My First Encounter with Bitcoin in Central Park-October 2010

[tread93]

I was a Sophomore in high school at the time. I had become great friends with a foreign exchanged student from Spain named Pablo. I showed him the ropes and how to fit in with the American kids and I got him plugged in at school. In turn he helped me cheat in my Spanish 2 class in online virtual school LOL. It was hilarious, for the oral exams over the phone the teacher would ask the questions on speakerphone, I'd then mute the phone and Pablo would tell me what to say, the teacher was amazed with how great my dialect was and would keep telling me this, every time Pablo and I died laughing and we've never pressed the mute button any faster jajaja- good times. Anyways Pablo's US Family hosts went to our church and my mom was good friends with them so naturally we just became good buds, plus Pablo was just super cool.

After a couple of months passed by Pablo was picking up English very quickly, his hosts decided it was time they take him on a trip to show him some of our great cities in the US. I tagged along as his best friend, & also because I have never been to the North East US. My birthday was during this trip, so the trip was also a birthday gift from my mom.

Our first stop was Philadelphia, where I raced Pablo up the Rocky steps! We had a blast and of course hit up the main market there for the best Philly Cheese Steak we've ever had in our lives. The next day we went over to Baltimore, Maryland where we witnessed Joe's son get discharged from the Navy aboard the USS Constellation, later we went to the amazing aquarium there & finished the night off with dinner at the Hard Rock right in the harbor there before retreating to NJ for some B-day fun and staying at Joe's sons house for the night.

The next day we were in NY. I had never been to the city before and I was really excited! We took the NJ Transit in.  We had a great time checking it out & I met up with an old friend who had moved there, and then in the afternoon we went to Central Park. It was there in the park that someone had approached me asking me if I wanted to buy Bitcoin. I had of course asked what it was, they gave a vague explanation and so I figured, why not! I preceded to pull $20 from my wallet and started handed it to the girl. In that moment, Joe intervened and took the $20 from my hand telling me not to waste my money and that Bitcoin is nothing but some scam. I told him "well what if its worth something someday" Carol jumped in and told Joe not to tell me how to spend my money, Joe handed me my $20 bill back and the girl looked at me and asked me again if I wanted to buy, and I said I guess not. I remember right after that Joe and Carol went off ahead of me walking in the park preceding to have an argument about what just took place amongst each other. Pablo had no clue what was really going on, and I kept telling him that we had to find that person again! A few minutes went by and I was trying to find that person again & purchase the bitcoins, but I never could find them and that was that. At that time bitcoin was around 6 cents. Today I still remember that so vividly, it kills me to think of all the "what ifs".

If I did purchase those coins there is no telling if whether or not I would have remembered to keep that little piece of paper that stored the private keys. I could have lost all my funds by misplacing that paper when my parents moved out of state, or maybe they would have been stolen in the MT. GOX hack, or maybe, just somehow I would have actually held onto them and realized that I was filthy rich with internet money. Well, none of that ever transpired because I made a very big mistake and I listened to someone shoot me down, and didn't follow through with my purchase.

In hindsight I can't blame anyone but myself, always trust your gut! That day I didn't trust my gut and I learned a huge lesson. The funny thing is that the 200 coins I would have gotten is small change compared to all the early adopters, but that could have been me. Bitcoin evaded my thoughts up until 2014 when my friend messaged me and a ton of random people from my college on Facebook about it, I didn't pay any mind as I was focused on my studies at the time. The next time I had really started paying attention was August 2017 when my friend Ian started telling me about ICOs and BTC and ETH. One day in my office, you could hear a pin drop, I got up from my seat and preceded to ask my colleagues "what do you guys think about Bitcoin" Instantly like 20 people got up from their desk and I sparked a huge office wide discussion. I remember watching Bitcoin trading in the thousands at the time and we kept talking about it, I kept seeing the price going up thinking I had already missed the boat, this was right as its first huge bull run ran into December and January hitting 20k for the first time. I was so mad at myself. Towards the end of the bear market in 2018 is when I made my first initial purchase and have been stacking SATs ever since.

Does anyone else have any bitcoin stories like this? I know that i'm definitely not the only one who lost out on this! Please feel free to share as i'd love to hear your stories, too!

[willoweb]

Interesting story. My story is quite similar to yours. I heard about bitcoins in my last year at university in 2011. Just like you, I did not attach any importance to this, since it was a story from my older brother, a programmer and a computer system security specialist. I was more worried about my thesis and the girls. How wrong I was)) I had to go on academic leave for a year and take up cryptocurrency and forget about girls for a while. But unfortunately I was in love and worked on my diploma. Also in 2017, I was angry with myself and those girls. Since then I've become smarter

[romero121]

I don't have such a big story. Mine is small story. I got into bitcoin when I went abroad in search of job. By the time I met a person, and later we turned to be friends. He's completely into cryptocurrency and he gave a suggestion to buy as much and hold bitcoin. By the time the price of Bitcoin was around $250.

Myself blindly believed and made plans of buying one bitcoin every month from the salary. Finally I didn't got job, so missed by buying plans. If I've gotten the job I would've started buying it regularly. Right now for sure my wallet would've got 10+ bitcoins

The same guy suggested me to buy ETH, and it was mere a dollar by the time. I didn't buy at that time. Now I feel bad of doing the biggest mistake of my life.

[tread93]

Interesting story. My story is quite similar to yours. I heard about bitcoins in my last year at university in 2011. Just like you, I did not attach any importance to this, since it was a story from my older brother, a programmer and a computer system security specialist. I was more worried about my thesis and the girls. How wrong I was)) I had to go on academic leave for a year and take up cryptocurrency and forget about girls for a while. But unfortunately I was in love and worked on my diploma. Also in 2017, I was angry with myself and those girls. Since then I've become smarter

Haha, you and me both my friend! If only I would have had the sense to take action there. Why didn't I write it down? Or why didn't I think to look it up online and check it out more in depth after the fact? I had a few chances too. Surely I would have found this place and the rest would have been history. But I too was focused on girls and school, since then I've also also grown much wiser. At least we didn't spend 10k worth of bitcoins on a pizza. LOL, man I feel bad for that guy.

[tread93]

I don't have such a big story. Mine is small story. I got into bitcoin when I went abroad in search of job. By the time I met a person, and later we turned to be friends. He's completely into cryptocurrency and he gave a suggestion to buy as much and hold bitcoin. By the time the price of Bitcoin was around $250.

Myself blindly believed and made plans of buying one bitcoin every month from the salary. Finally I didn't got job, so missed by buying plans. If I've gotten the job I would've started buying it regularly. Right now for sure my wallet would've got 10+ bitcoins

The same guy suggested me to buy ETH, and it was mere a dollar by the time. I didn't buy at that time. Now I feel bad of doing the biggest mistake of my life.

Oh man, yeah that is tough! Sometimes things just aren't meant to be I suppose. Do you believe everything happens for a reason? I do. Maybe it was a mistake, or maybe had we have had these riches we would be dead! There is no telling. The opportunities to capitalize are still there and I still think we are early....

[Antraz]

Nice story, funny how things happen sometimes, and i agree with you we should follow our guts and feelings.

Mine is not so cool like yours 
I got into btc after i broke my leg at work. this was like 3years ago more or less. i still remember going on the ambulance holding my foot because i was afraid the broken bone could rip the flesh and i would never be able to walk....

it was after i had surgery one week later that i started to think seriously about my future and im not that young anymore. Money wise i was pretty much not broke but almost. My salary was just enough to pay for my bills. I doubted myself.

It was in one day during those 4 months i was at home that i was forced to buy btc. i was looking for a vpn and the seller only accepted btc and paypal but he had paypal disabled for some reason that day. so if i remember correctly i created my coin base account so i could buy nord vpn haha, bought 10euros of btc and from there it was a long journey till this day.

My accident gave me the opportunity to enter crypto and for that i am thankful because even tho i knew btc or at least i heard about it a couple times before, but i never stopped to look.

[nelson4lov]

That's an interesting read, tread93! While I don't have a similar story to share about missing out on buying Bitcoin cheaper, I do have my own regrets. I earned rewards back in 2017 from some of the crypto activities and ICOs that I participated in but I ended up holding on to them till the bear market came in full swing so I ended up losing much more since most of those projects are things of the past and are not even being talked about or discussed even in this current bull run. If I had converted my profits to Bitcoin and held unto it, I'd be a much happier man today. Anyways, I won't let these regrets weigh me down. I'll keep going.

I'm curious though, did Pablo later buy bitcoin after you explained things a bit to him? One thing is certain that though, in crypto, more opportunities would come to gain wealth.  We just have to keep at it.

[romero121]

I don't have such a big story. Mine is small story. I got into bitcoin when I went abroad in search of job. By the time I met a person, and later we turned to be friends. He's completely into cryptocurrency and he gave a suggestion to buy as much and hold bitcoin. By the time the price of Bitcoin was around $250.

Myself blindly believed and made plans of buying one bitcoin every month from the salary. Finally I didn't got job, so missed by buying plans. If I've gotten the job I would've started buying it regularly. Right now for sure my wallet would've got 10+ bitcoins

The same guy suggested me to buy ETH, and it was mere a dollar by the time. I didn't buy at that time. Now I feel bad of doing the biggest mistake of my life.

Oh man, yeah that is tough! Sometimes things just aren't meant to be I suppose. Do you believe everything happens for a reason? I do. Maybe it was a mistake, or maybe had we have had these riches we would be dead! There is no telling. The opportunities to capitalize are still there and I still think we are early....

If we're to buy, that might've happened. It is all about the fact of randomness. As in the quote maybe if we've bought and kept hold, right now our name might be on the rich person's list. Anything and everything moves with some connectivity with God. This is what I believe and upon the same I accept and move, it isn't meant for me. As said above, even now we aren't late to the party.

[Lucius]

It was there in the park that someone had approached me asking me if I wanted to buy Bitcoin. I had of course asked what it was, they gave a vague explanation and so I figured, why not! I preceded to pull $20 from my wallet and started handed it to the girl. In that moment, Joe intervened and took the $20 from my hand telling me not to waste my money and that Bitcoin is nothing but some scam. I told him "well what if its worth something someday" Carol jumped in and told Joe not to tell me how to spend my money, Joe handed me my $20 bill back and the girl looked at me and asked me again if I wanted to buy, and I said I guess not. I remember right after that Joe and Carol went off ahead of me walking in the park preceding to have an argument about what just took place amongst each other. Pablo had no clue what was really going on, and I kept telling him that we had to find that person again! A few minutes went by and I was trying to find that person again & purchase the bitcoins, but I never could find them and that was that. At that time bitcoin was around 6 cents. Today I still remember that so vividly, it kills me to think of all the "what ifs".

Interesting story, a girl was walking in the park in 2010 and trying to sell Bitcoin to complete strangers - it really seems a bit unbelievable to me at first. Even if, for example, you decided to buy Bitcoin then, in order to really get it in your possession, you should have some kind of crypto wallet - and as far as I know then the choice was reduced to Bitcoin Core or maybe some online service (if it exists at all).

In other words, even if you bought something (assuming the girl was actually selling BTC), the question is what would happen with it to this day. What is even more amazing in your story is the fact that it took you as long as 7 years to correct the mistake you made that day in the park - if there were any mistakes at all.

