Yep. Got into BTC because I was bored and gonna put up a huge bbs/game server again, which would have probably cost me like $75 a month in electric to get the towers up and
learn how to run them under a better machine in emulation etc. (Figure'd that would be about $2.6k of newer replacement bbs equipment or thereabout). Also had some *3* Game of Throne Swords the Damascus Steel Versions with low collectible numbers. The book version
http://www.valyriansteel.com/shop/ The first 3 runs of stuff I think it was: ICE, LONGCLAW, NEEDLE then later CATSPAW BLADE.
Anyway, I found out about Bitcoin and kept walking by the damn swords. Always helps to buy stuff BEFORE the author's HBO series. I got them because I thought George R.R. Martin was the next Tolkien. Boy, was I right! Anway, broke down and sold them for about $3.2k total I think it was, and with the $$$ set aside for the revival of the BBS/Game server I had some 'stupid' hobby cash to spend.
Then took that money and ordered like around August 1st? 2013 or so a KNC Jupiter ASIC BTC Miner that cost exactly $5,131.80 USD with shipping to my door, I think I have the price right? It arrived in a soggy mush of cardboard held together with 2 hands by DHL guy and was full of rainwater (1/2 a glass) and parts was loose inside. So after a major panic attack, and then draining water out of the unit, then borrowing hairdryer from a neighbor, I get it all set up and can't find the switch. I email KNC (got a quick 1 hr reply by chance) and they tell me to use a PAPERCLIP on the PSU. By that point, I'm having real doubts about my purchase! So after being told the proper pins to use and cutting a paper clip, I've cut half and tapping with black tape the other end, I closed my eyes, turned my head, jammed it in the pins, said a prayer and it worked. Man, I was a wreck!
So to be clear, when I started this KNC Jupiter up on Oct 18th, 2013 my goals were modest. (1) I was bored needed a hobby and this did not eat electricity like putting up the old bbs/game server. (2) When I turned it on, and looked, sometime that day BTC was exactly $150 a BTC and I was making 1 BTC a day I think, more or less. (3) Looking at difficulty I figured (wrongly was much better than that) I had like 9 months of paying off the miner/electric and then MAYBE I could get another 9 months out of the unit and pay for my house utilities and heat the basement of my house in the winter too boot! Before difficulty caught up with the unit vs price of BTC. (4) Hey, I was being a nice guy and with Micro-Lending in India, for crying out loud. (5) being a hobby and all and Micro-Lending in India and elsewhere, being, all the rage I could use this Bitcoin miner to help those folk, hey, again, this whole BTC mining endeavor was only supposed to be just a frigging hobby. Sometimes being a bored clueless newbie, really, really comes through for you!
Well, of course, everything went completely nuts..BTC/Mining/Altcoins all took off from that point in time till now, so basically I fell into this.
So anyway, now, I should probably get the BBS/Game Server back up, for the heck of it because this BTC/Crypto allowed me to retire 2.5 years early and such. It seems appropriate if I ever find the time and all the stuff I'd have to learn about emulating O/S's under Windows 10 etc. Seems like the thing to do in retrospect.
Anyway, as the OP says in his title. "From financial debt to financial stability- thanks to bitcoin" this surely applies to me. I really, really liked (addicted) to ASIC mining in the big
data halls in a big, big, way, but those days are gone in the USA...so I HODL and wait.
Anyway...
Chump or Champ we will see, for the future of BTC/Crypto, we will see I guess...
Brad