What was your first impression of how Bitcoin works?

[iBaba]

Everyone is very accustomed to the banking system, where you can always contact the support service or pension office and complain that money has disappeared from the account, but in the world of cryptocurrencies, as you correctly noted, we ourselves bear full responsibility, if someone has lost the keywords for restoring a Bitcoin wallet, then no tears and no support service, because they will not be able to help in any way. Therefore, cryptocurrencies teach us to be very independent and careful.

I completely agree. I have a friend who basically introduced me to the world of cryptocurrencies. He once got a lot of ETH practically for free, but then he forgot where he had stored the seed phrases for the wallet. For a long time, he tried to figure out how to regain access to it, but unfortunately, he never succeeded. Sometimes our own carelessness prevents us from becoming very wealthy,this is a clear example from my life.

So could one resolve that the coming of bitcoin has assisted many people to become more Responsible with handling their assets because what seemed to be underrated before which includes the responsibility of holding our assets. I remember when we were growing up, our parents used to store their money through different ways, on metals, digging grounds , etc. Then was the era where they saved their moneies at homes and didn't take them to the banks because only a few of them believed in the banks then but as things got better and times came when the people started trusting on the banks and started storing their money there. Now comes a time when people are tired of.storing their funds in banks and are now using other Digital alternative means to store their funds like the BTC, ETH, SOL among others

[Distinctin]

I have always seen and heard from the news that bitcoin is a get-rich quick scheme, and that the more you risk your funds with it, the bigger the losses you will endure in the end. That’s my first impression about bitcoin.

However, when I started learning in the forum, despite of those claims made by majority of the government that bitcoin is scammer’s and criminal’s tool, I have come to understood the real essence and purpose of bitcoin and why it becomes a threat to the existing government. Bitcoin is decentralized, bitcoin can thrive on its own, so there’s no need for third party for its survival. And that’s what the people want, total independence from the government financially and economically.

[terrific]

I have always seen and heard from the news that bitcoin is a get-rich quick scheme, and that the more you risk your funds with it, the bigger the losses you will endure in the end. That’s my first impression about bitcoin.

Not for me, but for the friends that I have introduced Bitcoin with. That's what they have also thought of.
That it's like a get rich scheme and then all you have to do is to do nothing. While the latter part is right but you need to understand how the basics go.
Like how volatile it is and from there, that's how we're earning. I believe that many of us have that first bad impression on it.
But for me, I think that I've seen the greater opportunity of what Bitcoin has to become as a leader in the tech and financial sector.

[Tinyphilus]

Good to be here. Read and observed the forum since I joined and must say I like how detailed the discussions here are compared to social media platforms. As a beginner I noticed some topics are mentioned a lot like wallets, security nd scams but I still feel there are always new perspectives. For instance my first impression of bitcoin is that it is more about personal responsibility than anything else. If you loose your keys, you loose your coins and that feels different from banks. For those who have been in the game longer, what was your first impression when you realized how it actually works?

To be honest, my first impression of Bitcoin was very scary and that's why I was afraid to invest in Bitcoin at that time. Even though I invested in Bitcoin, I was initially afraid of Bitcoin wallet management. But gradually I got used to everything and Bitcoin seems to me to be the most secure. Because there is no authorization required to make a transaction here, I am the controller of my Bitcoin. So there can be nothing more secure than this. Those who are still confused about Bitcoin are far behind. And I think the first impression of Bitcoin was very scary for everyone who came to Bitcoin early.

I can relate completely cuz at first the thought that people can't erase erase a mistake or recover lost keys feels like a big risk but along the line becomes clear that same feature is what makes Bitcoin most secure. The interesting part is how fear turns into confidence once you give yourself the chance to understand the system.
Do you think this first impression/fear is one of the major reasons why adoption of Bitcoin is slower in some places? Cuz I've met quite a number of people which that fear/impression discouraged them even before reaching the point of understanding.

[Tinyphilus]

For those who have been in the game longer, what was your first impression when you realized how it actually works?

Well, it was a while ago, but it was something unfamiliar and complicated, yet exciting at the same time. Seeing that you could send money to the other side of the globe anonymously through a system that didn't depend on banks or governments, and that had variable transaction times (depending on the fees used, or if there is a huge dump of transactions just when you send yours), was all quite different and left me puzzled. But the more I learned, the more sense it all made.

