"Whilst learning forex and starting to trade e-currencies etc. an internet search in late 2009 somehow lead me to bitcoin.org ! A then unknown and mostly unused crypto. currency that interested me greatly.
Infact, when I started using the bitcoin software there were only around 10 'stable' bitcoin nodes / or regular users by IP address... Yes, with the proper port 8333 forwarding on my router.
That was the total size of the bitcoin network when I joined it!
I was generating over 50 BTC (bitcoins) a day for many months! and we had fun 'trading' them like electronic buttons or bottle tops in a family game of poker. I was active on the forum and even predicted bitcoins inflation and future 'rise to fame'. In fact, at one time I had over 12,500 bitcoins in my wallet.
Sadley, I traded or donated all of them (keeping only around 100 BTC, which I still have) in favor of other e-currencies such as Liberty Reserve to trade forex with. Doh!
I figured I would be OK to generate more, before the internet masses arrived. However, it was not to be, the CPU difficulty level and generation rate increased quickly (in almost a matter of weeks), as the masses arrived with increasingly powerful CPU's / hundreds of VPS servers, owned by large established tech. companies (not to mention the botnets that followed) and this made my existing CPU power almost 'worthless' and I was unable to generate the large amounts of coins, as before.
Safe to say, if I'd kept my bitcoins, I'd be a fairly well-off guy right now (which I'm certainly not at present), infact I sold my bitcoins not that long before the first major price spike. I even did early chart predictions for bitcoin inflation based on gold prices and info. I had found whilst learning about forex trading! - Whilst others were still fixing the BTC price against only the electricity costs used to generate them, at that time around a few cents per. coin. I had also suggested that the price should instead also be linked to other commodities (or goods and services), such as gold and could then be traded on markets in the future, just like in forex i.e. USDBTC etc.
Gutted.
However, very few people in this world (certainly not more than around 20, I guess) can say that they had personal, although totally anonymous communication with the still 'unknown' pseudonymous developer named Satoshi Nakamoto. I was one of them and always will be!
See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_NakamotoI infact generated a proportion of the very bitcoins that were sold to 'some guy' who sold them to 'another guy', who then brought the now 'infamous' ~$25 worth of pizza for 10,000 BTC! Ah, the good old days!?
See:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/HistoryLOL - I have to laugh about it, otherwise I'd cry. I guess I'm just very unlucky. I 'won the lottery' and traded it for lulz.
"
Posted by myself on this forum:
http://www.donnaforex.com/forum/index.php?topic=9917.msg250993#msg250993"I ran the very first BTC to LR exchange service, the total transactions in LR USD were less than a few hundred dollars, at that time. The domain was on a free sub-domain cz.cc that got closed down due to abuse by other spam websites etc. Some of my LR funds that I exchanged from BTC were also retained (stolen) by various 3rd party exchangers and fx brokers. Most of my converted bitcoins were spent trying to expand and grow my new online businesses, that at the time, were potentially more profitable in the long-term, or were used for my day-to-day living expenses. Basically, I made a lot of very bad decissions, whilst trying to do the right thing or make the best of bad situations!
Obviously, I have a love / hate relationship with bitcoin today!"
"One of the last things I did before leaving the forum was to donate 500 BTC to the Bitcoin Faucet
https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/ set-up by GA, who is now one of the lead developers at bitcoin.org
http://bitcoin.org/en/development "
Anyway, the rest is history and I'm back now! I've learned a lot in a few short years, perhaps to much for the good of my own sanity.
...
I'm the administrator of these Glype proxy websites - See:
http://xeronet.primeoptic.net (4096 bit SSL Cert. by CAcert.org) and I've become increasingly interested in IT Security, online privacy and cryptography, partly thanks to bitcoin.
I recently added a guide to my website in regards to using PeerBlock or Peer Guardian with Tor - See:
http://xeronet.primeoptic.net/protector.phpI figured that this guide would be useful for bitcoiner's as well as Tor users alike, although I still agree with theymos that some of the 'default' lists are somewhat outdated and/or sometimes inaccurate - See:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/peerblock-979Running the lists suggested, however, is probably more advisable than not running a 'Firewall' with bitcoin at all! Test it for a week or so. Even if some of the listed IP's don't harbor the indicated content, why would you not want to block that stuff, when performance of bitcoin is not affected anyway.
Forum members here might also find our 'xeronet Torrc' of use / interest - See:
http://xeronet.primeoptic.net/torrc.phpAny bitcoin users with a web browser installed might also consider helping the Tor Project by keeping this page open:
http://proxy.primeoptic.net/flashproxy.phpThere is also a Flash Proxy on our gho.st free short links URL's page. See:
http://x.gho.stThank you.
...
Forex traders and e-currency users might also be interested in our free MACD Turbo - Forex MT4 Expert Advisor / Automated Trading Robot. We've been working on it for a good number of years now and TBH it's already much better, safer and 'profitable' than most of the 'clickbank junk' that's out there.
See:
http://www.xerofx.com/free-ea.html (Including some live myfxbook stats.)
The broker links on my website are their because they are the e-currency FX brokers that I have had the best experiences with over the years. They are also cent account brokers (some with 'no deposit' bonus offers), thus allowing newbie traders to 'test' live markets. For any serious FX deposits, I obviously recommend trading with a fully regulated and established broker, located within your own country, where possible.
My new Gap Turbo EA (paid software) is also receiving increasing interest on some forex forums. Perhaps I will consider accepting bitcoins and litecoins in the near future.
Exchange of actual or physical goods and services were always bitcoins best way forward.
...
Anyway, Its great to be back on here!
Also any offers of help with my existing projects, coding / dev. related or otherwise would be much appreciated !
Thanks.
BitcoinFX / XeroFX / xeronet /
Never forget that: "The Color Blue's frangibility is a necessity" !!!