[aysg76]

Many people who encountered with Bitcoin in first phase and have lost the opportunity to invest or buy at that particular time regret a lot these days when prices have gone far away to $60k.There are some similar stories shared by Reddit users where they sold Bitcoin for $2-$3 and now they feel guilty about it.Think about how much money Bitcoin pizza man would be regretting spending 10000 Bitcoins just for 2 pizzas which values $559 million at current prices.Just imagine!! We all have some past mistakes and we need to move on.Invest now so that you don't say I committed same mistake in 2021 when prices will skyrocket to $100-$150k.It's life and we need to adapt to changes.

[tread93]

It was there in the park that someone had approached me asking me if I wanted to buy Bitcoin. I had of course asked what it was, they gave a vague explanation and so I figured, why not! I preceded to pull $20 from my wallet and started handed it to the girl. In that moment, Joe intervened and took the $20 from my hand telling me not to waste my money and that Bitcoin is nothing but some scam. I told him "well what if its worth something someday" Carol jumped in and told Joe not to tell me how to spend my money, Joe handed me my $20 bill back and the girl looked at me and asked me again if I wanted to buy, and I said I guess not. I remember right after that Joe and Carol went off ahead of me walking in the park preceding to have an argument about what just took place amongst each other. Pablo had no clue what was really going on, and I kept telling him that we had to find that person again! A few minutes went by and I was trying to find that person again & purchase the bitcoins, but I never could find them and that was that. At that time bitcoin was around 6 cents. Today I still remember that so vividly, it kills me to think of all the "what ifs".

Interesting story, a girl was walking in the park in 2010 and trying to sell Bitcoin to complete strangers - it really seems a bit unbelievable to me at first. Even if, for example, you decided to buy Bitcoin then, in order to really get it in your possession, you should have some kind of crypto wallet - and as far as I know then the choice was reduced to Bitcoin Core or maybe some online service (if it exists at all).

In other words, even if you bought something (assuming the girl was actually selling BTC), the question is what would happen with it to this day. What is even more amazing in your story is the fact that it took you as long as 7 years to correct the mistake you made that day in the park - if there were any mistakes at all.

I believe that it was a vendor under the name of “Cottonwood Vending” or today known as Coin BTM operating primarily out of NY. They had a way to purchase the coins through mobile phones at the time or something like this. You can either believe me or not, but this is what happened. It actually took me 8 years to correct the mistake lol but I guess that’s life eh? You live and you learn, this was an 11 million dollar mistake for me. I mentioned thinking about all the what if’s, and honestly that amount of money changes people. I look at my life now and I’m pretty damn lucky and unbelievably blessed. I’ll just make 11 mil some other way 😎

[Lucius]

I believe that it was a vendor under the name of “Cottonwood Vending” or today known as Coin BTM operating primarily out of NY. They had a way to purchase the coins through mobile phones at the time or something like this. You can either believe me or not, but this is what happened.

Anything is possible, but that someone walked the park in 2010 and sold Bitcoin to complete strangers really sounds pretty amazing - and even more so that your friend Joe already thought it was a scam - at a time when really few people even knew that Bitcoin existed. I wouldn't say you weren't lucky, you just didn't listen to yourself and do what you wanted at first - so Joe is to blame for everything

[jaberwock]

Well, some of us in one way or the other have stories on how we missed the early train. I am also among those with similar stories, although mine is entirely different and has to do with getting scammed. It happened around 2015, so not as early as yours that happened in 2010, but at least I know very well that I could get one Bitcoin at a price between 100 and 200 bucks, as the price was fluctuating around these two prices.

So, I was still new and was getting to know about Bitcoin, I didn’t know much about how I am going to sell my bitcoin then, since a lot of people around were just making use of p2p, I decided to also make use of it.

So, luckily I got $200 worth of bitcoin which I planned to keep, but after a while I decided to sell it so I can get full understanding on how it works and then invest back again. Around then there are lots of people around me calling bitcoin a scam, but I never used to believe them. Hence, when I tried selling the small money I had in my wallet, I got scammed, that was it, I gave up. I couldn’t even tell my friends and family that I was scammed, because they all warned me lol. I just kept it to myself. But after a year I decided to look back into it, and that was how I got back into it again.