I can't agree less. Sometimes the best things are the ones that feel confusing at first. I also tink that puzzled state of mind is actually necessary in the sense that it filters out individuals who are not ready to take personal responsibility.

[BitGoba]

Good to be here. Read and observed the forum since I joined and must say I like how detailed the discussions here are compared to social media platforms. As a beginner I noticed some topics are mentioned a lot like wallets, security nd scams but I still feel there are always new perspectives. For instance my first impression of bitcoin is that it is more about personal responsibility than anything else. If you loose your keys, you loose your coins and that feels different from banks. For those who have been in the game longer, what was your first impression when you realized how it actually works?

It took me a long time to understand Bitcoin. At first, I didn’t have much information only what mainstream media was pushing,the narrative about blockchain as a cutting-edge technology, crypto trading, and getting rich quickly. In the beginning, it all seemed meaningless.It wasn’t until some people recommended that I read Bitcoin Standard that things finally started to make sense.  In the beginning, I thought it looked like some kind of scam, something meaningless. But as I went further down the rabbit hole and started studying money, I realized that banks and fiat currency are actually the real scam  and Bitcoin is the solution A protection against fraud. .I said to myself,Oh God, how did I not see this earlier How do other people not see it

And then you feel the urge to tell everyone  your family, friends, acquaintances, people on forums. You try to explain it to everyone and wake them up from the matrix. But for some reason, they just can’t grasp it, don’t understand, and don’t see what you see. This leads to frustration.

[mirakal]

Good to be here. Read and observed the forum since I joined and must say I like how detailed the discussions here are compared to social media platforms. As a beginner I noticed some topics are mentioned a lot like wallets, security nd scams but I still feel there are always new perspectives. For instance my first impression of bitcoin is that it is more about personal responsibility than anything else. If you loose your keys, you loose your coins and that feels different from banks. For those who have been in the game longer, what was your first impression when you realized how it actually works?

Risky—that is how I viewed Bitcoin before. Some say that our first impression could be wrong. Well, not all the time because we can't deny the fact that Bitcoin is not a safe asset but rather a risky one. Yes, for many people who lost access to their wallets, they could no longer recover their BTC. It is considered a loss forever. That is why in crypto investment, we don't just know how to buy/see, but also we need to learn more about how to safeguard our BTC.

[peter0425]

For instance my first impression of bitcoin is that it is more about personal responsibility than anything else.

Well you were already on the right track. That’s exactly it since bitcoin was about personal independence and not depending on any third parties so it meant you had to do everything yourself.

If you loose your keys, you loose your coins and that feels different from banks. For those who have been in the game longer, what was your first impression when you realized how it actually works?

When I finally realized how it works, I was able to appreciate how much value is in the community. Not only financially but when talking about privacy as well.

[Mahanton]

Everyone is very accustomed to the banking system, where you can always contact the support service or pension office and complain that money has disappeared from the account, but in the world of cryptocurrencies, as you correctly noted, we ourselves bear full responsibility, if someone has lost the keywords for restoring a Bitcoin wallet, then no tears and no support service, because they will not be able to help in any way. Therefore, cryptocurrencies teach us to be very independent and careful.

I completely agree. I have a friend who basically introduced me to the world of cryptocurrencies. He once got a lot of ETH practically for free, but then he forgot where he had stored the seed phrases for the wallet. For a long time, he tried to figure out how to regain access to it, but unfortunately, he never succeeded. Sometimes our own carelessness prevents us from becoming very wealthy,this is a clear example from my life.

So could one resolve that the coming of bitcoin has assisted many people to become more Responsible with handling their assets because what seemed to be underrated before which includes the responsibility of holding our assets. I remember when we were growing up, our parents used to store their money through different ways, on metals, digging grounds , etc. Then was the era where they saved their moneies at homes and didn't take them to the banks because only a few of them believed in the banks then but as things got better and times came when the people started trusting on the banks and started storing their money there. Now comes a time when people are tired of.storing their funds in banks and are now using other Digital alternative means to store their funds like the BTC, ETH, SOL among others

Cryptocurrencies have introduced a level of personal responsibility that is completely different from traditional banking losing access to a wallet or forgetting seed phrases means there is no one to turn to for help unlike banks where customer service can reverse mistakes this creates a culture of carefulness and self-reliance every transaction and every storage decision is fully on the individual. Over time this responsibility changes how people think about their assets it encourages planning, backups, and disciplined management of funds people who grew up with physical savings or traditional banks are now learning to combine that experience with the independence required in crypto wallets digital assets push individuals to be more organized and accountable because mistakes cannot be undone this shift also teaches respect for security and the value of proper handling which can benefit other areas of financial life beyond cryptocurrencies.

