Bitcoin Forum

It's a pretty often-heard claim, "Those rich people didn't have to bust their asses to earn all that money, they were just lucky!" Well, now that BTC is over $100USD, a lot of us are considerably wealthier than we were before. We reached this point by busting our butts to earn money (or pay down borrowed money or electric bills in some cases), and then investing that hard-earned money into something very risky, that a lot of people were practically shouting to stay away from, saying it was way too risky, it was a ponzi, it was stupid internet funbux, it's not backed by anything, it will only crash, you can't buy anything with it, it's only used by criminals, the government will just shut it down, and so on. (I'm looking at you, SomethingAwful, Slash Dot, Ars Technica...)

Now that these risks have given us huge returns, I have already seen at least one, "Oh, you just got lucky," in reply to someone saying, "But.. But.. I made all this money!" This is where it starts, and I have already seen where it typically progresses:

* You didn't work for that money, you were just lucky!
* You just got lucky, so you don't deserve that money!
* It's unfair that you have that money and I don't, since you just got lucky (and I didn't bother taking the risk and called you stupid for it). That money should be spread fairly!
* Finally, the money is either taken, or we are resented for having it

So, first they hate us for being stupid idiots for taking a risk in something they specifically refused to understand, then they hate us because we "just got lucky." Well, for me, personally, luck had zero to do with it. I had prior experience with virtual currencies (incidentally, in another place that many of these same people claimed was stupid), I took the time to understand the technology behind Bitcoin, and I know its potential, I know the steps it has to go through to reach them, and I know it isn't done yet. I wasn't lucky, I used my head and put my money into something I understood very well. Now those people who thought they were so much smarter than the rest of us, who were trying to convince everyone how this funny money is stupid and anyone investing anything into it is an idiot, are left with exactly what they deserve (never mind that their follow-up reasons for why they thought Bitcoin was stupid were some of the most moronic economic misconceptions I've ever read).

Honestly, it has been a bit eye-opening to be on the other side of this thing (the making money by "just being lucky" as opposed to resenting those with lots of money who seemed to have done little to get it). I used to be with them, briefly. I'm not sure if they can ever understand or get there too. Should stupidity be rewarded or compensated somehow because "it's not their fault?" Should we be wary of the "you just got lucky" steps I listed above? Should we just gloat at the idiots who used to make fun of us while being oh so sure of themselves? Or should we just continue to be ourselves, continuing to make wealth by applying our heads, being generous with our families and friends, enjoying our accomplishments, and giving as little attention to the screaming idiots as possible?

(Though they are entertaining at times)

I do consider myself lucky. Lucky that I heard about bitcoin in August 2011 AFTER the Gox debacle, even though I was NOT lucky enough to have heard about it in early 2011. I consider myself lucky to have the knowledge necessary to understand bitcoin and why it is important, and I consider myself lucky to have had a bit of extra money to invest in bitcoin from August 2011 until now. It is also not fair that I live in a country where I have the opportunities that I am privileged to have, while others live in poverty and squalor, but it is completely fair that I have made some nice financial gains taking a chance on something that others criticized and derided. Just enjoy your new wealth and leave those poor sods alone.

Haters gonna hate!

Well, it was lucky in similar way as being born to a 1st world country etc. Owning a computer is pretty lucky if you consider things globally.

Great post, OP.

One of my favorite quotes is, "Luck is the residue of design." - Branch Rickey

There is some truth to this opinion even if the way it is being conveyed is dangerously misguided. If you end up a "winner" you should feel obligated to use that to make the world a better place. If you are born into a wealthy family you should feel the same. Choosing not to do this should be frowned upon but does not deserve any kind of violent response.

"I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."
- Thomas Jefferson

+1

Although I don't like the phrase "give something back to the community" because that implies that you took something from them, when in fact the majority of wealth is earned in the first place by helping others in some way. After earning wealth (in an honest and ethical manner), the decision to help others with that wealth should be considered doubly-charitable, for you have already helped the world once.

Some "work" just worth more to others even though it costs way less "effort".

The ones who indulges a system that reward banksters and embrace tyranny with ignorance of the future consequences (More present than future IMO), don't get to call early adopters of Bitcoin "Lucky".

We and each one of us EARNED IT. We bet on the winning horse for the right reasons.

Pretty funny:
http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3tlyz9/

I didn't use that phrase but I agree. I would argue 'The community' does not actually exist other than as a shared (temporary, fluid) delusion, on the other hand everyone can agree that individuals exist. Give back to individuals who helped you get where you are, help out other like-minded individuals who you think will work towards your vision of a "better world", and attempt to bring out the potential of being such a person in others who are in need of bootstrapping. Seems like a decent philosophy to me anyway.

I had $1k to spend and I went on Google and typed in 'money' and clicked on Google's "Are you feeling lucky" button.

That took me to MtGox which I had no clue about but I went ahead and put my money into this "Bitcoin" thing out of random chance.

Then to my luck, this random thing called Bitcoin gained 10X in value.

Boy was I lucky.


Or there is the other scenario...I subjected myself to risk which could have ended up with me losing all of my money but having studied the underlying technology and having a good knowledge of how money works and the current political climate I understood that there was value to be found in Bitcoin so I invested my time and money into Bitcoin. It just so happened that others did the same and that such value was not stifled. I am still under the same understanding of the risk and continue to watch the climate for signs that such value is to be stifled where I can then re-invest elsewhere.

To be honest, I see a lot more of this type of "early adopter envy" within Bitcoin communities than I do outside of them.  It also extends to mining.  There's a subset of people who regard it as "just not fair" that acquiring substantial amounts of BTC is no longer as easy as it was even a couple of years ago.  They perceive the risks they would need to take in order to "get into Bitcoin" now as higher than the risks taken by early adopters.

Many people convince themselves that "given the chance" they would not only have been early adopters (whether of BTC, Google stock or some other new kid on the investment block) but they would have held onto their investments through the ups and down as well, when that's likely not the reality.  It's not an exclusively Bitcoin thing.

"Unearned" income is becoming an important contributor to financial security for many people who will never "get ahead" with the money they earn from their jobs.  People look to dabbling in real estate, playing the stock market, precious metals, and other types of investments to propel them across socio-economic barriers and give them a shot at the middle class and beyond.  Investments are never risk free, even if they may appear so in hindsight.  You can't "get lucky" unless you have skin in the game.

I see a certain desperation in some people in respect of Bitcoin.  They view it as their only path to financial well-being.  Counting on any one type of investment to secure your financial future can be very dangerous, but I don't see the problem as being Bitcoin itself but rather a particular attitude - if Bitcoin didn't exist these people would be regarding some other investment in the same manner.  Some people seem to have a talent for losing money on everything they touch and they're often the people who can least afford to lose it.  Those people will likely lose money on Bitcoin (I'm convinced they'd manage to lose money on Berkshire Hathaway stock).

Honestly, I think you need to stop worrying about whether people believe you "deserve" whatever you've made out of Bitcoin and just enjoy the benefits it's brought you.  Money doesn't care where it came from.

If there is something to be worried about it would be the fact that Bitcoin as a technology lacks ALOT. It does not matter how much hype it gets. It must be further developed and tools must be made. For any individual or group reading this and able to do something about. It is on all of us to make Bitcoin succeed!

For example, Decentralized  exchanges and safer, more "idiot friendly" wallets. How about we start figuring out "Trading across chains". I still think it would be an amazing advance!

I agree, I used to talk about this a lot early on because it was not yet viable for a business to use BTC. BitPay has helped a lot in that regard but we are still not quite up to the billion dollar company that we should be.

Think of it like a dotcom startup that just went live and are making a shitload of money and have a lot of customers but they were not quite ready for such volume. We need to scramble to get things in place to join the big boys. It would be at this point that Satoshi would have sold to Microsoft or Facebook for a huge profit. But we do not have that option.

This is ridiculous self-serving shit.

I've invested in so much stupid shit in my life, and the one time it works out for myself - nothing but hate and spite.

I was late to the game. Yeah I am jealous of those who got 10,000 bitcoins for a Pizza, and even those who got 10,000 coins for the price of a sports car.

But then I think it is more useful to focus on learning business and how to make one million dollars again and again, rather than relying on getting in on a 12 month window on a once in a century game-changing technology.

So I say well done to those who got the coins when they were cheap. They found the original big nuggets of gold. But there are other ways to build wealth.

Currency != wealth. People doing and creating useful stuff == wealth.

Man does this sound like my situation and mindset.  I actually downloaded the source code probably near the end of 2010, but didn't build it since I got tied up buying some property...else life would probably have taken a different path for me.  But I did spot the potential opportunity on the way down to late 2011.  It was damned 'lucky' for me that this happened.  Or at least it currently seems to be the case.

I to owe a debt of gratitude to the evil dirt-bags who tried to squelch Wikileaks for making me aware of and/or particularly interested in Bitcoin.

The same people who throw those accusations around are now heavily investing in Litecoin.

Before you all gloat up a storm being bitcoin 'millionaires' you really should watch what you say on reddit and here because there could be federal tax authorities watching, your ex wife who doesn't know how much money you now have who's lawyer would love a copy of these posts, or jelly trolls who want to rat you out to federal tax authorities. Not to mention criminals who may find out where you live and beat you until you cough up the coins, or the Chinese 'red team' hackers who decide they want some extra money and use their government provided 0day library to loot your wallet next time you open it.

I've every intention of paying my taxes, 99% of my stash is in very deep storage and even I cannot get at it without a trip to my safe deposit box, and anyone who might be under the misconception that they could extort me physically and made it part way to my home would likely realize what a terrible idea it would be to continue.

That said, this is outstanding advice which people should heed well.

I lost all of mine on SatoshiDICE.  Sorry Feds.

HAHAHAHA boy by far one of the funniest anecdotes to tell!!!

Are they like miners? What are these "taxes" that fiat users keep speaking of? Are they like transactions?

These federal taxes sound like a ponzi. I'd stay away were I you.

Also check OPs signature with his location and ad on localbitcoins, and imagine somebody like this guy  (http://youtu.be/9s_uXkHoSvU) reading about his bitcoin wealth gloating and setting up a meeting for a big untraceable payday.

