Bitcoin Forum

I'm just curious, what is your reason for using Bitcoin? Personally, I fell in love with BTC almost a year ago because I saw great possibilities for investment opportunites and portfolio diversification. I also like the idea of a decentralized currency as it allows for more economic freedom without government interference.

With Bitcoin, anything is possible!  8)

Here's my timeline:

1) run your computer, get free money.... Awesome, I'll do that and sell these worthless "bitcoins" to people who think they are worth money.

2) a few months later, I think they are worth money

3) now I'm trying to get every business to use them

4) hope for all the above to make me a millionaire

5) really believe in the technology and try to promote where best applicable.

6) ASICs announced - ZOMG let's start a mining company with my friends...

I'll let you know when I get to the next chapter in my obsession.

Well I wouldn't say I'm hooked. With technological advances, there is always a possibility for a better alternative to be created down the line.

Bitcoin is awesome, but i'm not hooked on it.

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).

I thought it was cool

I've made more in bitcoin than I've ever had before

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.

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...

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.

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?"

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"

Money and it looked promising...

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.

heroin

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  ;D

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.

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.

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.

Satoshi's white paper

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.

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.

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...

Daytrading/swingtrading with low fees and without risking loss to my real investments.

Saw a Slashdot post in early 2011. Ignored it. Saw another one in May 2011. Downloaded the client. CPU-mined a couple bitcents. Read a lot about bitcoin, and more and more on macro/monetary-econ in general. Bought most of my coins via Tradehill on the way down between $20 and $2. Got more and more hooked both from a theoretical purity standpoint, and the practical ease of actually transacting with bitcoin.

So, I'm hooked, because:
1) I like Bitcoin's monetary properties.
2) The ease of transacting with bitcoin is great.  
3) The ability to fully store and manage my own money. No counter-party risk, no one else can mess with my funds or tell me what I can and can't do with them.

The idea of markets where barrier of entry is dramatically lower than in any existing markets. Anyone can just start using bitcoin, without any kind of permission, identification or licences.

I Researched the idea to death in March or 2011 - after reading about "crazy people" buying Bitcoin on Slashdot. I started CPU mining right away, I knew it would be big and wanted in.  I talked the idea over with a few people and they laughed at me. My CPU churned away with no reward and Bitcoin fell off the radar.  

I next heard about it trading at $30, and I kicked myself. I then got p...d off that I couldn't CPU min with the new client and the fact I had no Bitcoin. )  so looked into pooled mining and added a bunch of GPU's to half a dozen old PCs.

After that I was hooked.

1. Bitcoin could solve a lot of today's problems

2. People's money - the grand experiment

satoshis paper

Its fun.
The next MMO! :D

Came for the Bitcoin.
Stayed for the weekly dose of explosive scandals, intrigue, and controversies.

LOL :)

21 000 000 Bitcoins is 2 100 000 000 000 000 satoshi.. and if it's even not enought, the protocol can be change to allow more than 8 decials..

I don't worry about the 21M, therefore, im not sure im right but the last bitcoin will be generated in more than a century !

profitability?

Virtual World currencies (Linden), the gateway drug  ;D

Found out about it in May 2011, instantly understood what it meant (thanks to SecondLife experience), and was hooked. Bought a bunch at $6, then at $12. Read Rick Falkvinge's article about its potential, and about how he moved his savings into it (I heard he cashed out before the crash). After that article, made the decision to use Bitcoin as my main short-term savings account. Bought at $14 and $16, bought A LOT at $22, then continued to buy about the same every two weeks with every paycheck as it kept declining all the way to $2.50. Never stopped believing, and kept buying, then kept doing that as it came back to $5, $7.50, $10, and so on. Despite the rise and crash, thanks to "dollar-cost-averaging" my savings account is worth thousands more than the USD that went into it. People laughed at the crazy risky idea, but my "short-term savings" of a few $k used for vacations, emergency fund, and whatnot, has suddenly grown into something that will soon surpass my IRA/401k, and it doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon. It's been covering some very nice world travel vacation trips for me :D
Oh, also, the two GPUs I bought in May 11 paid for themselves in two months. I hope the giant ASIC will too.

I heard about bitcoin recently on Bryan Micon's Donk Down radio (I'm a poker player). Micon piqued my curiosity just enough that I decided to read a little more about it. Next thing you know I was binge reading everything I could get my hands on about bitcoin for days on end.

I figured I'd buy a few hundred coins (at ~$10) and fling some of them at the GLBSE. So far the prices on most of the mining bonds I bought have been dropping, but thanks to the rising price of BTC, I'm up slightly on my initial investment (fyi I've been liquidating many of my holdings).

I look at bitcoin as a legitimate revolutionary movement and I'm stoked to be a part of it.

A company I work with started accepting and paying in bitcoins and since the payment is almost immediate as opposed to waiting 7 days for an ACH I can get my money and the get a MP card for emergencies like groceries and gas. I still report my income that goes on the MP card so it's not like I'm cheating any system. It all ends up in the same place after taking out taxes - feeding another person's kid before feeding my own >.>.

