How I Got Into Bitcoin
I had known about Bitcoin since 2015 and only paid a small amount of my attention on it. It was just magic internet money to me. I didn't know anything about blockchain technology and definitely didn't understand why people would want to spend "real" money on them. Over the next year I would only spend a few minutes here and there reading news articles about Bitcoin.
It wasn't until April of 2016 that thing really started clicking. I made the plunge. It wasn't because I was investing for the long term though. I bought a relatively large amount of Bitcoin (at least for a middle class American with a family of five) because I was moving from Indiana to Oregon and I didn't have 100% faith that my car was going to make the drive. I didn't want to have a large amount of cash to worry about in the event that something happened. I know I could have gotten a cashier's check but I just wanted to go the Bitcoin route.
I bought my first Bitcoins for a little over $400 each. By the time my move was over a few months later, my Bitcoins were now worth over $600 each. I was ecstatic. I definitely didn't expect this. I was planning on cashing out all of my Bitcoin once I was settled in at my new home in Oregon, but since I was so intrigued by the amount of value that I gained within just a few short months, I decide just to withdraw my original USD amount.
This is where the rabbit hole started. For the rest of 2016 I spent most of my free time reading about various cryptocurrencies. It wasn't until February 2017 that I actually started putting more money into the market when I realized how awesome Ethereum was.
I didn't really sell anything until I started finding coins that I thought were special. There have been a few coins that I have gotten a gut feeling about and, along with research, decided to buy a fair amount of in hopes of long term prosperity. Taking chances on these gut feelings hasn't failed me yet.
My first introduction to bitcoin was on Christmas Day 2012. I was staying with my parents for Christmas and my brother came to open presents and told me he had solo-mined a block of bitcoin the previous night. At the time this was 50 BTC. I had no idea the value and he told me some number that was impressive to me. It could have been $50 for all I know. I thought it was cool. When I got back to my home town after Christmas I started mining it. I remember it was a miniscule amount of money. Maybe $0.15 a day. Although today it would be enviable. It was like more than .1 BTC a day on really crappy cards. By the end of the year I had gotten so into it, I was mining on 2x 7990 cards. Earning .5 BTC a day. Of course I was stupid and converted it all right away on MtGox to pay for electricity. I was also earning selling on bitmit. I wish I had saved even 5% of my funds from the time. I'll bet I'd be a millionaire now. Lol oh well. Now I save 5% of all BTC earnings
Man, that's wild!
Good call! Yea definitely gotta have faith. that's where really understanding the technology and the benefits comes in :)
Absolutely! It's worth all the time I've spent trying to understand things. I'll never be on a highly technical level, I'm not a computer guy at all.
I'm glad your experience has been positive. I haven't taken the plunge yet. Wish I did a few years ago when it first crossed my path. What's the best site to buy from? Any advice for a beginner?
Coinbase is the only place I've ever used to buy crypto and I've never had a problem, but there are many exchanges that accept USD.
Basic advice for any kind of investing or saving is to have a plan before you start. And make that plan realistic. If you only have an extra $25 a week to spend, don't make your goal trying to get 1BTC in 6 months. Make a plan and stick to your strategy. You can always restructure your plan later on.