How did you discover BitCoins?

[BitVegas]

I'm wondering how everyone stumbled across this crazy world of BitCoins.

I myself found a project on indiegogo about two months ago for a miner who wanted to obtain funding to buy a BFL mining rig. He labled it "21st century mining".

I don't have a lot of interest in the mining side of bitcoin but I am so glad that he brought me here!

[Lethn]

You know what, I've been trying to remember myself, I think I discovered it in one of these weird rage searches that I sometimes do when I become incredibly infuriated with something, I think I was looking up about currencies and banks etc. then Bitcoin popped up and I started researching it.

[iHeartSmartArt]

I found out about Bitcoins in 2011 through my good pal and friend who lived next door to me in 2011. We could chat all through the night and then one day he told me to invest everything into Bits.Dec,2011. Man am I kicking myself for not listening now. i still have 0BTC Zero bits. and now just thinking about the option of litecoins. 

[jonitas]

I got to know it through CNBC Europe in May 2012. I immediately started to experiment with it but due to the steep learning curve I didn't pay attention to it anymore. Untill I watched a video about it on goldmoney.com (http://www.goldmoney.com/video/bitcoin-gold-and-competitive-currencies.html) which got my attention. I learned more about it and invested a considerable amount in it from October through december. So it took me about 5 months between first hearing about it and actually really using it. How long did it take for you to really use it after first hearing about it?

[BitVegas]

I got to know it through CNBC Europe in May 2012. I immediately started to experiment with it but due to the steep learning curve I didn't pay attention to it anymore. Untill I watched a video about it on goldmoney.com (http://www.goldmoney.com/video/bitcoin-gold-and-competitive-currencies.html) which got my attention. I learned more about it and invested a considerable amount in it from October through december. So it took me about 5 months between first hearing about it and actually really using it. How long did it take for you to really use it after first hearing about it?

I bought bitcoins within two weeks of first discovering it. But I still plan to invest a lot more over the next couple of months

[RodeoX]

I think it was Dec. 2011 that a fortuitous web search for open source projects led me here. It was my lucky day.

[hanwong]

got an email from elance about a bitcoin project. one search lead to another and now all my time online revolves around BTC

[ancore]

An article on tweakers  about the police arresting some drug sellers that where using bitcoins. spring 2012
Now the article didn't spark my interest but in the comments there where two users debating that it was impossible for them to get compromised because of bitcoin, that the police would have followed  snail mail instead.
So I thought this was the strangest thing being an online currency, than I read wikipedia about and learned bitcoin had nothing to do with crime and instead had some really nice features as the limited supply, potentially low transaction costs and the fact you can make your own addresses just on your pc.

[Regent]

I was introduced by a friend and I was exited when digged deeper in that Bitcoins are.

[tatsuchan]

I found out about it on 4chan.  The discussion of the deep web, silk road and how to pay for these things came up.  I got interested in mining, and have been investing/profiting in bitcoin since.  Was distracted by the alt currencies a lot.  They never paid out properly.  You can make money, but they're iffy.  But yeah, of all places.....4chan.

[blackstar]

I found it in a blog about internet earnings