What determines the newbie experience when they first come to bitcoin?

[jackg]

I was thinking about this and I'm not sure what moulds people's experience with bitcoin when they first start? I started off by thinking it might be the time they come there but I know people who started in bitcoin at about the same time as me and they were very much into icos like ethereum.
I'm wondering whether it's the experience they come for that decides how their journey pans out. For example I think I came much more for knowledge and have only recently started trading (which is probably a much safer path to follow albeit less exciting)...

Anyone got any thoughts on this?

[mk4]

I mean, it should be different for each person. One thing is for sure though, I think mostly what makes people interested in bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, is the possibility of making money.

If were talking about like people that came in on..:
2015-2016, probably mostly people that are trying to make money through faucets.
2017, probably people who became interested mostly due to the money that could be made by investing in ICOs and or random hyped coins/tokens.
2018, probably ICOs also? Most likely a mix of everything.

Just my 2 satoshis. Personally, I became interested when I dove deeper after reading about the Bitfinex hack on Reddit.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

Geographical locations also determine how their journey pans out. People coming from venezuela and most africans countries, financial freedom/possibility of making money will be their driving force. Meanwhile other well established countries privacy ( avoiding 3rd parties) could be the reason they get interested in bitcoin.

Personally my motivation to investing in cryptocurrency in general was financial freedom and I was once a hater of bitcoin since I felt it was already late to make massive profit but as I grew stronger in the industry and studies more I came to love bitcoin as a currency more than all the altcoin I had and now focus on accumulating BTC every little chance I get.

[BrewMaster]

i don't think the time when people come is as important as the reason why they came into bitcoin. at any time if they come in only to make profit and become rich (specially those who want to do it overnight) they will surely have a bad experience because of the volatility and the huge amount of FUD that is always around.
but those who came in because of the technology and what bitcoin as a decentralized currency offers, will always have a great experience and stick around forever.

[JeromeTash]

It's all different for everyone.
Mine was actually through trading but it turned out that at the time I started trading in BTC and a few established cryptos, ICOs were just getting started with the hype.
I then also joined the train and moved along.

Most newbies who joined around between 2016 and  2017 did so because of the headlines BTC kept making. BTC price volatility was quite an interesting phenomenon for me.

[Coin-Keeper]

Timing had alot to do with it, at least for me.  Back in 2010-2012 this was all so new.  Cheap as hell coins and mining was really fast to earn a coin, nothing like now.  It was fun to read about "half-ing" before it ever even happened, and its been done a few times now.  I have coins parked for the long term, although I am biting my tongue as I am riding out 2018 until now.

[squatter]

I was thinking about this and I'm not sure what moulds people's experience with bitcoin when they first start? I started off by thinking it might be the time they come there but I know people who started in bitcoin at about the same time as me and they were very much into icos like ethereum.
I'm wondering whether it's the experience they come for that decides how their journey pans out. For example I think I came much more for knowledge and have only recently started trading (which is probably a much safer path to follow albeit less exciting)...

Anyone got any thoughts on this?

Since 2013 or so, I'm guessing most newbies start out on the "get rich quick" path. Many have this idea that Bitcoin is too expensive and they throw their money at shiny altcoins. I did this myself when I first arrived on the scene. I paid dearly for it when prices crashed!

Getting scammed or hacked a couple times early on also seems to be a formative experience for most newcomers. Cryptocurrency really brings out the scammers thanks to nearly instant/irreversible payments. Newbies usually don't have the security mindset that's necessary to avoid being parted from their money.

[r1s2g3]

faucets, coinhive, bitcoin doublers, bunch of noobs assuring me that I will get rich, cloud mining (free and paid hash mining),  people assuring me the bugs in bitcoin code to exploit, lots of altcoins to buy, POS coins, trading in exchange, bitcointalk, airdrop , bounties, scam coins and finally enlightenment.

This is  how my journey with bitcoins progressed.

[hugeblack]

My story was a bit different where I was looking for how to do transactions without getting an identity. From which I got to know Blockchain and cryptos.
In the first days, I thought that cryptocurrencies were programming languages like Java and did not have any business deal. "The first time I knew that was the middle of 2017." After BTC was banned by China and the price dropped, I started to think of it as an investment.
Currently, I am not speculating "an incorrect effect in the long term" and only collected 3 Altcoins.

[Harlot]

I have the same experience as you, at first I was only here reading a bunch of threads about Bitcoin. Back then I only see Bitcoin as the one and only cryptocurrency and then I discovered that there are more cryptocurrencies aside from Bitcoin. That is when I found out that altcoins are a great opportunity to start a investment in which I have the chance to be a pioneer on something that can grow exponentially. Right now I don't focus on buying right away instead I focus on doing my research well before even participating on any sale or even buy something in the exchange. I think that this is the right path for me as I also have limited cash for me to work with.

[Kopyleft]

I believe it's down to the orientation which they received when getting involved with cryptocurrency. From an enthusiast or from the internet. This would likely guide their future actions and directions. Their initial reason for getting involved with cryptocurrency also plays a major role;
- For the product
- It's volatility
- Curious interest.
It varies with different people.