[hugeblack]

It was always too late, as many friends said that the train was too late when the price became above $ 10,000, and today $ 10,000 is a small amount to buy bitcoin, so the value of $ 50,000 might be cheap to buy bitcoin in the future.
It's a great story, and it tells us that spending a little money on new and unfamiliar things may be better than spending a new game.

[tread93]

Interesting story. Maybe you should expand it to a book?

Well, I do have a lot of stories! Also quite a few bitcoin related stories as well. I’ve always wanted to write a book also. Maybe I will.

[tread93]

I believe that it was a vendor under the name of “Cottonwood Vending” or today known as Coin BTM operating primarily out of NY. They had a way to purchase the coins through mobile phones at the time or something like this. You can either believe me or not, but this is what happened.

Anything is possible, but that someone walked the park in 2010 and sold Bitcoin to complete strangers really sounds pretty amazing - and even more so that your friend Joe already thought it was a scam - at a time when really few people even knew that Bitcoin existed. I wouldn't say you weren't lucky, you just didn't listen to yourself and do what you wanted at first - so Joe is to blame for everything

Yeah, i mean honestly if you watch that Banking on bitcoin documentary on Netflix it shows all these folks who were buying and selling bitcoin in NY around that same time, that’s when I was there and I believe that it was right when Shrems business was just starting to take off. Nd yeah, Joe totally screwed me 😂😂😂 I recently called Joe and Carol and told them this story probably 6 months ago now.  I told Joe I’m never taking financial advice from him again and that he owes me his corvette 😂😂😂

[tread93]

Well, some of us in one way or the other have stories on how we missed the early train. I am also among those with similar stories, although mine is entirely different and has to do with getting scammed. It happened around 2015, so not as early as yours that happened in 2010, but at least I know very well that I could get one Bitcoin at a price between 100 and 200 bucks, as the price was fluctuating around these two prices.

So, I was still new and was getting to know about Bitcoin, I didn’t know much about how I am going to sell my bitcoin then, since a lot of people around were just making use of p2p, I decided to also make use of it.

So, luckily I got $200 worth of bitcoin which I planned to keep, but after a while I decided to sell it so I can get full understanding on how it works and then invest back again. Around then there are lots of people around me calling bitcoin a scam, but I never used to believe them. Hence, when I tried selling the small money I had in my wallet, I got scammed, that was it, I gave up. I couldn’t even tell my friends and family that I was scammed, because they all warned me lol. I just kept it to myself. But after a year I decided to look back into it, and that was how I got back into it again.

Hey man, that’s pretty wild- thank you for sharing. I think to some extent nearly everyone has been scammed one way or another. Good for you getting back into it. It’s tough because scammers are more so at large than they’ve ever been. Unfortunately Bitcoin has only propelled scams.

[tread93]

It was always too late, as many friends said that the train was too late when the price became above $ 10,000, and today $ 10,000 is a small amount to buy bitcoin, so the value of $ 50,000 might be cheap to buy bitcoin in the future.
It's a great story, and it tells us that spending a little money on new and unfamiliar things may be better than spending a new game.

Hard to time the markets lol. That’s right, 50k will be looked at as super cheap in the future it’s inevitable. Thanks for the complement, it’s definitely fun to tell it, not as fun looking at how much money I would have had tho 🤣 You gotta risk it to get that biscuit.

[n786]

I hope bitcoin will be unban on pakistan soon

[Obito]

No point regretting things, the important thing was that you are already here and you got big profit brcause you have been stacking sats for a long time now and I think that it is a feat that is hard to match because most hodlers can only do around 6 months or so before selling. Your story is pretty cool, I don't have any to share since I am a homebody that rarely goes out.