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

[chocomav]

You're a really good guy who cares. Hindsight is always 20-20. I've made a ton of mistakes also but that is how we grow and learn. Thank you for your story and God bless.

[rich93]

I almost started buying bitcoins a year or two ago when I heard they had jumped up to $100, then back down to $2.50 again. I am still kiking myself now for not buying. However, I had so many commitments that I had no spare time to learn how the system worked.

I heard of many stories of very early adopters selling loads of bitcoins for a few hundred dollars profit, then finding those coins are now worth thousands of dollars. It's easy to look back and criticise oneself, but who would have believed a bitcoin would be worth $1000 dollars when it all started off.

I almost started buying bitcoins a year or two ago when I heard they had jumped up to $100, then back down to $2.50 again. I am still kiking myself now for not buying. However, I had so many commitments that I had no spare time to learn how the system worked.

I heard of many stories of very early adopters selling loads of bitcoins for a few hundred dollars profit, then finding those coins are now worth thousands of dollars. It's easy to look back and criticise oneself, but who would have believed a bitcoin would be worth $1000 dollars when it all started off.

You just copied my post word for word!

[zeeshanblc]

I called myself an early adopter but I'm also an early seller.   I sold most of my coins on 2012 and in march 2013 and didn't buy again.

Right now I started to buy small amounts, this time I will hold it for long.

[awais3344_1]

I only discovered bitcoins in last month of 2013. Not a very bright time to hear about the coin if you look from the point of view of today. I don't stand on any stash either. It was a wild ride, had to pay off for things. Through time, didn't make much. But I am keeping whatever I can for a long term, I will be holding for  a long time now.

Btw I could fix any kind of bad hdd. Wish I knew back then.  Could fix yours easily. Plus I thought there would be a way to make the old ghost backup work. If I am not sure. You could have tried!?

[dothebeats]

Great story. Though most of the people think that early adopters sure have lots of btc, they're completely wrong. Looking back, it was great, but heck, regrets? :3 So newbies, don't feel bad. Most of the early adopters had lots of btc before it was cool. Not all early adopters are rich now because they have lots of btc; some have sold off their holdings when btc started to take the media's attention. :3

[malphite]

damn 1,000 bitcoins just gone... 

It must suck to feel starting all over again..

[AleCrypt0]

One of the best post i have ever read on this forum.

+1

[onemorebtc]

i know how you feel...
i lost much to bitconica, pirate and moonco.in - only some coins left. but luckily i still own more in fiat terms than i have invested in (at least as long bitcoin is above 100$).

btw i too think we are early adopters

i learned my lesson and i am HODLer now

[BlindMayorBitcorn]

One of the best post i have ever read on this forum.

+1

Yup. Powerful thread

[Miss Fortune]

this thread made me feel a bit better, since I lost 4 btc recently.

[jjacob]

this thread made me feel a bit better, since I lost 4 btc recently.

You lost 4 BTC? How?

[Simon8x]

The major lesson learnt here is that you really need to make sure your bitcoin is safe.
Not only you need to store it in a safe place (not on exchanges, not in your compromised computer, etc) and make backups, you also need to make sure the backups really work before a disaster strikes.

[the_poet]

The major lesson learnt here is that you really need to make sure your bitcoin is safe.
Not only you need to store it in a safe place (not on exchanges, not in your compromised computer, etc) and make backups, you also need to make sure the backups really work before a disaster strikes.

This. "Being your own bank" means that you need to be extremely careful when managing your wallet(s) but also acquire the necessary knowledge to do so.

[relq]

Yeah you right, when i still newbie about bitcoin and don't know anything. i'm just doing faucet everyday and oneday i feel this is waste my time. everyone start from newbie, so don't worry for newbies

[notlist3d]

Yeah you right, when i still newbie about bitcoin and don't know anything. i'm just doing faucet everyday and oneday i feel this is waste my time. everyone start from newbie, so don't worry for newbies

Honestly faucet is waste of time no matter what your rank is.  Only way it is not is the ones with big referral base... I don't have that or seek that on faucets as I don't want to send people out wasting time and me get a kickback from it.

I still say take time you would use on faucet and learn a sell-able skill.  Pick something you enjoy but a few hours a day add's up pretty quick. 

[avw1982]

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!

When early times We can Coreduo processor System itelf We can more 5 to 10 bitcoins.But present situation We are big miners with consumption of high electricity. I saw from 2 years there are big variations in price. People adapted and awareness increased gradually and many things happened in bitcoin. Just take all are good for bitcoin’ s future. This is my experience about BTC.

[Facilitator]

Yeah you right, when i still newbie about bitcoin and don't know anything. i'm just doing faucet everyday and oneday i feel this is waste my time. everyone start from newbie, so don't worry for newbies

But in old days, the faucets paid out a lot. Today, faucets paid out micro bitcoins. Maybe the dollar value is still the same.

[helloeverybody]

Yeah you right, when i still newbie about bitcoin and don't know anything. i'm just doing faucet everyday and oneday i feel this is waste my time. everyone start from newbie, so don't worry for newbies

But in old days, the faucets paid out a lot. Today, faucets paid out micro bitcoins. Maybe the dollar value is still the same.

Back when those faucets paid out they where worth nothing but then they went up on price,  same thing could happen to you. It's all relative.

[QueenW]

Everyone who currently has bitcoin is an early adopter, because in 5-10 years bitcoin will skyrocket!

[faince222]

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.

Tldr; Hodl. Do not mine, trade, altcoin, invest, gamble, etc.

Only thing that I can do is to hug you. I'm serious, really. That's not easy to accept a lost of this type. But you have a great reason, we're here in the right place and in the right moment. So, HODL and sell when Bitcoin will reach a value of 20.000$ !