https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Agency

When and how did you find out about Bitcoin?

7-minute read.

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Several years back, my wife and I were on vacation in Baltimore, MD (US). We did like tourists do and hit all the hot spots; the Baltimore Aquarium, downtown, and the harbor. We snapped a bunch of pictures and had lunch with a friend.

Then we hit the National Cryptologic Museum, which is at Fort Meade, home to the United States National Security Agency. The museum was really cool. There were tons of old spy gadgets, a deep history, and a gift shop. We bought a NSA emblemed t-shirt and a Christmas ornament. I recommend going there.

We then walked outside, got in a car and started driving. On the way out there were two mock aircraft on display the NSA used in the past for signals intelligence operations. We didn't stop to see the aircraft because we were tired from walking.

Tourist Autopilot.

As we came to a ‘T’ in the road, the iconic NSA building was in front of us, a security gate to the left, and the exit to the right. I thought to myself, “Oooo cool, the NSA building, I’ve seen this on google images.”

I raised my phone to eye level, and snapped some photos of the NSA building and the guard gate. I was kind of on ‘tourist autopilot’ and taking pictures of everything that I saw to sift through later and keep the ones that were any good. I didn't give it any thought.

Not even a couple seconds later, and I mean a couple seconds, we heard a ‘beep-beep’ sound. That sound a police car makes when they want to get your attention, and then lights started flashing behind us. My first thought was, ‘Does he want us to move out of the way?’ We were making a right turn anyway.

I couldn't really see the car, so I was unsure if it was an actual police car, so I opened the door just a little bit to get a better look, the next sound we heard was “Stay in your Vehicle,” over a loud speaker, and then I thought, “Oh crap, we're in trouble, did we run a stop sign?”

No Pictures.

Then a man in a black uniform, got out of his vehicle, cautiously walked up to the passenger side of our vehicle where I was sitting, and asked if I just took pictures of the building, I nonchalantly said “Yes sir”, thinking to myself, of course I did, what's the big deal? Apparently, it was a VERY big deal!

“Did you see the sign that says no pictures?” the NSA Security Officer asked. I responded “No, there's a sign?” “Yes,” he said. He then asked for both of our drivers licenses and said, “Stay right here please” then walked back to his car. My wife and I both looked at each other with unmitigated dread, instantly realizing I fucked up!

A few minutes passed, and the security officer walked up to the car again and asked us to make a right and pull close to the curb, stop and turn the vehicle off, so we did.

The Man in the Black Suit.

Within a few minutes, two other vehicles showed up. An imposing man in a black business suit and tie, which kind of reminded me of X-Files or Men in Black, got out of one of the vehicles. A deputy sheriff exited the other vehicle. Then the realization was, instead of I fucked up, it was I ROYALLY FUCKED UP!

Then, that same security officer that pulled us over, walked up and asked my wife to get out of the car first, she was in the driver’s seat. She walked to the back of the vehicle and spoke to the man in the black suit. It seemed like an eternity, but I bet it was only like 5 minutes. She then walked back to the vehicle, got in the car, and Didn't-Say-A-Word. Then the security officer asked me to get out of the car and walk to the back.

I cautiously opened the car door, stepped out, and nervously walked over to the man in the black suit and the sheriff's deputy. The man in the black suit was an NSA Agent, he had a “by the numbers” look to him, his suit was neatly pressed, he stood up straight, shoulders back, and had a serious, and focused look on his face, and he was remarkably polite. In a weird way, he put me at ease a little.

He asked if I took pictures of the building, I said yes. He then asked me to delete the photos in front of him, I said okay. There were a few photos of the building and a few photos of the security gate, and I deleted them all. He then asked me what my social security number is, my birth-date, full name and address.

Making Jokes.

He asked whether I had any affiliations with a foreign government, I told him that the only government I’ve ever affiliated with was the US, because I served in the military. He said “thank you for your service.”

And then I jokingly said, “thank you for not putting me in a hole somewhere.” He did not laugh, smile or give any indication that I just made a joke. The deputy sheriff did smile though. But regardless, my heart instantly sank, chills went through my body and I broke into a cold sweat. My inner monologue screamed, “Are you insane! You're in a lot of trouble and you're making jokes!!”

He also asked when we flew in and where, what we did in Baltimore and when we were flying back home. I told him. I suspect he was making sure that my wife's and my story corroborated. After that, he gave me back my license (he returned my wife's license to her earlier), and said have a good day.

Disappear Us.

I walked back to the car, got in, my wife turned on the vehicle and we started driving. For the next 10 minutes, we didn’t say anything as we drove aimlessly down the highway. We eventually found our way to a mall and parked in the parking lot. When we got there, we looked at each other and then I said “Did that just freaking happen!? We both nervously chuckled. But it definitely wasn't funny!

I then told my wife that I was calling our friend back home. Not because I wanted to tell him what happened, but because I wanted to tell someone what happened just in case we didn’t make it back home. Yeah, I thought that my government was going to ’disappear us’. So if someone else knew, then maybe we would be ok. Then again, if it was that sinister, then I just put my friend in danger.

It basically ruined the rest of our vacation. We were flying back home in a couple days…

No Pictures Sign.

As for the “No Pictures” sign that the Security Officer asked me about; I found online later (from a guy that went through the same thing we did) that the sign was posted next to the mock aircraft that we didn’t visit. Go figure.

NSA's Professionalism.

I do want to say that the NSA Agent, the Deputy Sheriff and the Security Officer were polite, professional and really nice considering the circumstances. They were, and I’m sure still are, an example of what National Security federal employees should be. If we were to get pulled over by anybody, I'm glad it was them. It made me proud and relieved to be an American.

So what does this have to do with Bitcoin?

Well, this whole debacle did prompt me to learn what the NSA actually did. Why does the agency exist? So when I was reading through Wikipedia, it said that the NSA’s primary mission was signals intelligence. And one of the tools that it uses in that endeavor is cryptography.

So I looked up cryptography, and one of the search results on Google was “Bitcoin.” And I'm like, “What is Bitcoin?” And like most people I'm sure, I went down the rabbit hole and was hooked. And even though our experience with the National Security Agency was less than ideal, a silver lining has come out of it, we found crypto! And we've been happier since.

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Stay frosty people. Thanks for reading.

Price of Bitcoin.

By the way, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) will be 13826.76 USD at 15:00 UTC on Saturday, October 31st 2020.