Bitcoin Forum

I got my own mother to purchase 15 BTC over the past year. She will be sitting pretty in 5 years :)

(and don't worry, I secured the bitcoin for her)



Have you gotten someone you know or love to buy bitcoin because you want them to be doing well in the future?

Post your success stories here.

I got my housemate to claim $10 in BTC from the Coinbase giveaway for students a few months back.  But that's as far as he's gone I believe.

That's great. It's the thought that counts

i gift some to familie members. i would not recommend to someone to buy btc until he understands it.

I have convinced my friends and family to buy at least 30 btc total, given out btc as gifts to at least 30 friends , and so far convinced 5 businesses to accept btc and more on the way.

i wouldn't risk my family money with my ideas
but thats me

I understand this precaution and this was one of the original reasons I hesitated over a year ago recommending bitcoin... until I realized that their was more at stake with bitcoin than any personal feelings of guilt from not making the correct recommendations.

If you are honest there won't necessarily be any resentment. One friend of mine bought 2 btc when it was over 1k and she and I are still friends as I set her expectations to not buy what she couldn't lose and never to sell for a loss because there will be many more bubbles in the future.

Tried to get my dad to buy one and he says he can't trust it. So yeah, most people don't want to risk a single penny on it it seems. Some friends did buy like 0.1. What kind of gains do you expect in 5 years off 15 BTC tho?

You gambled and it paid off this time.

What is your exit plan? At what price will you start cashing out?

I have not done this yet no. My family know about bitcoin but are not all that familiar about how it works and can not seem to grasp the concept that it will be in their best interest to invest cash into bitcoin. Most of what I say to them usually just goes over their head and then it's forgotten about until I bring it up again.

Isn't that really surprising?

Baby-boomers was raised to believe they are special yet they know seem to know jack shit, while at the same time ruining not only the country but their children also.

Exit plan? There is no exit to fiat for me. Bitcoin is more important than just another investment. Whether it is worth 600usd or 500k usd per bitcoin any fiat that comes by way gets converted to clean money.

Most people that know me know about bitcoin because I talk about it regularly. Like many have said, most of the older generations dont grasp the concept, and a few in my generation dont either. But lets be real.. the generations below us will fully understand and adopt it, thats when the investments really pay off.

She is going to hold some of them for many years (3-8), and some shorter term (1-2 years).

I expect she will make about $50,000-$100,000 in total profits at the end of it all

When the price collapsed after Christmas I tried to get my facebook friends to all buy $100 worth at market price and to buy $200 more if the price went even lower. I called the bottom to the day, price rebounded over 100% in a few days. Nobody listened. After learning about the willy bot and the false liquidity I no longer advise others to buy in.

ha, got my mother a handful

problem is, she keeps wanting to cash out. HODL, I tell her. HODL STRONG.

fortunately she can't cash out unless I do it for her :D

She don't want to take the risk of Bitcoin  :-\

I also told people to buy when the price was low but there is a learning curve which is hard to "jump at the opportunity" with. It takes time and education.


I had the same worries, but I decided my worries were unfounded because the price has stabilized around $600. The price would have kept dropping further if the willy bot made the market completely artificial. So regardless of what that willy bot had "accomplished", it is now out of the picture because Gox is down permanently, and the price is stabilized and shows signs of increasing again. So I would suggest you re-look at what you really think the willy bot has to do with today's prices. In my opinion, nothing any more.

not owning any is riskier.

Got a two co-workers to buy 1-2 btc back at $120... got another to buy 6 at $650 (on the way down to $400). Got a buddy to buy $6 in btc. Got my parents to trade about 200 oz of silver for btc. Got my fiancee to "allow" a weekly recurring coinbase withdrawal. Got a local bar to take BTC.

for now, I just watched their success. because the people around me and I never know bitcoin 2 years ago or more than that

I gave away a number of Casascius error coins to three people a couple of years ago; they were very happy to sell them for much more later on.

I have also done the odd 0.1 BTC giveaways on Facebook ("First three people new to Bitcoin to set up an address gets 0.1 BTC!").

My mum actually invested and lost £50 in pirate's ponzi - we laugh about it now  ;D

winner!

Wish I have the spare cash for 5 bitcoins.

Where did your store the 15 bitcoins? Storing the coin the right way is just as important as convincing your mother to buy 15 bitcoins.

does your mom understand how it works, or is she just listening to your advice (or seeing other people make money off bitcoin)?

My Bitcoin miner currently has "free" power (~230 Watt draw, 80W of that is that actual hasher). Currently 100% of my mining revenue is earmarked for paying for the "free" power. Hopefully more efficient hardware will make it pay for power a little while longer.

So effectively, I am paying my parents about $20/month in Bitcoin to compensate then for my power drain.

