Topic: What got you hooked on Bitcoin? - page 3. (Read 4437 times)
Daytrading/swingtrading with low fees and without risking loss to my real investments.
Upon first hearing about Bitcoin from a Facebook post in May 2011, I thought it was the silliest thing ever. Made-up pretend internet money?? Pssh. Lame.
Then I took about 30 minutes to learn about it.
Then I realized it was one of the most brilliant inventions mankind has ever created.
Then I quit every project I was working on, became utterly obsessed, and have been addicted since. My entire life is now immersed in Bitcoin and it's been the most fulfilling pursuit I've experienced. And things are just getting started...
Then I took about 30 minutes to learn about it.
Then I realized it was one of the most brilliant inventions mankind has ever created.
Then I quit every project I was working on, became utterly obsessed, and have been addicted since. My entire life is now immersed in Bitcoin and it's been the most fulfilling pursuit I've experienced. And things are just getting started...
I first saw something about bitcoin on 4chan /g/, I thought it was just trolling there, but then I read some thread at OCN to make free magic money with your computer. Anyways, what hooked me up was that me, a 15 year old from venezuela could move money back and forth without having an offshore bank account nor any of the AML shit you can't do while you're under 18. That really hooked me up. Even my family said "bitcoin is a scam" until I first got my first revenue from mining. Oh boy, if I had anything more than a 5770 in may 2011 I'd be like floating in money right now.
When I started with Bitcoin, I wasn't necessarily hooked on it yet. But once I discovered there was a whole avenue of cool Bitcoin businesses like Bitpay, Casascius, Bitmit, and Bitinstant, I started getting hooked on buying and selling with BTC.
Satoshi's white paper
First read about it in 2011 during the 30$ spike, I understood it to a large extent and put it in the back of my mind as the way of the future - unfortunately since it was distributed peer technology I assumed the protocol was entirely unchangeable.
This meant I wrote Bitcoin off on some of the fixable flaws it still has - divisibility and performance mainly.
Probably lucky I did so I didn't buy during the 30$ spike
I got in again when I realized it was the only way a computer program could do finance without depending on human cooperation, something I needed for my bachelors project.
This meant I wrote Bitcoin off on some of the fixable flaws it still has - divisibility and performance mainly.
Probably lucky I did so I didn't buy during the 30$ spike
I got in again when I realized it was the only way a computer program could do finance without depending on human cooperation, something I needed for my bachelors project.
I originally discovered bitcoins from freetalklive talking about it. I was in the market for a new video card and got a 5770 to mine some coins along with playing some decent games. I picked a few things up with the coins and fell out of interest for a little while. My interest got renewed when I went to porcfest and discovered all the new innovations and advancements that had been made in recent months, met the guys from bitinstant, and picked up a physical bitcoin while I was there. Running into real people there that talked about using it and/or store value in it instead of gold/silver sealed the deal, I haven't lost interest since.
I stumbled across Bitcoin in may of 2011. I read everything I could over the next 72 hours, and by the time I finally stopped to sleep I was hooked. There have been lots of reasons for using bitcoins, so I break them into 3 categories which can be broadly summarized.
1. Intellectual: I'm learning from my experiences, and enjoying it.
2. Pragmatic: There are things I can do with bitcoins that are impractical or impossible with other currencies.
3. Moral: This was something that was "opt in" rather than "opt out", thus truly voluntary, and any social contract emerging from that state is legitimate to me.
1. Intellectual: I'm learning from my experiences, and enjoying it.
2. Pragmatic: There are things I can do with bitcoins that are impractical or impossible with other currencies.
3. Moral: This was something that was "opt in" rather than "opt out", thus truly voluntary, and any social contract emerging from that state is legitimate to me.
Years ago, I thought it was a funny and interesting concept so I had my pc mining away in support. But at some point it started to look like all other alternative currencies, domed to fail ..
The second time was when I discovered a old wallet backup from a few years back, so checkout the sites again, saw that it was still around and doing way better then I expected ... my little backup was worth 10 times what it was before ...
So now I'm stuck trying to figure out a way to somehow pay back to the community what they gave me ... that and absolute hatred towards that other financial system we all 'love to' use
The second time was when I discovered a old wallet backup from a few years back, so checkout the sites again, saw that it was still around and doing way better then I expected ... my little backup was worth 10 times what it was before ...