Not so easy. Every satoshi you spent is on the block chain.

That's a very common misconception that has been around for years literally. People who invested in Bitcoin 1-month ago and enjoyed a 3-fold increase of their investment value are not complaining that they were late in the game. There is no such a thing as being late to the game, because the game is far from being over. Yes, it takes balls to sink thousands of dollars to invest in Bitcoin at that point, but the truth is that it took as much if not much more balls to invest in it one year and a half ago just after it crashed and it looked more than ever like the nay-sayers were right from the start and Bitcoin was over. Doing something when the whole world is laugthing at you and calling you stupid isn't something easy. People who say "I was late to the game" today and fail to grasp that we are still very early in the game will kick themselves one year from now.

bitcoin and luck do go hand in hand.

i told a girl i met at a bar that i was an international currency trader (technically not a lie)

short story.. i got lucky

I find it interesting to talk about physical security. How about if I am in some 3rd world country, live in a gated community, live in a compound with high walls and have armed roaming guards (or even just armed stationary guards.)

With no other information, no one is just about to attempt to do anything violent on me, at least not in my house.

Better scenario is if I live in my own little island, but that's kinda too far fetched already.

You asked for the attention of the ghosts. You are going to get the attention of the ghosts (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39eoqDdD_hY) (don't worry; it is just a YouTube).

You have to leave your Osama fortress sometime, or your kids/wife do. Here's a typical gangster crew bust  running a kidnapping for profit ring (http://bc.ctvnews.ca/6-charged-in-violent-vancouver-kidnapping-1.768107). It's a growth crime industry here, especially now that there's untraceable ransom payments through bitcoin. If I'm a thug with a gun, I'm going to be paying attention to people bragging about their cryptocoin wealth on reddit or looking on localbitcoins for big traders. Bitcoins can all be transfered at once in a huge million dollar pay day for these guys, wired money has limits to what you can launder.

[also crossposted]

I've taken a lot of risks in life. Most ended up in failure. Only a handful paid off.

I know people who never take big risks and rarely have to deal with failure. In some ways, they have a much happier life than me. Failure hurts.

Perhaps they see me as lucky because my failures are invisible to them.

Let me add, that I wasn't going to advertise that I had a lot of coins. Of course, if I had the money to live in my fortress, you'd think I'd also have the money to employ at least one bodyguard. Not to mention that I myself personally carry a gun all the time. (It is legal in my country and/or I have the papers for it.)

Yep. I for one have tax losses to offset my (perhaps imminent) Bitcoin gains. I pay my taxes and always will. If your government REALLY wants to track you down and see how much you've made - they can. Hence no cloak and dagger from me.

It's certainly not greedy to want to make a profit, but what you do and don't do with that profit can be.

At least you had some fun.  I lost all my bitcoins in a boating accident... :(

I have to try that one!

I'll try telling that to Phinneas Gage when I see him at the Bitcoin 2013 conference. I'll let you know what happens.

Reading this, unfortunateley agreeing with it, being someone who has talked and taught bitcoin for the past 14 months to anyone willing to listen and ask. Im seriously considering getting a huge tattoo over my chest:" THIS WORLD IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME." or "BTCecause this world is not good enough for me." Please talk me out of it.

Let's be honest, everything we do well has a measure of luck to it, hell even Bitcoin mining has a luck factor in, however, when I look at the kind of comments you described I can't help but be reminded of the sort of bullshit I have to put up with being an Artist. Everyone who looks at other artists immediately comment when an artist shows off a good piece of work about how 'talented' they are as if there's some kind of mystical force behind the quality of their work and that there's no way they'd be able to get as good and you sometimes even say something similar to that themselves! Utter bullshit! All it is is putting the time and effort into it, just like with Bitcoin I wouldn't be surprised if you guys made more than a few losses to get where you are now, in fact you often see people ranting on these forums about scammers.

All that people do most of the time to be successful I've noticed is keep trying, no matter how many times they fail and they just keep calculating for every possible failure so they end up pleasantly surprised, it's slowly happening even to me now, I just wish my art skills would improve faster. I think the only truly lucky people are those guys who end up beating ridiculous odds like for instance lottery wins, all Bitcoin users are doing is taking calculated risks as are those rich traders on wall street and so on.

Who's making those accusations ? "You are just profiting from the misery of others", or maybe the less melodramatic "You are just parting fools with their money" seem more apt. There's just about zero chance in hell the current prices are holding much longer and the fools who are buying at $100+ will soon realize it.

Poor boy (I mean, literally)... You said exactly the same when we were at USD 2.

who cares what some butthurt thinks. F#ck yeah I'm lucky. And they aren't!
Sorry bro, but luck counts too!

This. Buying a serious amount of BTC is quite difficult and slow for a newcomer. There is a full generation of people with small computer knowledge that is not even understanding bitcoin. This will change... But Oh boy, the game is far from being over.

I am using some of my modest BTC gains due to recent price skyrocketing to buy servers, hosting, etc (Directly with Bitcoins). Which I will be using for my small VPN business I intend to open in the very near future.

You like my story?