My Early Bitcoin Journey and the Lesson I Learned the Hard Way

[freedomgo]

Just sharing a bit of my experience… I was already around during the early days of Bitcoin. I had a stable job and a steady income, and I thought I was being smart with money. I also found some side hustles online that paid me in Bitcoin -  not huge amounts, but it added up over time.

The problem was, I didn’t really see its value back then. I ended up using most of those coins for gambling, while the money I saved from my salary just sat there, slowly losing value because of inflation.

If I only knew what Bitcoin would become, I would’ve held every sat I earned. So, learn from my mistake.. sometimes the money that feels “extra” now could be the one that changes your life later.

[Oshosondy]

The mistake that you made is not that you gambled with the little bitcoin that you have, the mistake was that you hold your money in fiat in bank and not convert it to bitcoin and hold it.

If there is life, there is hope. We make mistake to have a better future if we know the mistake and start to avoid it. Bear market will still come, you can hold bitcoin instead if that time comes.

[Porfirii]

In retrospect it is easy to think that the obvious decision would've been to accumulate bitcoin when they were cheap, and we all would live a dear life now. But the every day life is very different, and even if you didn't gamble with that "extra" money, the debt, expenses, long bear markets and numerous crashes in the last years make it very difficult to have strong hands and hodl.

You're not alone freedomgo. Think that in life, as in gambling, it's almost all a matter of chance: Bitcoin could've failed to governments or other cryptos, and you wouldn't regret spending it.

We all want the price to go up, but sometimes, the fact that what we want happens, has a bitter taste too.

[Fiatless]

The problem was, I didn’t really see its value back then. I ended up using most of those coins for gambling, while the money I saved from my salary just sat there, slowly losing value because of inflation.

If I only knew what Bitcoin would become, I would’ve held every sat I earned. So, learn from my mistake.. sometimes the money that feels “extra” now could be the one that changes your life later.

I have heard similar stories of not taking advantage of the early days of Bitcoin when the price was cheap. I don't blame people because it was difficult to believe that this strange coin would grow to this level.

It's not too late to start accumulating. Signature campaigns are another good means to accumulate Bitcoin. Maybe some of us might look back after a few years and regret why we misuse the funds will get every week.  

[lovesmayfamilis]

You've literally repeated what I've written many times. I made the same mistake: I was working online, and I was offered Bitcoin for it. But I declined, not understanding their value or what I could do with them. However, now I know that even if I had Bitcoin back then, I would have, at best, exchanged it for fiat money. But I regret that I also had the opportunity to gamble with Bitcoin, and who knows, maybe I would have won something, but I didn't even do that. Thinking about something that could bring profit in the future never even occurred to me. So what happened, happened, and passed. You know, a lot of people talk about the value of Lego games these days. Does that mean we should be stocking up on them now?

[Ziskinberg]

That was back in the early days, when most of us didn’t really think it would grow this big. but are you sure you spent all of it on gambling?
There were so many opportunities back then, not just with bitcoin, but also with altcoins.

Me personally, I’m a gambler too. i lost some of my bitcoin earnings, mostly from signature campaigns, but at the same time, I managed to invest and hold a few for years.
so in a way, I still made a profit, even after losing some through gambling.

[blomen]

a mistake to avoid about bitcoin is mixing your bitcoin savings with gambling money.

bitcoin can provide a quick and easy way to gamble, and since it didn't have a high value on its own in the early days, it's understandable that you might make this mistake. almost no one could have predicted it would get this far.

to avoid making the same mistake in the future, you need to separate the bitcoin you own and use for investment -in short, the bitcoin you hold- from the money you use for gambling. the value of every satoshi you lose increases exponentially over the years, which is why this kind of regret is so painful.

[LogitechMouse]

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The problem was, I didn’t really see its value back then. I ended up using most of those coins for gambling, while the money I saved from my salary just sat there, slowly losing value because of inflation.

If I only knew what Bitcoin would become, I would’ve held every sat I earned. So, learn from my mistake.. sometimes the money that feels “extra” now could be the one that changes your life later.

Well, it's not only you that have the same experience. I also have the same one as well. This isn't particularly with regards to gambling, but with trading. I've been trading for quite some time as well, and of course lost significant amount of money already. I always imagine and ask myself "What if I just decided to hold those money that I used in trading in the past?" I would've hold more than what I'm holding right now.

Like in trading, I also lost some of my money in gambling as well using Bitcoins and some other altcoins as well. While I'm not an addicted gambler or somebody that's spending huge amounts of money on gambling, I still lost some cryptocurrencies, and of course that also adds up to my losses in trading. If I just held those coins that I lost, my life would've been different from what it is right now.

Dwelling in the past will not change everything. What's important now is we learn from our mistakes, and we will not be doing it again in the future.

[stadus]

a mistake to avoid about bitcoin is mixing your bitcoin savings with gambling money.

Gambling money could be bitcoin too, because if people didn’t gamble early on, bitcoin adoption wouldn’t have grown this much. I once read a topic saying we actually owe a lot of bitcoin’s early popularity to the gamblers, since their demand helped increase its value and usage.

so it’s not really wrong to gamble and invest at the same time using bitcoin, as long as you know how to manage it.
Just like with fiat, you can divide your funds ..  some for savings, some for investments, and some for emergencies. the same principle can apply to bitcoin too.

[Marykeller]

Just sharing a bit of my experience… I was already around during the early days of Bitcoin. I had a stable job and a steady income, and I thought I was being smart with money. I also found some side hustles online that paid me in Bitcoin -  not huge amounts, but it added up over time.

The problem was, I didn’t really see its value back then. I ended up using most of those coins for gambling, while the money I saved from my salary just sat there, slowly losing value because of inflation.

If I only knew what Bitcoin would become, I would’ve held every sat I earned. So, learn from my mistake.. sometimes the money that feels “extra” now could be the one that changes your life later.

It happens at times that anything we find less valuable initially, we don't regard it. It will be many years after we learn that we made a huge mistake of mismanaging those things we thought were less valuable, and are now valuable. Those other things we value by then are the things that are less valuable currently. However, that's part of human life experience and mistakes. We learn through it all that each offer given should be utilized very well, even if to save a little from it, not to see the offer as less value that won't amount to anything in the future.

What is stated above, are the same mistake some people are doing up to today. They are not seeing the potential Bitcoin has. They are being focused on fiat because that's what is widely used and acceptable in their country.

[moneystery]

In the early days of Bitcoin, many people gambled their Bitcoins on gambling sites, perhaps they were like you at the time, not realizing that Bitcoin could be as valuable as it is today, so they gambled without hesitation.
However, as time went on, many of them regretted it because the price of Bitcoin actually increased significantly. The Bitcoin they gambled at the time was worth a few dollars, now it might be worth thousands of dollars... and they regretted why they gambled away their Bitcoins, and now it's difficult for them to get any more.
So, this can be a lesson for all of us to avoid making similar mistakes and to ignore Bitcoin's long-term potential.

[Ndabagi01]

Many gambling companies that allowed the use of bitcoin for gambling will be sitting on lots of bitcoin now. They may not have known about the potential of bitcoin too, but since they’re gambling companies, they won’t mind taken any currency from you as long as it was valuable then. Many made same mistake in the past, but that’s not the end because bitcoin always gives an opportunity to still get on and benefit from it in the long term. I was not part of the early days holder of bitcoin, but if I was, I may have as well done same thing as you because of its value then. You haven’t done anything wrong, that opportunity wasn’t just for you and a lot will come again when you learn from your mistakes/experience.

[Strongkored]

If I only knew what Bitcoin would become, I would’ve held every sat I earned. So, learn from my mistake.. sometimes the money that feels “extra” now could be the one that changes your life later.

If we had known how Bitcoin would be in the future, certainly more people would have become rich, because I remember some faucet payouts giving 1000 satoshis per claim, and also several PTC (Paid To Click) sites that paid in BTC with considerable value. Moreover, those who have been active in this forum for a long time, signature campaigns paid a lot for the current value.
But that is life because no one knows what will happen in the future, so spending the Bitcoin obtained became normal. Even now, seeing Bitcoin drop sharply brings doubt and perhaps some regret for not selling it at $125K.
While gambling with Bitcoin I only did in the last few years when crypto casinos started to become popular and became commonplace to play there, so I don't regret using Bitcoin for gambling.

