I actually purchased my first coins in late 2012

I've seen many paper wallet projects and concepts here, but I trust the system engineers and network guys at Mt.Gox, bitpay, walletbit and coinbase

yeah thought I was auto logged in since registering... but i wasnt. Im at 15 mins so far 

I guess there is no better way to bypass the n00b restrictions than by making a thread actually introducing myself  

Ive been watching bitcoin since 2010, Im a network engineer specializing in video transport and amateur programmer, I'm pursueing post graduate studies in Computer science with an emphasis on "cyber security" and have a personal affinity for cryptography. I prefer thinking about Bitcoin as a value transfer protocol suite instead of a "currency".

I've been lurking for about 6 months, I've learned alot from you guys, hope to learn even more in the coming weeks.