Last year, Light moved to San Francisco to join the bitcoin revolution, and by this past March, the former online community manager didn’t have enough dollars to pay his rent, but he have a lot of bitcoins. He ended up covering his monthly rent by selling some of his digital stash, but he quickly wished he hadn’t. A month later, the bitcoins he sold for $30 each were worth more than $250. Today, a bitcoin goes for close to $900.

But there’s a silver lining to his story. Light’s March cash-flow problem has sparked a new business idea.