Simple. Before Bitcoin, I was running an international college preparatory school in South Korea and constantly pressured to use my talents someplace outside the education field. I was ending my long work days by trying to spend some of my creative juices on Youtube videos and develop a few sites so that I didn't lose my development skills from childhood. I was slipping further and further away from the life I had dreamed of and becoming a corporate shill obsessed with materialism, buying the next new car, bigger house, etc (the exact same reason I -left- California) was starting to look like my destiny in the ass-backwards and simple minded country of Korea.
Developing a social network, I researched online currency models and discovered Ripple first. Then I fell upon Bitcoin. 2 months after I fell into Bitcoin, I had decided to sell my school of 3 years to my partner and work entirely in Bitcoin. Since then I have tried:
- Building the UABB (United Association of Bitcoin Businesses) which was intended as a solution to eventually eliminate scammers from our community; it wasn't received well and some community members (but mostly SA trolls) perceived it as some sort of power play in the community. After hearing the pro-decentralized ideals and anti-OTC rants, I agreed that anything that gives accreditation would be frowned on by the entire community and gave the source files of the entire site to the Bitcoin Police for use with Bitcoin OTC as they saw fit. The UABB eventually evolved into the UABCI, then into the DCAO (Digital Commerce Advancement Organization) which now has over 60 members. There are currently numerous proposals that mimic my original proposal and it seems the UABB was a good idea afterall, just poorly represented by an overzealous newbie.
- Showing the community how easy it is to be Bruce Wagner by creating BitTalk.TV (http://www.youtube.com/user/bittalktv) and posting regular news and specials for the entertainment and education of the community. Ironically, what started out as a troll of Wagner ended up being taken quite seriously and eventually evolved into Bitcoin Magazine (which is vewy sewious!)
- Showing the community how to keep high standards for visuals by making sites like DialCoin (http://www.dialcoin.com). One of my personal pete peves is a complete lack of visual sense from this community. I understand there are not a lot of graphics designers, but why someone doesn't just sell some bitcoins and hire even a mild professional once in a while is beyond me. What a joke.
My life has changed because of Bitcoin in a most extreme way-- since July 2011 I have not worked any jobs or run any businesses outside of the Bitcoin economy. I have paid my rent, bought my food and built business after business thanks to Bitcoins. I am a true success story for everyone interested in claiming Bitcoin can change the world, and a good argument against people saying "you can't find work in bitcoin". All it takes is some talent, devotion, and willingness to raise standards yourself.
I've also learned quite a lot about economics, politics and cryptography and I think my path in life is pretty well decided for the moment thanks to influence from Bitcoin. I won't be leaving any time soon (not going to pull a Zhou Tong on everyone) and I can't wait to blow everyone's minds in 2012 and 2013 with what I'm planning, so that everyone will finally understand why I'm always late.
Thanks to Bitcoin, I'll be a multimillionaire in a few years. That's how Bitcoin has changed my life.
