Owning bitcoin doesn’t make you a bitcoiner.

joelagbo (70)in Project HOPE • 3 years ago

Got some bitcoin? Congratulations! You’re a bitcoiner; oh wait…

I got my first few satoshis sometimes early 2017; to be honest, I vaguely knew what it means to own even the tinniest amount of bitcoin. If you wonder how I got them; a faucet. Lol, funny but those were actually a thing then and they were real. A whole lot of people got their first ‘tiny’ pieces of bitcoin this way. Unlike the rampant fake faucets littered around all corners of the internet currently, bitcoin faucets were real and did pay those who were curious enough to try them out.

My attempt to transfer my first set of earnings from the faucet to my wallet was the real trigger for my curiosity. A wallet, a key phrase, a private key…these were foreign to a total noob. What bitcoin meant; I hardly knew. The process wasn’t a plain one; but yeah, I’m a fast learner. After successfully paying out my first earning to my wallet, my interest in blockchain technology grew.

The transfer process was swift, but that was the least good thing about bitcoin. Reading though resources on the internet, bitcoin was more than just a means to move vague numbers around…I learnt. The mystery, the technology, the audacity; the future, it was all caked into one concept – Bitcoin. Well, blockchain technology and cryptocurrency as a whole.

Alright, feel free to call me ‘dumb’ but I lost those satoshis I earned from the faucet. I might find the pass phrase one day. Don’t worry, it’s just a small amount and won’t make the news. The sats were gone but the interest in the ‘future of money’ continued to grow stronger. I got involved in a number of other cryptocurrency and blockchain projects and bought more bitcoin after the 2018 crash. Again, I lost them in a bitcoin mining scam.

Dummy of the year! Or rather, bitcoiner of the year! That’s a more appropriate term.

Holding some bitcoin only makes you an investor. Waiting patiently for when price gets to your target and selling off to enrich your pool of fiat. That’s a clever investor right there; not a bitcoiner at best.

Cryptocurrencies are unarguably the best performing assets over the last decade. The financial advantage they give their holders is unspeakable. A successful cryptocurrency investment could be life changing. Only a few stocks can boast of a similar financial performance.

Behind these financial super stories is an attempt to influence the society positively (and otherwise) through a number of interesting concepts and techniques. Financial technology, politics, the internet, distribution of communal power and authority; led by bitcoin and supported by other reputable projects, blockchain technology and cryptocurrency are finding their way into these important topics.

Investing in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies only wouldn’t make them relevant outside the investment sphere. It is the deep interest and extra involvements that propels this concept beyond the idea of making money and getting ‘rich’. While owning bitcoin(s) is quite a good start, it is in fact a ‘start’.

qjrE4yyfw5pEPvDbJDzhdNXM7mjt1tbr2kM3X28F6SraZk3uA1G89eEdru1pZt8VNercLctnZJUZwmjqBghYC7grsngZE77Fs4y16VVmZphDBLHMKMPgSYTG.png

In a space with many voluntary spaces to fill, what is/are your extra involvement(s)? Well, advising your uncles to dip in a few dollars is a nice one; not when you lured them to buying the top though…lol. Regardless, you’re more of a bitcoiner than the investor who locked up a few hundred bitcoins in his wallet.

Have our next publication delivered to your mailbox