So now I'm stuck trying to figure out a way to somehow pay back to the community what they gave me ... that and absolute hatred towards that other financial system we all 'love to' use
heroin
Read an article about it a long time ago.
Went to the website and downloaded the client to start mining.
Client wouldn't install. Could not figure out mining.
Left it to others and their "2 cents per Bitcoin" technology.
Read another article a few months later. Holy crap, Bitcoins are worth $2 per Bitcoin.
Tried loading the client again. Mining did not work, screwed up my laptop.
Left it to others and their "2 dollars per Bitcoin" technology.
Read another article in June 2011. Bitcoin went from $10 to $30! Holy crap, this is it...!
Cashed out $10k from IRA, got in just in time at $16/BTC before it climbs through the roof!
Bitcoinica...Zhoutgouned...
Working on figuring out how to use this technology to get back my initial investment.
Went to the website and downloaded the client to start mining.
Client wouldn't install. Could not figure out mining.
Left it to others and their "2 cents per Bitcoin" technology.
Read another article a few months later. Holy crap, Bitcoins are worth $2 per Bitcoin.
Tried loading the client again. Mining did not work, screwed up my laptop.
Left it to others and their "2 dollars per Bitcoin" technology.
Read another article in June 2011. Bitcoin went from $10 to $30! Holy crap, this is it...!
Cashed out $10k from IRA, got in just in time at $16/BTC before it climbs through the roof!
Bitcoinica...Zhoutgouned...
Working on figuring out how to use this technology to get back my initial investment.
Money and it looked promising...
It seemed to be different from anything ive seen on the internet.
For me its something revolutionary in the very first steps but i dont think its the final bitcoin, what i mean its limited to 21 million what is really a small cap, there must be a split or a v2.0 bitcoin to make it masscompatible.
However, i think the model to create a valueable exchange good from cpu power is great.
21 million is plenty. Here's a quote from the Myths page on the bitcoin wiki. The myth is "21 million coins isn't enough; doesn't scale"For me its something revolutionary in the very first steps but i dont think its the final bitcoin, what i mean its limited to 21 million what is really a small cap, there must be a split or a v2.0 bitcoin to make it masscompatible.
However, i think the model to create a valueable exchange good from cpu power is great.
Quote
One Bitcoin is divisible down to eight decimal places. There are really 2,099,999,997,690,000 (just over 2 quadrillion) maximum possible atomic units in the bitcoin design.
The value of "1 BTC" represents 100,000,000 of these. In other words, each is divisible by up to 10^8.
As the value of the unit of 1 BTC grows too large to be useful for day to day transactions, people can start dealing in smaller units, such as milli-bitcoins (mBTC) or micro-bitcoins (μBTC).
The value of "1 BTC" represents 100,000,000 of these. In other words, each is divisible by up to 10^8.
As the value of the unit of 1 BTC grows too large to be useful for day to day transactions, people can start dealing in smaller units, such as milli-bitcoins (mBTC) or micro-bitcoins (μBTC).
I'm a programmer, i never looked at the code, but it was easier for me to understate how it all works... THE BLOCK CHAIN! its just one of these ideas that you know has value.
so i got 25$ worth with CoinPal ( i had to setup a PP account and wait 5 days for the bank transfer... Oh how i wish i had trasfered more, but i was buying my house THAT WEEK lol... Oh how i wish i had held off buying my house and dumped my savings in bitcoin! ...true story )
watched it go from 0.75$ ( i got in on the very last dip... right as the news "Bitcoin - P2P digital currency and SR!" was coming out ) and with it the bubble to 32$
... was totally blow away...
I bought more when it dropped.
I bought even more then it started showing signs of going back up
I bought stuff using some the coins. it was FUN! not like filling out a "Verified by VISA" forum.
I paid small amounts to members for helping me with thebitcoinrewview.com ( adding images, deleting dead sites...)
I'm hooked...
so i got 25$ worth with CoinPal ( i had to setup a PP account and wait 5 days for the bank transfer... Oh how i wish i had trasfered more, but i was buying my house THAT WEEK lol... Oh how i wish i had held off buying my house and dumped my savings in bitcoin! ...true story )
watched it go from 0.75$ ( i got in on the very last dip... right as the news "Bitcoin - P2P digital currency and SR!" was coming out
) and with it the bubble to 32$... was totally blow away...