[gentlemand]

Timing had alot to do with it, at least for me. 

That's a huge one. Someone arriving in the last few years has had youtube assholes shouting at them, ads on public transport, public figures dissing it. Someone arriving pre 2013 would have to be pretty out there to start with and they had a lot more digging to arrive here.

[RustyBits]

For me it began as a money making opportunity. I'd heard of Bitcoin, but never really investigated it - primarily because I knew it was something I wouldn't truly understand. So I never really followed any news on it. I had been doing a lot of online PTC and survey sites to earn spare spending money dating back to about 2010. Every now and then I would come across ad sites for BTC, but I was just looking to get a few pennies here and there so I rarely paid attention to the ad content.

In the late summer of 2017, one of the sites I visited frequently stopped using PayPal as a source to cash out earnings, but they were pushing the Bitcoin cashout option hard, so I looked into and figured I could afford to 'risk' a $25ish payout on this crazy Internet money that I knew nothing about.

With very little money to actively invest, but a history of using PTC sites, I just naturally gravitated toward the crypto faucets. Soon afterward I found bitcointalk and decided to lurk around a bit.  After making a few posts here and there and a little bit of effort - I'm now just about ready to sprout my Member wings!

[TheBeardedBaby]

Everyone had a different start.
A colleague of mine back in 2009 said that there is a new "digital money" project which looks like could have a good future. We were laughing back than that it's P2P and some day it will be forbidden same as the torrents which at that time started to close down sites.
Now we are joking that if we had invested 10$ back then things could be different now but ...

Anyway, some friends were mining back 2012-2013 but they got scammed and lost some money. I was mining only for fun and got a few satoshis but after that case I lost interest.

Picked up the trend again in 2017 just before the hard fork and the halving and since than I'm on the same boat. Came rather late to bitcointalk tho.

I have some Forex trading background, I thought I could try the same with crypto trading but the crytomarket never sleeps and day trading is too time consuming and stresfull for a hobby so I quit.

Never looked for a real income I have a well paid job already, it's more for fun and hobby-money for some gadgets and hardware.
That's all.

[boyptc]

When I was a newbie, I'm not into ICO's or ethereum.

The very introduction that I've got was through faucets, bitcoin only. And during that time, I thought that faucets were only for bitcoin but later on I've figured out that there were altcoin faucets too. I was never too informed about the volatility of bitcoin, risks and even being a store of value. What I just like with that after hearing from a friend was "I've got bitcoin" which turned to be cool because he told me about darkweb/deepweb stuffs relating to bitcoin. And the fact that I don't surf there and having a bitcoin really turned me on and the rest is history when I came to the forum.

[Ispep]

Profits is the major reason why most members join in, and it really has to top the list of possible reasons and talking about what shapes and determines their experience is the mindset with which they come in, someone rather want to come and make millions and get away, other for the knowledge, some more just because it's the trending stuff etc
It's the mindset and reason for signing up that shapes our experience and journey with the bitcoin and the forum

[jackg]

I'm finding it weird that there are so many people who came here after money and not after the knowledge of how this digital money schema worked and how powerful its technology was. I first came for the technology, got dragged into the money side of things though a few months later with faucets and other stuff.

My experience with bitcoin was very much like my Linux experience and both were at about the same time too. I first heard about it from an invidulator in one of my mock exams in 2013 after the huge crash and after some professors were sacked from an American University for mining bitcoin on their supercomputer.

[dothebeats]

I'm finding it weird that there are so many people who came here after money and not after the knowledge of how this digital money schema worked and how powerful its technology was. I first came for the technology, got dragged into the money side of things though a few months later with faucets and other stuff.

Since bitcoin hit the mainstream news once again for reaching new highs and surpassing records that were thought to be impossible, most people--including newbies--are more interested on the monetary gains than the knowledge they might have along the way. Back in late 2013 when I first started digging about bitcoin, I never really cared about the price, I'm just interested on knowing what really is bitcoin that I've seen through a meme. Profit intentions only began and was fueled in 2015, after I learned that I can now change BTC to my local currency. The rest is history from that point forward.

[Upgrade00]

I'm finding it weird that there are so many people who came here after money and not after the knowledge of how this digital money schema worked and how powerful its technology was.

I do not find it weird at all that people are more driven by my the prospects of getting money than learning more about a network protocol and how it impacts the globe. Finances drives our interests.
A number of people who may have been attracted to Bitcoin for different reasons end up getting hooked to the tech and learning more about how it works and it possibilities.

[gentlemand]

I'm finding it weird that there are so many people who came here after money and not after the knowledge of how this digital money schema worked and how powerful its technology was.

I do not find it weird in the slightest.

I've always thought Ethereum, and things with similar levels of complexity, should have remained non monetised research projects until they were fully ready to roll with all of the most obvious problems addressed. If that was the case would anyone other than a few hundred people be interested in them? Hell no.

I'm sure the vast majority, especially in recent times, arrived purely for the sake of dollar signs. Plenty of them will have delved deeper once they started to look beyond that.