I would merit shower hisslyness…
But a user can only send 50 merit/30 days to one single person….
At this point for the moment….
Cheers
I tossed him 10
Thanks everyone! Really appreciate it, i am just happy to be able to contribute!!
I started going down this Bitcoin path
alone back in late 2013, as everyone i knew thought i was nuts!!... and i am still somewhat alone...
However, I am glad i found this place!
Can you provide some overview of your backstory? I cannot recall it. Did you start by mining or buying or some other way? Of course, no need to jeopardize Opsec.. so feel free to include a bit of creativity to the extent you feel helpful.
Your timeline is similar to mine.. so with me, I had some spark under my butt starting in July/August/September 2013 in terms of researching into some various kinds of ways of investing.. and so I had tabbed bitcoin somewhere in that process as "something to look at later," so in late 2013, I had already taken some actions regarding some other investments - which caused me even greater relief that I had gotten that part off of my plate.. so bitcoin remained "tabbed" as something to get to.. but not really thinking too much about it..
..... until around the middle of November 2013.. this very young chap online (not in this forum) was bragging how smart he was because he was largely becoming rich from his bitcoin investment.. and I thought that he does not know what the fuck he is talking about.. but it triggered me to look into my bitcoin related bookmarks that were still sitting there... so several hours of initially looking into some of the overview information that I had and then I ended up spending several days reading more and then engaged in a kind of reconsideration of what I had invested into in the previous couple of months.. and my research/investigation started me to think:
.. "hm? I should have put that just invested money into bitcoin.. bitcoin would serve as a better investment hedge than some of the various low-fee funds that I had chosen.".. ..
which thereby triggered me into coming up with a 6-month BTC investment plan.. and I already posted quite a bit about those various aspects of my early execution of my bitcoin investment plan... so I don't want to trigger too much repetition backlash at this moment... unless anyone asks any specific questions of me..
and I guess part of my compare/contrast attempt with you hisslyness seems to be that I had never really been much into any of the technical aspects such as getting into mining or running nodes and things like that.. but I surely cannot fault anyone from either taking those kinds of routes (and especially the running node does seem like something that a lot of us should be considering whether bitcoin/lightning network or both) or even exploring some of the frustrating parts of maintaining lighting channels.. which for sure would have taken off more as a practice (topic) in recent times - even though the earliest of the brave lighting folks would have been involved in lightning network testnet in 2017 and maybe even getting involved in lightning going live (against the recommendation of a lot of BTC developers) in early 2018- which a lot of that I have so far been exploring from quite a distance even though I find it interesting that guys like you are here and spending some time to share information and experiences with others in this thread about some of those intricacies.. and sometimes even frustrations around learning about those angles of bitcoin..
To really understand my back-story and understand why I did what I did to ultimately land in the position I am in, you have to go way back to my childhood.
I grew with computers around me, had our first 386 when I was 10 years old. This was a big deal, Mum new we needed exposure as this was the way of the future! She worked and saved and finally bought our first computer!... We stayed up all night playing lemmings...
Fast forward a few more years and my brothers and I started our own business (Wasn’t a real incorporated business, if you know what I mean?), re-selling, servicing and repairing computers. This was great as it gave us access to new hardware and software and the ability to tinker and play! I learnt so much from those years!
When the internet finally arrived here! Did that changed everything! Access to a whole new world!
While some experimented with drugs, I experimented with Tech! Most people where using Windows, I was dabbling with Linux of all flavours and a little known operating system called BeOS. (i’d seen a post on it here a few pages back and it reminded me) . Never really played with OS/2 as for some reason I couldn’t get my hands on it!
I always had a saying, understand the Core Fundamentals of IT, and it doesn’t matter what they bring out, you will master it! As it is mostly based around those Core Fundamentals!
<Lots more interesting stuff... Warez Groups/Courier Groups.. Fast Cars... Wife and Kids... maybe another time!!!>
How did Bitcoin find me? or rather how did I find Bitcoin?
August 2013 was an eye opener, I'd stumble upon Bitcoin while researching for another project. I glanced over the white paper, but me being me, I needed hands on experience to fully understand it! Mining, what is mining? So many questions and always the same explanations... solving equations... I thought bullshit that can’t be right...
On and off through the 2013. Experimenting with CPU and GPU mining and understanding what was really going on under the hood.
Finally decided I was going to mine Bitcoin at a larger scale. I had a plan and it seemed rock solid! Tried to get some friends involved but they looked at me like I was nuts!
Worst timing as well. Bitcoin was making new ATH and the pricing of second hand mining equipment keep going up with it! I finally picked up some ASIC machines at the Mid January 2014.
Made some mistakes, bought 3 x CoinTerra TerraMiners, all with overheating issues! Spent countless hours trying to fix its faulty water cooler system! I think the Antminer S1 and S2 saved my arse from total failure!
My calculations were projecting one thing and my results were saying another thing!
As the saying goes, during a gold rush, the only people who made money were the ones selling the picks and shovels. Let me tell you what, I fully understand that!
I hope the back-story above explains why I didn’t just buy Bitcoin with the money I had invested in ASIC machines/Running Cost and Infrastructure to go with it. Would I have been better off, Yes, but if you live your life always wondering what if, you’ll end up regretting everything you do!
Ultimately the knowledge I gained is priceless.
On another note, equal respect given, JayJuanGee, tech or no tech! It is amazing how we have both taken different paths, but ended up with similar outcomes and conclusions!
That’s my story!.. Hopefully my OpSec is safe!..
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