I bought more when it dropped.
I bought even more then it started showing signs of going back up
I bought stuff using some the coins. it was FUN! not like filling out a "Verified by VISA" forum.
I paid small amounts to members for helping me with thebitcoinrewview.com ( adding images, deleting dead sites...)
I'm hooked...
Code:
While( BitcoinFiatExchangeRate >= 0)
{
keep_on_bitcoining();
}
I wish this was my story, but this is what I've got:
Feb 2011: Discover bitcoin, buy $10 with Coinpal
Late 2011: Hear the bitcoin hit $30 and then dropped a bunch, figure it's dead.
Mid 2012: Hear it's still alive, and that people are making a decent amount of pocket change mining.
Shortly after: Buy several 7970s and associated hardware. Mining for a couple months now.
August 2012: Paid for some SC singles
September 2012: Paid for some bASIC 54's
...
To be continued in some other thread either titled "We're All Filthy Rich!" or "It was fun while it lasted" or "Who's barely breaking even?"
It seemed to be different from anything ive seen on the internet.
For me its something revolutionary in the very first steps but i dont think its the final bitcoin, what i mean its limited to 21 million what is really a small cap, there must be a split or a v2.0 bitcoin to make it masscompatible.
However, i think the model to create a valueable exchange good from cpu power is great.
For me its something revolutionary in the very first steps but i dont think its the final bitcoin, what i mean its limited to 21 million what is really a small cap, there must be a split or a v2.0 bitcoin to make it masscompatible.
However, i think the model to create a valueable exchange good from cpu power is great.
I'm a programmer, i never looked at the code, but it was easier for me to understate how it all works... THE BLOCK CHAIN! its just one of these ideas that you know has value.
so i got 25$ worth with CoinPal ( i had to setup a PP account and wait 5 days for the bank transfer... Oh how i wish i had trasfered more, but i was buying my house THAT WEEK lol... Oh how i wish i had held off buying my house and dumped my savings in bitcoin! ...true story )
watched it go from 0.75$ ( i got in on the very last dip... right as the news "Bitcoin - P2P digital currency and SR!" was coming out ) and with it the bubble to 32$
... was totally blow away...
I bought more when it dropped.
I bought even more then it started showing signs of going back up
I bought stuff using some the coins. it was FUN! not like filling out a "Verified by VISA" forum.
I paid small amounts to members for helping me with thebitcoinrewview.com ( adding images, deleting dead sites...)
I'm hooked...
so i got 25$ worth with CoinPal ( i had to setup a PP account and wait 5 days for the bank transfer... Oh how i wish i had trasfered more, but i was buying my house THAT WEEK lol... Oh how i wish i had held off buying my house and dumped my savings in bitcoin! ...true story )
watched it go from 0.75$ ( i got in on the very last dip... right as the news "Bitcoin - P2P digital currency and SR!" was coming out
) and with it the bubble to 32$... was totally blow away...
I bought more when it dropped.
I bought even more then it started showing signs of going back up
I bought stuff using some the coins. it was FUN! not like filling out a "Verified by VISA" forum.
I paid small amounts to members for helping me with thebitcoinrewview.com ( adding images, deleting dead sites...)
I'm hooked...
Code:
While( BitcoinFiatExchangeRate >= 0)
{
keep_on_bitcoining();
}
The idea of nobody controlling my finances besides myself while still having the ability to spend and trade at will.
No gods, no masters, only me and my wallet.
No gods, no masters, only me and my wallet.
I've made more in bitcoin than I've ever had before
I thought it was cool
1) The idea of a currency that isn't controlled or regulated by any central service, and therefore isn't discriminatory towards any single user or group of users.
2) The idea that wealth can be transferred thousands of miles in a mere matter of seconds, with practically no fees attached in comparison to comparable services.
3) The idea that I could generate wealth worth believing in, using compute time that would otherwise be idle.
"The" Bitcoin Foundation makes me worried about 1).
ASICs make me worried about 3).
2) The idea that wealth can be transferred thousands of miles in a mere matter of seconds, with practically no fees attached in comparison to comparable services.
3) The idea that I could generate wealth worth believing in, using compute time that would otherwise be idle.
"The" Bitcoin Foundation makes me worried about 1).
ASICs make me worried about 3).
Jump to: