Bitcoin Forum

I was a bitcoin early adopter and lost interest in bitcoin when it went from $30 down to $5. I feel idiotic for not scooping up BTC at that price.  I did some early mining with my 5970 and accumulated ~50BTC and stopped mining when difficulty increased. I'm back now and it seems like everyone is getting rich and I can't help but feel like I'm missing out on groundfloor opportunities. I figure I'd take a shot and see if anyone could share some tips or current service offerings that could put me back in the game. ASIC miners are sold out and quite frankly there's so much info on these boards that its a full time job just reading everything. I'm pool mining right now but netting like .05BTC every few days isn't enough. Perhaps this same mentality is what screwed me up last time and I dont want to make the same mistake again.

I've been an "IT" person all my life and I have no idea how I missed out on things like buying Google or Apple. Bitcoin seems to be my last chance. Any tips would be appreciated.

Of course it's not too late to get rich: we're all early adopters even now. But, but, but... Bitcoin is not a get-rich-quick scheme. There are no guarantees of future profit. Bitcoin is a currency and payment system, is all.

Currency speculation can be a way to profit but it does have some risks. Then again, what doesn't?

+21,000,000

@OP How do you define rich? And why are you asking this? Nobody in here will be able to answer…

Forget the word rich. I just want to make a decent chunk of change by getting in early on an opportunity.  I have confidence in bitcoin as I'm sure most of us do. I just feel like I"m missing the boat all the time. People are going nuts over ASIC mining and pre-order slots for that sort of gear is already filled. Part of me wants to just buy coins but at near $50 a pop I couldn't afford to make a difference, plus there's always the risk. If they were still at $5 per BTC I'd buy as many as I could. Look at all the threads on this site. Its mind-numbing. Are there any opportunities to "buy into" some sort of ASIC powered mining operation or something?

The ASIC landscape is even less predictable than the value appreciation for BTC. Here's a piece of advice I usually give to people who, for various reasons, cannot be on top of things: Use BTC as a financial security instrument, i.e. put a significant (not all) portion of your savings into BTC.

I am new to Bitcoins myself, but I think you answered your own question in your first post. If you had trusted Bitcoins at $5 level, after the fall from $30, you could be sitting on close to 10x profit right now. Who is to say that in 6 months time it won't be at $100, maybe even $500 a year or so from now. Then you will be coming back and saying the same thing, if only I had bought when it was $50...

Like any speculation, there is risk, but also the potential for reward. I have been reading up on many forums when people left mining or sold their bitcoins because it wasn't worth it at $5, $12, or whatever. Now they come racing back at $50 and try to get rich quick. Meanwhile the people who kept at it, maybe by mining or picking up a few bitcoins here and there are way ahead of the game. I guess what I am getting at is if you truly believe in Bitcoins, as some have said you are still an early adopter and can still get in on the ground floor. But like most things, it is probably not a get rick quick scheme.

Let's take an example, person A and person B. Let's further say that they each had 1000 bit coins when the price dropped to $5.

Person A sold everything to try and recoup some of his investment (minimize his losses) and received $5,000. Say he also got out of the mining business and sold his GPU's for another $2,000, so he walked away with $7,000. (Not figuring in his total losses, just what he could have walked away with.)

Person B held on. Person B further continued to mine even though his profits were maybe at, or even under, breakeven based upon the daily bitcoin prices. Now sometime later when bitcoins are valued at $50, person B still has his original 1000 bitcoins ($50,000) and may have mined say an additional 100 coins ($5,000) for a total value of $55,000. Even taking into account person B's electrical costs over that time, say for sake of argument is was $5 a bitcoin, or $500, he is still up $4,500 from his continued mining, and $45,000 for his resolve to hang in there. He could now sell off that same $7,000 of value as person A did earlier, and still have a healthy profit.

Of course, bitcoins could have gone totally bust and person B would have lost the $7,000 he could have got if he cashed out when person A did, but in the end that $7k of risk rewarded him with $48k profit. He can now pull out all his initial investment, take a bit of profit and not worry what happens.

Best advice, put in only what you are comfortable with losing and hang in there. Like most investments, the way up will feel more like a rollercoaster than a rocket ship.

get some coin

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2012/05/bitcoin_big.jpg

here more

get rich !


http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2012/05/bitcoin_big.jpg

So, when prospects of getting rich didn't seem favorable because Bitcoin went from $30 to $5 you just went away, now that they're at $47, you're back and you ask if you're still in time to get rich?

GTFO... We don't need people like you. Or you believe or you don't. If you have doubts, watch from the sidelines, but obviously you can't do that.

I think Bitcoin has a quite small, but definitely non-zero, chance of eventually becoming the global universal currency.  Since there are ~7E9 people in the world, and only ever 21E6 BTC, the average person will have 0.003 BTC, although we'll probably be calling it 300,000,000 Satoshi by then.

How rich do you want to be?  If you buy and hold 1 BTC, when Bitcoin becomes THE currency, you will be 333 times richer than the average person.  If you buy and hold 100 BTC, you will be 33,333 times richer than the average.  Choose your level, buy, and plan on holding no matter what!

Anyone buying bitcoins with the goal of gettting rich is going to be very disappointed. It's a bubble mentality and it always ends with the pop of a bubble.

There are countless examples of people jumping into something expecting to become rich and walking away with nothing. Here are a few recent well-known examples: gold and silver in 1980, day trading in the 1990's, the dot-com bubble, the housing bubble, and bitcoin in 2011.

If you want to become rich, do something productive. Get involved. Be innovative. Come up with something that others will want to pay you for. That way no matter what happens to bitcoin, you will still come out ahead, and you will certainly do better than if you just buy some bitcoins and count them everyday.

People that come up with all these calculations about how BTC will be worth millions are not thinking rationally. They are completely ignoring all the risk and all of the more likely outcomes. If you don't believe that there is a good chance that BTC will be worthless in 5 years, then you are a fool.

It is never too late to get rich. You just need to bring something useful or valuable to the table.

If you don't, it's still not too late to get rich. It is (and always has been, even since the dawn of civilization) much too early.

+1

When an opportunity seems obvious it's too late. It's the visionaries and the risk takers that win big. That being said, you can still profit if that's your aim.

However, I think being into bitcoin for the properties of bitcoin itself, and not only for profit is also something to think about.

Often people think it is too late to get in on an opportunity and then later realize that they were so wrong. There is no real way of knowing the future so whatever you do it will taking a chance in hope that it turns out right. Some people win, some people lose and it is not always the smart ones that win. In fact often the smart ones over think it all and miss out on the real opportunities.

Is it too late to get rich?

It is never too late to get rich, you just have to find the right vehicle to get you there.

+1

No you wouldn't. That would be the case if they where still at $5:


You are lying to your self here.

I would advise you against getting back into Bitcoin, because you will probably get out at a loss as soon as BTC takes another dive.

You are either:

1. An "Enthusiast" that is in Bitcoin for what it is and will (hopefully) mean for the world, no matter what.
2. A Speculator that wants to make some cash with BTC and knows what he is doing.
3. A Sucker and you will get burned again and again until you run out of money to loose.

No offense, though.

That's the truth. Amen.

That vehicle would specifically NOT be the scam this scammer guy is pushing.

Damn it - now I'm in love.

Moot point, but...

I happened to be more of an enthusiast all through the trough (more like $2/BTC than $5) and felt like I was actually doing something important for the solution by mopping up liquidity (at a point when a single fairly normal person could realistically buy an hour's worth of BTC without to much trouble.)

Now I've turned into more of a speculator since I have less confidence that the solution will adapt to future challenges by moving in a direction which I find inspiring.  So thoughts of how to engineer a partial back-out which maximizes my take are consuming more of my thoughts these days.

Anyway, I was never completely of one particular mindset or another, and I am sure that there are a lot of others in the community who are similar.

You sound like you have a low risk tolerance but you're looking to "get rich" in a high risk environment.  Your 50 BTC would only be worth $3000 today had you held onto them.  Not "rich" by anyone's definition, even though it would have been a good return.  More importantly, even if Bitcoin rose to $1,000 by this time next year, you still wouldn't be "rich".  Would you have the nerve to hold those 50 BTC in the hope that they'd be worth half a million plus at some indeterminate future time (which still isn't "rich", but is an amount which allows fulfilment of some dreams which might otherwise be out of reach).?

An ASIC will bring you diminishing returns, just as your current hardware has.  It's not the path to riches - you'll need to keep spending more on hardware just to tread water. 

As MPOE-PR indicated, bringing something to the table is a good starting point.  If you don't have capital, then what is it that you can bring to the table.  You're not going to get rich passively, so what niche can you fill?

Never too late brother... Like many others stated before me, you have to stick with something you truly believe in especially when seeking a financial gain. What did you do during your hiatus? Try incorporating that in a new business plan. You obv have some knowledge in mining and setting all that stuff up. I would of payed someone like you to teach me even  :P. I'm sure you get were I'm going. Know your talent and then capitalize :) Won't happen over night though. Good luck

Well at $65 today you could have made $15-20 since your initial post. It is all relative, it is probably cheap even yet. With what's going on over in Europe (Cyprus) there is plenty of speculation that bitcoin may well reach $100 in short order. You could by 1000 bitcoins today for $65k and when/if it does reach $100, sell off 650 to recoup the 65k you put in and have essentially 350 free bitcoins to ride the wave higher.

Again, it all comes down to what you are comfortable with risking.

Are you kidding? Tons of people got rich off of gold and silver, day trading, dotcom mania and housing (and now bitcoin!) The people that did not either did not get in early enough or made bad decisions.

cb

Get some Litecoins as Mt. Cox is going to start the exchange for them (Ride that bubble). Get some ASICMINER because the ticker will double before next year (Ride some of that bubble but keep some as ASICMINER is the deal here).

I am exactly like you. I even lost all coins I had prior to 2011 crash  (literally ::) . I bounced back, Big time  :D

Only issue is we don't know when Mt Gox will launch Litecoins, they've been saying it for weeks now!

I still agree though, short term they are worth holding until Mt Gox start trading Litecoins

Being entertained by other's drama and screw ups is risk-free. Just saying =) :P

The mentality that may be wrong is the drive to "get rich."

What do you mean by "rich"?

Maybe you already are rich and you just need to take a good hard look at your assets to understand that. In this period of time, we live beyond the dreams of the kings and queens of even just two centuries ago.

Being or becoming rich isn't necessarily about how much value you can acquire. It really is about how much value you can provide to others.

If you want to "get rich" using BTCitcoin as your vehicle, look at the needs of the BTCitcoin community. Provide for one of the many needs. Make a profit doing what you do, while providing a profit or value to those who use what you are doing.

You will receive as you give.  ;)

-MikeMark

PS:
The really nice thing about BTCitcoin is that you can create more value for others just by saving in BTCitcoin. What harm is it just putting $10.00 a week into BTCitcoin? Because BTCitcoin is a scarce commodity, you will be increasing the value of it. That small thing will provide a greater value for all who use BTCitcoin.

Consider this:
2 pizzas valued at approx $30.00 cost BTC15,000 just a short time ago. Your $10.00 at that time had the equivalent value of BTC5,000. At this time, because others saw the value in BTCitcoin and began using it, the BTC5,000 is now worth approx $500,000. The rate of adoption of BTCitcoin skyrocketed in late Jan 2013. It hasn't slowed down yet, and even at the current rate of adoption, it may be as many as 4-6 years before it really slows down. Most people still consider you to be crazy to have anything to do with BTCitcoin. There's a long way yet to go...

The more conservative route to riches during a gold rush is to sell pick axes and jeans.... or whatever the tech equivalent of that is in this particular case.

 :)

If you hold your ground through all the Panic you will come out on top in a year
For now I believe ASICminer is pretty safe to hold bitcoins in with Direct Purchase or Buying on an Exchange available
If you can't invest time provide the capital for projects instead with others who will take the time

Wait and OP left of course in March again well missed the boat then the boat sank a bit and will float back later  :D

That's why I wrote this:

http://localbitcoins.blogspot.com/2013/06/this-is-first-in-series-of-posts.html

What people in the bitcoin community, especially the new and prospectives one, want are easy ways to buy Bitcoins.

I think the equivalent is arbitrage.

I love your posting because that is the EXACT same analogy I use to explain it to friends that only know the basics of BTC. I'm not sitting here wondering what's going on or being a pussy (like the OP), I'm just doing it! BTC is exactly like the gold rush. Getting in doesn't mean you'll make money but sitting on the sidelines is not good either. So my "store" has been arbitrage and it's provided some very nice results for me . . . It's been a interesting phase in my life.

To the OP, sorry but you sound like a whiny bitch. You want to get rich only because others are too and you're "missing out". There is no reward without risk and you sound like you just don't like risk. You are destined to never make money.

Why are you so angry? Serious question.

My direct & no nonsense manner is often misunderstood as anger. I NEVER hold back, I'm honest in all my statements and most people don't know how to handle that because its rare in today's world. That comes off as anger to you because you have no other way of processing it.

No, I actually chose the word anger as to be as courteous as possible, which in hindsight you don't deserve this courtesy as it seems like you are living in your own world and you are the emperor of it. You have no right to attack this person this way who is simply asking for advice on trying to make a very tough decision on what he wants to do with his life, and the only thing you can do is put him down from his hopes and dreams of being rich? I find that highly suspect, and it goes back to my original point. Why are you so angry? To me it sounds like you are so enthralled with the prospects of being not only a power in your own mind, but a power in this new world when btc will supposedly be worth the same as gold, that you don't want people who have pure desires of attaining wealth like the OP, to chase their dreams, as you have already described the op is someone so undesirable(whiny,bitch,entitled(missing out),loser(never will make money)) they should stop pursuing their dreams of riches, you can't fathom the idea of this person being able to attain the same status as yourself if they get in on btc right now.

So i will say this OP, If you don't want people like this guy controlling you if the world economy turns to something like btc I highly suggest you take the leap.  I'm thinking about taking the leap for that same reason, there needs to be people like us with pure hearts in the game as well. I'm sure you fit that description OP, good luck to you.

You can choose to believe whatever you want in your delusional mind. But "heart" is worthless in BTC, it's all about focus, conviction and strength, of which you (and the OP) clearly have neither. "The mind filled with doubt cannot focus on the road to victory!". You will never understand that statement because your "heart" will let you down every time. I dont have anything to prove to you (or anyone else) I've been involved with BTC for a while now and I've had a great run with it, no regrets and far from broke  8)