Got a buddy to buy in at around $650, more at ~$800, then more all the way down to $430. Got another buddy to build a scrypt mining rig, and his mom, who is old and had nothing to do with her time, became a crypto mania. My women is now really into the latest bitcoin news as well. Oh and just helped her sister buy ~$6k worth of btc as well  ;)

I got my mother to buy in with some loose money around $70.  She is content.........for now, lol.

She understands the basics and she gets it more each time we talk. But she wouldn't know how to send it herself. I will control her keys for her if she is ready to cash out.

I gave 10 bitcoins to family members for christmas in 2012. I believe the value was around 13 dollars for each at the time. I purchased some blank 1btc cassious (sp?) and loaded each coin and put each into a decorated box. Just 1 year later, that 13 dollar gift turned into a 1k dollar gift. most of them cashed them, but a couple are holding on to them. Since I did that, a few of them have become avid bitcoiners.

Ill never forget explaining to them on christmas day about bitcoin, told them how its went from under a dollar to 13 in just a year or so. Who knew it would explode the way it did. I wonder if Ill get 10k worth of christmas presents from them? I doubt it, lol....

My boss took me out for coffee, and we started shooting the shit! I started talking about BTC, and he was pretty interested. I had him install a wallet on his android and i zappe him 5 bucks in btc. He know sends me emails with BTC news links and tells me he keeps looking at that 5 bucks (which is now 6 or something every morning) Not sure if he bought more or not.

I have basically converted the following:

Got my boss to buy about 0.2 bitcoins
Got a co-worker to start buying bitcoins, he had about a dozen. Unfortunately, he recently died of a sudden heart attack at age 60. I let his family know about his bitcoins (they seemed unaware of them). I hope they recovered them.
My mom bought 0.5 (on her own - she listened to me talking to younger relatives) bitcoins. She may be 74 years old, but I expect her to spend them in a few years. My mom walks a couple miles every morning, is very active. Her mom & grandma lived to be almost a hundred.
My niece, she bought 0.1 bitcoins a while back, I think she forgot about them. I will return them to her in a few years.
My brother let me pay him back an old loan with a bitcoin. He has actually used a small amount to make a couple small purchases online.
My oldest wife (American) has 0.1 bitcoins & a bunch of Dogecoins
My youngest wife (Kenyan) uses MPESA all the time and would use Bitcoins, but the exchange place in Nairobi tried to scam us. All the websites (like Kipochi) that convert Bitcoin to MPESA seem to be broken, even when I try to log on using TOR.

BTW, my first bitcoin came from someone that wanted to buy something from me and offered to pay me in Bitcoin. I accepted. I didn't have a wallet yet, so he sent the payment to a new address, then gave me a piece of paper with a list of digits (the private key for that address). It felt so strange at the time, even though I fully understood the mathematics behind it.

What a great way to get someone into BTC. I think, however, that it was easier to do this when a BTC was each worth about $13. Now, at almost $600 it becomes a more serious or more ridiculous proposition. It's all psychological but it feels like more of a commitment. Maybe I need to do some dollar cost averaging and get myself away from the current price anchor.

Another thing that worries me is that there is so much positive belief about how the price will "definitely" go up, but there's very (VERY) little explanation for these beliefs that are rooted in logic, analysis, math, economics, etc.

I need more logical proof of price stability or growth before I can begin talking about it more openly with friends and family.

So true. Haha you're in bitcoinland my friend - we're all believers here - some in the protocol, majority in the 'investment' value.
Some in both - its already having a impact in the world - its here to stay. Best have a few. :)

Got my pops to swap fiat for 6BTC   8)

Kudos to you and all others that got  parents or elderly into btc.

I've personally found the older (+45) folk are just too skeptical - and not worth the risk for them. Sad :(

yep, older people are more skeptical to change.. at least in my experience. they like to find a comfortable spot and keep going there. my mom does that shit all the time.

I didn't sound convincing enough to her..

haha I was just looking for a free bitcoin never buy: D

maybe if there is a large capital investment bitcoin :) I would

but it's been pretty lucky and I am also looking for a bitcoin is free and there is also the result :)

I've told a few friends about Bitcoin and some of them have a few mbtc
One of them was interested enough to try their own bitcoin related projects and I have been getting a few people who want to create accounts at Bitcoin exchanges and possibly start trying it so one step at a time

Hey,
I convinced several persons to start earning BTC by working.
There are a lot of developers who are opened to such thing and are ready to be paid in BTC.
I made my brother buy little BTC when it was at 100$ :)
BR

No, I did not. I'm not into ruining my family's finances.

Bitcoin is a horrible investment for someone not paying close attention to it. It's very speculative and needs to be treated as such, with constant analysis. Bitcoin can easily tank and never recover if the smart money moves somewhere else, and I have no doubt Bitcoin will eventually be replaced by another crypto. Holding no significant amount of altcoins, I have no idea when it'll happen outside that it's not happening in the next week and it's very likely to happen before I die.

my gf got some BTC because of my advice :D

I also have people I love, but I can not be happy their
I never bought since I know bitcoin bitcoin in april
I did just look for free bitcoin to buy and sell goods
regards.

