Peggy, those are early adopters. They had the chance to acquire coins for nothing.
That's untrue. Compared to when they got involved, the current prices of Cryptonote coins are also "nothing". Any middle-class person can take the same risks I have, and that they did. When they were getting involved in Bitcoin in 2010/2011, it was an overpriced nerd toy with no real use... but they saw something else in it. Maybe they weren't able to understand the full scope of what they were dealing with, but they knew that it was no mere fad.
They realized this was going to be a fundamental transformation in the way money worked across all of civilization. ...And I firmly believe that Cryptonote is going to be a fundamental transformation in the way a blockchain works across all of cryptocurrency.
The 34-year-old Roger Ver began investing in bitcoins in early 2011—and made his first million from the virtual currency that same year—which saw prices skyrocket from around $0.30 to $32 before settling at $2. He bought his first bitcoins at around $1.
(
http://www.cnbc.com/2013/12/02/meet-bitcoin-jesus-a-virtual-currency-millionaire.html)
It is definitely a risk, and there's always a chance that the $$$thousands I've spent on Cryptonote coins over the past year blows up in my face, and the hundreds of hours I've spent reading about them was a total waste.
But this is the nature of risk. A creature who does not embrace risk has already allowed their soul to wither, and the death of their body surely won't be far behind.
The future is bright, my friends.