I also want to start a horror fiction site and take donations with bitcoins, but I don't know if anyone would be interested in paying.

I heard about bitcoin back in 2010. Didn't pay it much mind back then. Honestly didn't fully grasp the idea, nor understand it. Bitcoin? Huh??

Ran across it again doing a search for something random. Dug a little deeper. Things started unfolding. A light bub lite up, and I started my journey.

Only been at this for a month. But in this month I have done nothing but live and breathe bitcoin every waking moment. Still much is needed to be learned :)

This truly is a revolution I want to be apart of.

The world economic climate and latest news about that.

Create money, yeah right i thought.. ::)  now i am mining and am creating money...thats a cool thing... ;D
I will cash out in like lets say 2016 or so hopefully the coin price is up then..so it,s sort of an investment or saving in the longrun thats what made me hooked..not the quick money...and i now know how stable linux is... etc. etc :D

You got that wrong... in 2016 bitcoin is the cash.

I would not change my precious bitcoins to crappy paper money, unless it is to introduce new people to bitcoin... I don't understand those who want to "cash out". Bitcoin is the best form of money, why change it to some crappier alternative (unless you want to short-term speculate).

u are right  ::) But i,ll still would like to pay my mortgage in BTC thats would be the ultimate freedom for lots of people.. then i will have a big BTC bankaccount  and F2ck the bank after that ....that will do it to for me ;)

The story so far......
=========================

April 2012  Silk Road curiosity brought me through TOR (I never bought anything, thought the whole idea was different)
               Paying with bitcoins intrigued me
May  2012 Started doing some reading
               more reading
June 2012  several weeks later I've done the sums and worked out THIS IS PROFITABLE!
July  2012  Got a Bank Loan
                Spent $4,500 to $5,000 setting up a 8.5GH/s setup
Sept 2012  Pre Ordered a BFL SC
Oct   2012   Already paid off 30% of my initial investment


A little ways down the road...
=========================

? ?  2012      Receive BSL SC
? ?  2013      pay off my debts


WAY down the road...
=========================

? ?  2020ish  Be rich as hell
? ?  2030ish  Invent the ? ? ? ?, become the world's first trillionaire


 ;D

... the wonderful community around that money made out of bits & bytes

01001011

I read Cryptonomicon a few years ago, and the chance to participate in the real-world implementation of cryptocurrency is really exciting!

It sounded like this would be the money of the future, like when you watch sci-fi movies and they have credits, but its bitcoins instead.

Here is my timeline:

1. misunderstood them
2. conflicted over whether they could work
3. holy #$%!

 :D

One statement that really got me hooked....

There will never be more then 21 million of them......ever!

The Drama!  ;D

Probably one of my favorite forum quotes:

If Bitcoin was backed by drama the price would be stratospheric.

Haha great quote!  ;D  Maybe, there is a direct correlation to Bitcoin Drama to the price/valuation of Bitcoin economy as a whole.

Always been a computer guy and years ago did some CPU mining on the companies servers  :P

kind of forgot about it over the years and picked it back up recently

What do you mean "if Bitcoin was backed by drama?"

The first 30BTC order I got when I experimentally setup a payment gateway on my hosting site.

It is the economics equivalent of watching the evolution of life on fast forward. There are plenty of mass extinctions at the moment, but eventually the stuff that survives will spread and change the world.

+1 for the mass extinctions part who knows whats next................................>>>

Regardless of what anyone says the reason is it boils down to this.
1) Money
2) Your a crypto lover or programmer interested in MONEY!!!
3) Its a hobby to make MONEY!

I mine to sell suckercoins bitcoins to the highest bidder so I can profit even more..


So 100% of people use BTC to profit, the rest are lying about why they mine.

Agreed this sucks you in, but then you start believing the suckercoins bitcoins have value... then you start hoarding :)

EDIT: and then you start spending.

I watched this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqvKjsIxT_8 and then said OMG! I need to find an alternative to this crappy banking system. A few months later BOOM! I hit bitcoin!

money != profit

also, I think you misread the question slightly.

Well, yeah. Personally I see nothing wrong with people wanting to profit. But not everyone wants to sell their bitcoins to the highest bidders, many here want to earn some bitcoins, and then buy products and services with bitcoins, not change them to FIAT. Some want to leave the fiat-money world behind, and transform their personal finances to the btc-economy. That is my personal long-term goal - I'm pretty sure there are still many years before I can actually do this (including paying rent, food in bitcoins), but the day will come.

Also many of us don't mine, there are also other ways to earn bitcoins than mining.

I personally also think that separating altruistic goals, such as changing the world for the better, and greedy goals such as profiting is a false dichotomy. You can combine the two. You can profit from doing something, and at the same time you can do something that changes the world for the better. Of course what "better" is, is highly subjective.

Even more so: I think that individuals following egotistic motives will lead to higher prosperity and wealth in the long run compared to them trying to do good to others directly. As long as there's free market and sound money, individual profit-seeking will lead to efficient resource usage.