some of the technology that's being built, not just whatever crazy coin is going up 1,000%, because there are really cool, new tools being built like some of these stablecoins as new payment rails instead of credit cards and things like that. That could be really interesting parts of our financial life in the future.

ABC NEWS: All right. I love it. Thank you so much Nat for joining us. "Crypto Confidential: Winning and Losing Millions in the New Frontier of Finance" is now available for purchase. Check it out.