Not my mother but my wife, I've started to talk about bitcoins with her but she wasn'r really interested until I clicked on the charts.
The exponential rise of these years made she crazy.

Most people I know would not understand the concept and would prefer cash

it is ok if you could afford that investment

Kind of duty for bitcoiners to convince people around. New money alwasy means potential price rise.

Some early bitcoin holders bought and forgot the coins for a few years and then become millionaire after they saw the news.

I am staying at my parents' house this summer. They refuse to charge me, but I will give them 1000 euros in bitcoins to cover expenses. Paper wallet, they don't do computers.

Some people win the lottery. So what?

Isn't there a saying that if you don't control the private key, then you don't have any bitcoins? I remember people were saying that when Mt. Gox went under.

In my case, both my mother and I have access to the private key (generated off-line). That *mostly* counts as control. My parents don't actually have Bitcoin software installed yet.

If they swept to a new wallet they generated; they would have to worry about the geographically separate back-ups I largely took care of already.

I also want the idea of sitting pretty in the next 5 years, purchasing bitcoin i guess could be one of the stepping stone.

Yes, this is true.

I actually printed the private key onto paper and put it in a sealed envelope and handed it to her. She decided that I should control it for her since she doesn't know what to do with it.

That's very cool of you. You have a good sense of responsibility and fairness.

Basically same story here. I'm cautious by nature but she ended up with $20k and ฿20 after a series of bitcoin purchases totaling about $4000.

I got my mom to buy a few as well
She was pretty open to the idea, I was pleasantly surprised ;)

I have got my father ready to buy 15 BTC this month, he has a good grasp of BTC as he is involved in stocks etc and knows how to hold till the price goes up, he has been holding other stocks for 8+ years and currently 1000% profit and still waiting to cash out.

Nice. That's a sizable amount.

If we all do this, we will help spread bitcoin even faster.

It's the butterfly effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect). Each of our small actions could have tremendous long-term effects of speeding of adoption. More than we might realize at first glance at our simple actions.

I've introduced some of my friends and family members (gave away a lot of tips to get their attention). Biggest holder has 15btc bought at around $200 and he plans to buy more this year. :)

Let's start a post asking how many of you introduced friends, that in turn introduced friends to bitcoin.

wow sounds interesting, introducing your friends to bitcoin.

show them you have a lot money now with your work :D

my family dont undestand what bitcoin is no matter how many times i explained
i also introduced bitcoin to my friends and some of them are doing well now  ;D

I got my family to know more about bitcoin. And my friend told me that he wants to invest with bitcoin. Its nice when my family understand what I'm doing with some "machines" in my room. :)

You did very well, congratulation :)
My mother is very old and never used computer so I don't think she will ever buy any Bitcoin.
In my case, more realistic goal is to introduce Bitcoin to my friends and relatives and I will try my best :)

I would only buy bitcoins with my own money.

Yes buying bitcoins at low prices is brilliant unlike shares that have ups / downs.

Its good that your mother believe in crypto, but I always feel that it is dangerous to help secure other's people wallet. What if one day the bitcoin got stolen?

My mom can't afford any...

I keep trying to get my dad to buy some, but he never does it. He is of the older generation, I don't think he believes in "fantasies" such as digital currency.

Oh well, his loss.

My parents are way to conservative with their money to speculate on BTC.   After hearing about some of the returns that BTC has given over the past year, they say that they wish they would have bought some.   It would have been a bad idea for me to get them into it though.   They would have stressed too hard on the highs and the lows.   They are both retired teachers and have an ultra-conservative money managing outlook. 

I'm currently trying to gift bitcoin to students at my school. Mostly Seniors (like myself) and some juniors. The plan is to accumulate about 1BTC and explain to some teachers how they can apply it to their economics classes. A teacher and I have discussed bitcoin before so I know he will accept and try this, plus I've got a couple other teachers willing. The plan is to give the bitcoin to the students but held by the teacher until the end of the term. And during the process discuss investment with a real life model, plus it will offer a better explanation as to what currency or money is. Then at the end of the term, distributing the bitcoin to the students according to their final grades.
I'm hoping I can educate my peers and even teachers about both economics and bitcoin. All in all I should be able to effect ~200 people directly and many many more indirectly.

I've given my GF and my parents 2 BTC each, my parents then got enthusiastic and wanted to have some alts as well even though they hardly understand crypto at all, so they gave me some money to invest for them. Also convinced three friends to buy one BTC just in case it goes to the moon, and helped them secure it.

Its none of my business, but how many wives do you have? you have a young wife and the oldest, how many in between?