I'm an undeserving early adopter, and here is my side.

[PretenseOfKnowledge]

In the media, and now on this forum, I have detected an increasing antipathy towards us "undeserving" early adopters.

This has been bothering me a little, so now I'd like to offer a rebuttal to the most common criticisms:


You just got lucky because you found out about bitcoin before the media reported about it


I have been a part time investor in new technologies for several years now.  I spend at least two hours a day reading scientific journals, digging around blogs and forums, watching shows, and networking in order to keep up to date with the latest trends. I work hard in order to be the first to spot promising investment opportunities.  I have sacrificed countless weekends in order to put my money into high risk ventures, most of which have failed so far.

Also, I have been a p2p enthusiast for over a decade.

In short, the fact that I found out about bitcoin as early as May 2010, and didn't wait for  the mainstream media to feed it to me, had nothing to do with luck. 

But perhaps I'm an exception, you say? Well, the day I  read Satoshi’s paper, I became a firm believer in the concept. I am passionate about bitcoin and optimistic that it will change the world for the better.      I immediately told my techie friends about it.  Not ONE of them saw the potential in it that I saw.  They just didn’t “get” bitcoin at that time. They even laughed at me when I sent money in an envelope to some dude in Canada for some worthless cryptographic keys. 

It turns out that I was right and they were wrong.  I even showed them the opportunity and they didn’t take it.

Still think that this had anything to do with luck?


You just want to get rich quick / It's free money / You didn't work for that money

See above. Investing isn't free. For every investment that pays off, like bitcoin, there are 10 investments where I never see my money again.

When I spent my first EUR 1000 on bitcoins, I knew there was a big chance that I would lose all that money. Losing EUR 1000 hurts unless you are super rich.  But I still thought is was totally worth it. Bitcoin means something to me.

Secondly, being a successful investor requires real skill.  You need to be able to see past the irrelevant details and you need an excellent understanding of markets, technology, human psychology, and so on.  I have a certain talent for those things, but it’s a skill that required hard work and lots of painful trial and error to develop.

Thirdly, holding on to my bitcoin investment required significant emotional strength. When the price hit $0.5, my first temptation was to sell all my bitcoins, but I resisted. Then it hit $1, but I resisted. Then it hit $5, and all my loved ones started pressuring me to sell them immediately. I ignored them. Then it hit $10, and I almost sold them, but stopped myself in the last moment. My financial advisor told me I was a fool. Only when it hit $20 I finally cashed out part of my BTC.  I am still fighting the temptation to sell more of my bitcoins every single day.
 
Finally, few people ever got rich from working alone.  Some people sell their work for money 1:1, and that’s fine.  But some people are smarter than that, and instead of selling their work, they use their work to set up systems that leverage other people’s work.  That’s what virtually every business owner in the world is doing!  If you are anti-bitcoin because of that aspect you should also be anti-business.   


You are just a speculator and have contributed nothing to the bitcoin system.

Right from the start, I really really wanted bitcoin to be successful, and not just for my personal financial gain. 

Unfortunately, I suck at programming and have poor entrepreneurial skills.  So I contributed with what I’m good at:  by investing. That’s what division of labour is all about!

But how does investing promote bitcoin? If there hadn’t been early investors like me, there wouldn’t have been a stable initial value. This value gave the second wave of investors confidence, which increased the value again, which created even more confidence and so on.
Also, an increase in value promoted mining which made the bitcoin network more secure against early attackers.



So next time you ask, “why does this punk deserve to get rich off bitcoin?”
Let me summarize for you again:

hard work
being proactive
sacrifice
courage
skill
wisdom
meaning
passion
optimism
emotional strength
creating value

[mwally]

+1

I'm not an early adopter, and I currently have less than 50BTC, BUT, I agree with this post.  People who got in early did so without any guarantees of any kind.

For every Google and Facebook, there are thousands of failures.  We must not be mad at people who invest into a successful business, merely because we didn't.

[Giraffe.BC]

I don't see why you should feel like you have to defend yourself for seeing an opportunity before other people.  Ignore any haters who try to bring you down.

[Vladimir]

yep, nice one, Pretense .

I have only only one question for "late adopters". How many of "early adopters" will have balls to hold on to their bitcoins to the point when one can start buying mansions and island and football clubs?

This is a loaded question, is it not?

[supersonic3974]

I want to get to know you.

I'm very new to bitcoins and investing in general, but I want to learn a lot more about it.  While I wish I had gotten in on bitcoins early, the fact is I didn't and nothing will ever change that.  Everyone always says "Well, if only I had invested in google/microsoft/IBM when they first started, I would be rich right now."  But the thing is, anyone can say that.  Hindsight is 20/20 as they say.  The people who do profit like this are people like you, who listen, learn, wait, risk, etc.  Its one thing to say "if only I had..." and its another thing to actually start doing something about it.