[Alone055]

Good to be here. Read and observed the forum since I joined and must say I like how detailed the discussions here are compared to social media platforms. As a beginner I noticed some topics are mentioned a lot like wallets, security nd scams but I still feel there are always new perspectives. For instance my first impression of bitcoin is that it is more about personal responsibility than anything else. If you loose your keys, you loose your coins and that feels different from banks. For those who have been in the game longer, what was your first impression when you realized how it actually works?

It took me some time before I realized or understood how Bitcoin really worked, because when I first came to know about it, I was simply curious and shocked at the same time, thinking that a currency could have such a high value even though its value was very low back then, but still higher than any currency that I had ever known. For the few months when I was a beginner, I didn't even know anything about non-custodial wallets, and I was using web wallets or custodial wallets at first. And later, I came to know about non-custodial wallets and how we are not in actual control of our funds when they are stored in a custodial wallet.

So, you learn things slowly over time if you have an interest for it, after spending some time in the industry, if you are constantly involved, and you love gathering knowledge and understanding how things work, it wouldn't take you long, especially nowadays when there are so many resources for people to learn from, and so many forums and places for discussions.

You are right for saying that it's person's own responsibility to take care of their security. If you don't bother understanding everything properly and lose money, it's your own fault.

[internetional]

The first thing that impressed me about Bitcoin was the ability to trace where the money I gave to my child or to the government was actually spent! Just imagine: being able to check what taxes are really used for! That would truly be a revolution!

And then I learned about multisig and the possibility of preventing my taxes from being spent on things I don’t want to support… Wow! That’s a dream come true!

[adaseb]

When I first heard about Bitcoin, it was usually in a negative way if you went to many of the finance news websites back in 2011 2012 they usually said bitcoin was a scam and it was very volatile and it’s very risky so like most people I thought it was a scam.

But then years later, a friend told me about bitcoin mining and I got intrigued. I thought it was some type of virus by running the mining software, but then I learned that you can buy an ASIC and then what ended up happening is I learned how proof of works and I found it fascinating and that’s when I realize that this has a good future and it is truly the future of finance.

[Miles2006]

For instance my first impression of bitcoin is that it is more about personal responsibility than anything else. If you loose your keys, you loose your coins and that feels different from banks. For those who have been in the game longer, what was your first impression when you realized how it actually works?

You’re actually right, having this as a first impression sounds nice like everyone I have seen had negative impression about bitcoin to an extend criticizing bitcoin not until they got to understand bitcoin. When I heard about bitcoin for the first time my impression was bitcoin is just a digital currency you can use for purchase as well investment choice although I never believed in bitcoin investment. There’s still more to learn as time goes you’ll learn bitcoin is not just about being a currency etc. In terms of responsibility bitcoin is an option seen as freedom, free from the bank system definitely the bank no longer get to keep your money more important you save using bitcoin where it can add value unlike fiat that depreciates, learning about bitcoin is easy.

[shield132]

Good to be here. Read and observed the forum since I joined and must say I like how detailed the discussions here are compared to social media platforms. As a beginner I noticed some topics are mentioned a lot like wallets, security nd scams but I still feel there are always new perspectives. For instance my first impression of bitcoin is that it is more about personal responsibility than anything else. If you loose your keys, you loose your coins and that feels different from banks. For those who have been in the game longer, what was your first impression when you realized how it actually works?

My first impression of Bitcoin was that I thought it was a super anonymous cryptocurrency and if you used it, no one would be able to track your financial activities but later, as blockchain analysis technologies developed, I understood that it's possible to track Bitcoin transactions and I also realised that blockchain is an open book where every transaction is publicly recorded.
I also want to mention my second impression. My second impression was that with Bitcoin, you are your own bank and it's actually true because if the government freezes all of your bank accounts, they'll never be able to freeze your cryptocurrencies because it's decentralised and they don't have control over it.

[bitzizzix]

My first impression of Bitcoin came from some friends who were involved in it. They stated that Bitcoin was a digital currency that could be used like money, with us in complete control or acting as a bank. They also said that Bitcoin could be used as a store of value, a hedge against inflation, and an alternative payment method for fast and cheap transfers worldwide.
All of this confused me, but as time went on and I continued to research further, I became intrigued. My enthusiasm grew. As long as I owned Bitcoin and its price continued to rise, I was thrilled because it provided surprising returns. However, at the time, I was so excited that I immediately sold it, tempted by the profits I was making, but that was then.

