What Got You Started With Bitcoin? (ie. Trading, Selling, Mining)

[mjc]

I stumbled upon it one day.  I was most intested initially in the mining aspect.  As I investigated the mining option I learned there was far more to it then just mining.  So I dove in.

[Isokivi]

I got started after getting in to overclocking gpu's... just something I found along the way that got me mining. I suppose I mined for a couple of weeks before I was satisfied that "this thing actually works" and bought some coins, later buying more and mining hardware too. Now im at a point where Im selling off my mining hardware and producing/selling bitcoin nieche items. It's been a fairly fast paced 12 months for me to get here and I've loved every step.

[tcp_rst]

Read about it in Wired magazine and thought, "that's cool as hell!":  http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/11/mf_bitcoin/.  I started mining the next day and everything took off from there.  Looking back at the article now it's fascinating to see how dramatically some things have changed in a year. (or maybe "evolved" would be a better term?)

[mancBTC]

read about it on reddit sometime in late 2010, probably around 2 years ago wow!! amazing how quickly that has gone. mined for a whmost of that time but now but after reward halving I just cannot justify the expense although I think I had issues breaking even over the last 3-6 months anyway.

It isnt even worth using the heta to warm my house as my gas central heating is cheaper than electricity right now.

glad i am hear though and doing what i can to promote BTC to my IRL friends.

[KWH]

It gave me an excuse to upgrade some hardware. (Like I really need that) I tried mining quite awhile back but was too dumb to realize solo wasn't the way to go for a small farm. Some time later a fellow team mate in Boinc suggested I try again using a pool and it kinda stuck. I've used most of my mining to pay for hardware/electricity for Boinc but now I'm just collecting coins for awhile. Mine on.

[IbuyGuinnesswithBTC]

I just like the mining aspect of it, as well as the economic standpoint. When i'm out of newbie jail, i'll probably be spending most of my time in the economics forum. I love reading about this stuff.

[K. Darien Freeheart]

I've been involved in open source for years and years, and that's probably where I heard about it first - an open source take on money.

A few years later, I became a libertarian and got thrust into the economics-heavy discussions that come up when you know more than three other libertarians.

The fact that Bitcoin is an alternative to government-controlled currency really appealed to me.