Don't feel bad newbies - Early adopter without many Bitcoins

[bitpop]

Just wanted to say that i remember first learning about bitcoins in early 2011.. I seem to remember their price being around $11, i talked to my programmer friend and asked what he thought about it all.. he was highly skeptical about their security.. he was quick to point out to me when there was a security breach at mtgox and the price of bitcoin quickly plummeted back to pennies.. 

I have always had an interest in the decentralization and peer 2 peer aspect of the coins. I remember at the time "before" one of the first nosedives in price, i looked into to buying some but couldn't even figure out exactly the best way to do so at the time..lol, kept following the market though and checking back in from time to time.. it had been a little while since i had looked at the price until i heard about them reaching $1000+, I quickly sent an email back to my programmer friend and he was quite astonished.. he is still skeptical though..lol-- I truly think he is missing out on the opportunities in developing infrastructure in this arena.

There is nothing lost though in my belief so much.. correct me if im wrong but didn't bitcoin start the beginning of 2013 below $10? 

The price could very well drop back down below $500 or even $100 before we know it.. not that i am hoping this will happen, but if it does it would be a good buying opportunity again.

But what more important is (like you said) even at this point we are all still early adopters as these coins are still well beneath the radar of the mainstream. Just go and ask any random person you know if they have ever heard of a bitcoin or even know what one is.  Most still have no idea..

However there is still a great amount of opportunity in developing new infrastructures and position yourself in the middle of the currents early.. and capatilize on the great opportunities to come..

Look around now.. are we seeing any type of over saturation in any market or service?? I think not.

Yeah there was a time when buying was very hard. After mtgox and dwolla stopped and before Coinbase, there was almost no way to buy them.

[howzar]

Many are in this boat. When I first used bitcoins they were $10 A piece. I even sold about 10-20 for a hundred.

[U1TRA_L0RD]

Many are in this boat. When I first used bitcoins they were $10 A piece. I even sold about 10-20 for a hundred.

Hey man, I sent you PM.

[IamCANADIAN013]

Thanks for sharing your story.

Makes me want to learn more about Bitcoins and keep mining, even if it is just a hobby.

Think I'll take your advice, buy a coin or 2, and just sit on them and see what happens.

[bitpop]

Thanks for sharing your story.

Makes me want to learn more about Bitcoins and keep mining, even if it is just a hobby.

Think I'll take your advice, buy a coin or 2, and just sit on them and see what happens.

Great time to buy right now or on 1-31

[Simple Dev]

Thanks for sharing your story.

Makes me want to learn more about Bitcoins and keep mining, even if it is just a hobby.

Think I'll take your advice, buy a coin or 2, and just sit on them and see what happens.

+1. It's never too late.

[Mobo]

Oh shit, that sucks.

How many bitcoins were you mining per day back then?

[Coinfever]

I am an early adopter and I only have a few Bitcoins.

In early 2011 I mined ~1,000 Bitcoins. Before we had paper wallets and encryption I had my wallet on a Bitlocked harddrive. Well that harddrive completely crashed.

My Ghost backup sadly turned out to have backed up corrupted data due to Bitlocker. New Bitlocker technology and old Ghost did not work well together I learned. At that point it also wasn't easy to export private keys and I didn't know that much yet.

There went around 1,000 BTC.

I came back and mined more with GPUs this time. I have an illness and even though I'm a brilliant PHP programmer, holding a steady job is hard. So the Bitcoins I mined had to pay for the GPUs and electricity as I mined them. I wasn't left with much even though I was a diehard believer and wish I could have held them.

Part of what I had left, 100 BTC was spent on Butterfly Labs. This was right after their good FPGA delivery. I donated what I had left to the newly launched Sean's Outpost, donated to projects, faucets and purchased from all the Bitcoin merchants I could to support the economy. I bought Alpaca socks for 30 BTC! When I didn't have BTC I bought them to buy what I needed if there was a merchant who took BTC. I thought I'd make it all back. Well their ASICs were years late and I only made a couple of BTC.

I am very glad I was part of the early people to prove Bitcoins were great for commerce and to show new merchants there was a market. I am proud to be part of the early Bitcoin economy.

This year I got a loan and bought 2 KNCs. Delivered perfectly. However, I again had to sell BTC to pay for electricity. I had to pay back the loan and sold one KNC on this forum for 17 BTC.

So with the couple thousand BTC I could have right now, I only have a few. It's sad because I was there, at the right time, in the right place and a total believer. But oh well.

What makes me mad though is Butterfly Labs turned out to be scum bags and now have even more Bitcoins they took from us. I wish I was able to generate that many early on legitimately.

Lessons learned: It is still the early period! If you are here right now, you ARE an early adopter. I should have bought the BTCs I could have but then again I had to take care of my family and don't have a steady income stream. The few Bitcoins I have I will hold on to as much as I can as long as my family is ok.

$700 is nothing. Buy 1 Bitcoin and sleep on it. Come back in a few years and you will be well off. Some early adopters are in my boat so don't fret. You are still here at the right time, in the right place. Help the economy! Find a merchant that accepts what you want and buy and send the BTC instead of money. Or buy gift cards on Gyft for almost anywhere.

PS. I love you guys and I love this board. I've never actively been involved in a forum before or after this forum. Sometimes I know I may be abrasive but I try to be helpful and I'm always honest. Can't wait for the years ahead!

My goal is to set you at ease. Otherwise people look at all the early members and assume thousands of btc which I wish was true. But those early adopter conspiracy theories aren't true. There's very few of us that still have many of the original bitcoins. Those that have the most just bought them. Not many early adopters went out and bought 50 Xeons to mine. There's no pyramid scheme.

Wow. What a great story and advice. As you can see, I am new here and only bough a couple of bitcoins few months back and I am now holding until I financially can. Like you, I have a medical condition in my cervical back that it is making impossible to keep a ok  and unfortunately I am not an expert on the computer area/programming. I am more and more fascinated by all this new technology and the idea behind. May I ask, where can I start to learn more technical stuff and what can I do to learn some programming without having to sit on a school (again, my cervical pain won't allow me to sit for long)!
Good luck to you my friend.

[bitpop]

Oh shit, that sucks.

How many bitcoins were you mining per day back then?

I was getting blocks of 50!

[bitpop]

I am an early adopter and I only have a few Bitcoins.

In early 2011 I mined ~1,000 Bitcoins. Before we had paper wallets and encryption I had my wallet on a Bitlocked harddrive. Well that harddrive completely crashed.

My Ghost backup sadly turned out to have backed up corrupted data due to Bitlocker. New Bitlocker technology and old Ghost did not work well together I learned. At that point it also wasn't easy to export private keys and I didn't know that much yet.

There went around 1,000 BTC.

I came back and mined more with GPUs this time. I have an illness and even though I'm a brilliant PHP programmer, holding a steady job is hard. So the Bitcoins I mined had to pay for the GPUs and electricity as I mined them. I wasn't left with much even though I was a diehard believer and wish I could have held them.

Part of what I had left, 100 BTC was spent on Butterfly Labs. This was right after their good FPGA delivery. I donated what I had left to the newly launched Sean's Outpost, donated to projects, faucets and purchased from all the Bitcoin merchants I could to support the economy. I bought Alpaca socks for 30 BTC! When I didn't have BTC I bought them to buy what I needed if there was a merchant who took BTC. I thought I'd make it all back. Well their ASICs were years late and I only made a couple of BTC.

I am very glad I was part of the early people to prove Bitcoins were great for commerce and to show new merchants there was a market. I am proud to be part of the early Bitcoin economy.

This year I got a loan and bought 2 KNCs. Delivered perfectly. However, I again had to sell BTC to pay for electricity. I had to pay back the loan and sold one KNC on this forum for 17 BTC.

So with the couple thousand BTC I could have right now, I only have a few. It's sad because I was there, at the right time, in the right place and a total believer. But oh well.

What makes me mad though is Butterfly Labs turned out to be scum bags and now have even more Bitcoins they took from us. I wish I was able to generate that many early on legitimately.

Lessons learned: It is still the early period! If you are here right now, you ARE an early adopter. I should have bought the BTCs I could have but then again I had to take care of my family and don't have a steady income stream. The few Bitcoins I have I will hold on to as much as I can as long as my family is ok.

$700 is nothing. Buy 1 Bitcoin and sleep on it. Come back in a few years and you will be well off. Some early adopters are in my boat so don't fret. You are still here at the right time, in the right place. Help the economy! Find a merchant that accepts what you want and buy and send the BTC instead of money. Or buy gift cards on Gyft for almost anywhere.

PS. I love you guys and I love this board. I've never actively been involved in a forum before or after this forum. Sometimes I know I may be abrasive but I try to be helpful and I'm always honest. Can't wait for the years ahead!

My goal is to set you at ease. Otherwise people look at all the early members and assume thousands of btc which I wish was true. But those early adopter conspiracy theories aren't true. There's very few of us that still have many of the original bitcoins. Those that have the most just bought them. Not many early adopters went out and bought 50 Xeons to mine. There's no pyramid scheme.

Wow. What a great story and advice. As you can see, I am new here and only bough a couple of bitcoins few months back and I am now holding until I financially can. Like you, I have a medical condition in my cervical back that it is making impossible to keep a ok  and unfortunately I am not an expert on the computer area/programming. I am more and more fascinated by all this new technology and the idea behind. May I ask, where can I start to learn more technical stuff and what can I do to learn some programming without having to sit on a school (again, my cervical pain won't allow me to sit for long)!
Good luck to you my friend.

http://www.codecademy.com

[sebdude420]

its okay man im with you.

[yannis7777]

We'll if it was not for people like you utilizing the coin it wouldn't have picked up that much. So, no regrets OP!

[el_rlee]

Tell me about your hard drive crash. I may be able to offer my services.

Head crash. I've already tried a service. Disk is long gone now.

Gone where? I am sure I don't need to tell ya: 1 kBTC might be worth trying to get it....

[bitpop]

.

[Mobo]

Oh shit, that sucks.

How many bitcoins were you mining per day back then?

I was getting blocks of 50!

Fuuuuuuuuark damn.

[freedomno1]

http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=16284

Always worth a shot at 1000 BTC
Although I would say its dead

[rudim]

Cryptocoins are unique phenomena - we are competitors and partners at one time. Competotors when mining same coin and partners, cause our efforts create coin value.

[lcharles123]

And I thought he had lost the wave of coins, but is just beginning, thank you for sharing your story, I guarantee you did a lot genrte feel better, just like me.

But do not worry it's not only you who lost money!

[FIgHungger]

that story touches the heart shit i hate the thought of not having the knowledge to protect yoruself in the beggining

[podyx]

damn that sucks

how many btc u holding exactly now??
5-10?