[Wake Up]

At first, I didn't realize the importance of personal precautions in such a situation. I saved special words in the notes section of my phone. Later, when I got involved, I realized how important these were and decided to write them down on paper and keep them in a safe place. If we don't take our own precautions, our wallets will never be safe. Of course, we can also take additional precautions with multisig. This way, my wallet can't be emptied without approval not only from us but also from others we trust.

[Man of peace]

My first impression here is that, everything about Bitcoin are being discussed here and question and answers is allowed here,for everyone both beginnigers and older people to ask any questions and you will receive your answers immediately, and it is more concern in enlightened people about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general, which makes a lot people to become self employed,by engaging his or herself into trading or investments

Again it makes me to understand that there's other places where one can save his or her money which is called wallet and it stands as bank which no one have control over it as long as your seed phrase is intight..

Another was that my naira is possibly converted into dollar through the purchase of Bitcoin and can as well converted into naira whenever I want to..

[dezoel]

I honestly did not know. Why? Because I could not perfectly understand how it can't be copied. To me, "what if I make my own bitcoin and sell that?" was a serious question, and while there were many people who explained the situation and talked about why that can't be done, I always still got confused.

The main reason was blockchain, that was the part I did not get, because yes, you can create a fork of bitcoin, and at the time I did not know what fork means, but I just assumed I can create yet another bitcoin with a blockchain, and name it bitcoin, and then when I send something to a person, it will say bitcoin on it, and that's how I could be scammed, I was afraid. Then I learned, blockchains don't work that way, but took me like a month of convincing to be able to feel at ease about buying some.

[Cookdata]

Good to be here. Read and observed the forum since I joined and must say I like how detailed the discussions here are compared to social media platforms. As a beginner I noticed some topics are mentioned a lot like wallets, security nd scams but I still feel there are always new perspectives. For instance my first impression of bitcoin is that it is more about personal responsibility than anything else. If you loose your keys, you loose your coins and that feels different from banks. For those who have been in the game longer, what was your first impression when you realized how it actually works?

I'm impressed that many times I have always think about utxo model, I used think that when Bitcoin is sent to your wallet address, the received Bitcoin is added to the already balance like the way bank account model works, it took me a very long time to understood how it works and now that I knew it, it's one thing I can see that to explain to anyone new to Bitcoin and they are going to understand it without regurgitating it again, that's how good my head is with UTXOs.

Another is the fact that you can hash public keys 2 times to get a short version and encode it to an address is very fascinating. Same wallet addresses receive Bitcoin, same public wallet address get hash during transaction to checkmate the wallet address before a transaction will be valid on top of Bitcoin stack. Sometimes, one will think that Satoshi is a wizard, no person has ever created similar thing that comes close to Bitcoin and yet still successful.

[wozzek23]

Good to be here. Read and observed the forum since I joined and must say I like how detailed the discussions here are compared to social media platforms. As a beginner I noticed some topics are mentioned a lot like wallets, security nd scams but I still feel there are always new perspectives. For instance my first impression of bitcoin is that it is more about personal responsibility than anything else. If you loose your keys, you loose your coins and that feels different from banks. For those who have been in the game longer, what was your first impression when you realized how it actually works?

Risky—that is how I viewed Bitcoin before. Some say that our first impression could be wrong. Well, not all the time because we can't deny the fact that Bitcoin is not a safe asset but rather a risky one. Yes, for many people who lost access to their wallets, they could no longer recover their BTC. It is considered a loss forever. That is why in crypto investment, we don't just know how to buy/see, but also we need to learn more about how to safeguard our BTC.

Well, you were not wrong . It is true that bitcoin is risky. That doesn't mean we shouldn't invest into it, but it is definitely risky and it's quite volatile as well. We should realize that this is going to take a while for people to calm down when there are big market movements as well. Because of that, I do not really see this changing anytime soon, it's going to be a quite common thing to have different approaches.

I feel the risk is worth the reward, because we can make so much money from it. Not everyone agrees, and some people do not invest, or even if they invest they are trigger happy and get out the moment they see it go down even just a bit. This is why not everyone sees bitcoin the way we see, they are all different approaches.