I still have a lot to learn and I don't have much capital to work with, but I try to learn as much as I can from those with wisdom like yours.

The people who make real money are those that make the waves, not ride them.

[hamdi]

dont let the haters pull you down

[MoonShadow]

Thank you for this.

[ohdivino]

Pretense you say you're an early adopter but why is this your first post in the forum??

Why have you waited more than 2 years to post a so well elaborated post as this one?

[Test Bank Guy]

Pretense you say you're an early adopter but why is this your first post in the forum??

Why have you waited more than 2 years to post a so well elaborated post as this one?

Good point.

[lolcat]

I blame Apple, these "haters" are just hipsters on a Macbook somewhere sitting in a Starbucks.

[deepfall]

It took me a while to jump on board, even after reading the whitepaper and thinking the same thing.  Nice job articulating the difference between those who do and those who wait and see.

[SgtSpike]

If the pricing you bought your coins at was similar to the pricing of the infamous 10,000 coin pizza, 1000 euros would have bought you roughly 550,000 BTC.  Hello, $8.8 millionaire, good to meet you.  

[MoonShadow]

If the pricing you bought your coins at was similar to the pricing of the infamous 10,000 coin pizza, 1000 euros would have bought you roughly 550,000 BTC.  Hello, $8.8 millionaire, good to meet you.  

May of 2010 wouldn't have been quite so favorable as all that, but it's not chump change.

[TiagoTiago]

'grats on your luck, i hold no hard feelings toward you (but of course i wish i had been as lucky too)

[netrin]

You just got lucky because you found out about bitcoin before the media reported about it

No you bloody bastard. I have been curious about encryption and decentralized currencies most of my post-pubescent life. I heard about Satoshi's paper over a year ago and found it intellectually interesting, but didn't sink my teeth in it until recently. I like to think I am technically adept or economically savvy, but really I am only a follower. I am jealous. I am kicking myself for not exercising my passion, for not having the insight, for not being true to my own values earlier. You represent everything that I admire and my hatred of myself is targeted at you. I have always been last to be picked for the team and I have come to expect that someone will pity me and take me along. I want someone to help me make me feel a part of something greater than myself, for I know I am really nothing because I take no responsibility for my own welfare. But the world owes me just as you owe me. I have been bashing bitcoins ever since but don't want to be left behind. The only reason I am in this at all is because I hope others will be jealous of me one day, of my one bitcoin, because I am too chicken shit to invest time into mining, risk more of my paper money, or to produce something others might be willing to buy from me with bitcoins.

[supersonic3974]

You just got lucky because you found out about bitcoin before the media reported about it

No you bloody bastard. I have been curious about encryption and decentralized currencies most of my post-pubescent life. I heard about Satoshi's paper over a year ago and found it intellectually interesting, but didn't sink my teeth in it until recently. I like to think I am technically adept or economically savvy, but really I am only a follower. I am jealous. I am kicking myself for not exercising my passion, for not having the insight, for not being true to my own values earlier. You represent everything that I admire and my hatred of myself is targeted at you. I have always been last to be picked for the team and I have come to expect that someone will pity me and take me along. I want someone to help me make me feel a part of something greater than myself, for I know I am really nothing because I take no responsibility for my own welfare. But the world owes me just as you owe me. I have been bashing bitcoins ever since but don't want to be left behind. The only reason I am in this at all is because I hope others will be jealous of me one day, of my one bitcoin, because I am too chicken shit to invest time into mining, risk more of my paper money, or to produce something others might be willing to buy from me with bitcoins.

+1

[SgtSpike]

If the pricing you bought your coins at was similar to the pricing of the infamous 10,000 coin pizza, 1000 euros would have bought you roughly 550,000 BTC.  Hello, $8.8 millionaire, good to meet you.  

May of 2010 wouldn't have been quite so favorable as all that, but it's not chump change.

I guess the pizza transaction was overpriced then, even for valuation of BTC at the time?

[wumpus]

+1

[MoonShadow]

If the pricing you bought your coins at was similar to the pricing of the infamous 10,000 coin pizza, 1000 euros would have bought you roughly 550,000 BTC.  Hello, $8.8 millionaire, good to meet you.  

May of 2010 wouldn't have been quite so favorable as all that, but it's not chump change.

I guess the pizza transaction was overpriced then, even for valuation of BTC at the time?

Well, depends upon how you look at it.  There was more than one pizza bought around this same time, by the same person, and for the same amount.  However, this transaction presumedly included other costs besides the actual pizza.  These famous pizzia transactions are what formed the basis for valuation at the time.

[zerokwel]

you know if I knew about bitcoin earlier on I would of joined not just for the money aspect. But I think its a cool Idea. I used to give my cpu time etc to folding, seti, etc.

But hey I wish I got in earlier but well I did not and the only person to blame for that is me. But I am still here giving out what little my gfx card can do. And well using the funds it makes to invest into more hardware.