[bitbollo]

we have seen similar story here in the forum (including an huge scam few years ago...). You have learned tons of experience and info about bitcoin.
It's like you have pay for b expensive course...

In general gambling with bitcoin should be reduced at maximum possible. I can understand your feelings, but these have been other times - it was somewhat "hard" to spend btc in a clear market.
For sure this has been a kind of lesson. We know very well how to recognize the value by itself.

[Wapfika]

I believe most of us here that manage to enter Bitcoin during the early price do the same thing because back then we are all just having fun on Bitcoin without any assurance that the price will skyrocket to this current level.

I have a lot of Bitcoin too that wasted on ponzi back then due to greediness to increase it more rapidly.

I have no regrets though since I do enjoy my early days on Bitcoin despite those losses because that’s part of my experience that I will cherish forever.

[Slow death]

I believe that what you are saying happened to many people, in my case, for example, I also had some problems. In the past, when I started with sports betting, I lost a lot for a consecutive month, but then I was very lucky to have won and won a lot all at once. I had promised that I would take all that money and not use it, I would hodl for many years, but when the price of Bitcoin fell a lot in 2020, I didn't have faith and sold everything for fiat and put it in the bank and then started spending every day. The fact is that years later the price of Bitcoin rose a lot and today I really regret that decision I made. But life is like that, we learn from our mistakes.

[Findingnemo]

The ocean is nothing but a lot of drops of water, so in future if you think you are just spending a little then think about whether you need that spending and if you do then just go ahead, no need to stop spending at all just to buy bitcoin since ultimate purpose of money is to have what we need.

This needs to be in gambling section?

[Tungbulu]

That’s indeed a valuable lesson, and one that a lot of people here should really learn. I’m sure you’re not the only who regrets misusing their sats back then when Bitcoin wasn’t worth much, the most important thing here shouldn’t be the mistake you made, it should be the lesson you learned from that mistake and how you’ve chosen to utilize that lesson. It’s quite unfortunate that many people who missed the opportunity back then are still reluctant today about accumulating some sats, still giving the exact same excuse they were giving years back, “I already missed it, it’s too expensive now” this is no longer about the opportunity because the opportunity is just right there, it’s now more about the mindset and if they continue with that mindset, I’m not sure we can call it a mistake anymore because the same mistake will keep on repeating over and over again, except they do something about the mindset.

[Mr. Magkaisa]

Just sharing a bit of my experience… I was already around during the early days of Bitcoin. I had a stable job and a steady income, and I thought I was being smart with money. I also found some side hustles online that paid me in Bitcoin -  not huge amounts, but it added up over time.

The problem was, I didn’t really see its value back then. I ended up using most of those coins for gambling, while the money I saved from my salary just sat there, slowly losing value because of inflation.

If I only knew what Bitcoin would become, I would’ve held every sat I earned. So, learn from my mistake.. sometimes the money that feels “extra” now could be the one that changes your life later.

I went on the same road, I did not save those coins and tokens, they just go to my wallet and exchange to FIAT and buy some goods.
I focus on my business and make more cash than crypto, now, I cant take back time
Nothing we can do but to move on and make it better

[rachael9385]

Just sharing a bit of my experience… I was already around during the early days of Bitcoin. I had a stable job and a steady income, and I thought I was being smart with money. I also found some side hustles online that paid me in Bitcoin -  not huge amounts, but it added up over time.

The problem was, I didn’t really see its value back then. I ended up using most of those coins for gambling, while the money I saved from my salary just sat there, slowly losing value because of inflation.

If I only knew what Bitcoin would become, I would’ve held every sat I earned. So, learn from my mistake.. sometimes the money that feels “extra” now could be the one that changes your life later.

A lot of people went down the same path and funny enough a lot of people are still going towards that direction even after all that experiences they have had or heard of over the years. You can't really blame yourself because no one can read the future, what has happened in the past cannot be corrected. what matters now is to move correctly, if you are still gambling with crypto consistently then you haven't learned anything