[NOSTALGIA] Early Bitcoin Users (2010–2013) — Share Your First BTC Story 🧡

[Angel Salvador]

Hey OGs,

I'm currently working on an archive project about the early days of Bitcoin — a kind of nostalgic retrospective on the 2010–2013 era, when mining was still done on CPUs/GPUs, when 1 BTC was worth cents, and when most people around us thought we were crazy.

I'd love to hear from the pioneers:

— How did you first hear about Bitcoin?
— What was your very first transaction or mining experience like?
— Do you have a funny, surprising or memorable story from those early days?
— What do you wish you had done differently? 😅

I'm collecting these stories for an article dedicated to Bitcoin nostalgia and the human side of the early community. Every story matters — big or small.

Drop your memories below. Let's keep that history alive. 🙏

The Archive : https://bitcoinnostalgia.org/

[Catenaccio]

I'm collecting these stories for an article dedicated to Bitcoin nostalgia and the human side of the early community. Every story matters — big or small.

Drop your memories below. Let's keep that history alive. 🙏

The Archive : https://bitcoinnostalgia.org/

It's interesting to read shared stories from Bitcoin Ogs or people joined this market recent years, as these stories will become og stories next 10 or 20 years. It's personal choice to share your personal story or keep it privately for your own privacy. If people want privacy, let's be very careful with what they write, share online as it can be archived over the Internet, not only at bitcoinnostalgia.org website.

[sergiorus]

Maybe it should be extended to 2015 or 2016?
Not that I would have anything to share then either, but I wouldn't mind to hear some stories from that era as well.

[Nathrixxx]

Don't let me deceive you because this thread is going to be a dry land if you consider only from 2010 to 2013 early Birds investors, moreover only few of them are probably active on this forum and still out of them, some are mostly active on the wall observer thread than even the Bitcoin discussion thread, so you may not get enough reply as you may need it except you consider within 2010 to this time when most of us would have been into Bitcoin.

[ene1980]

~
— How did you first hear about Bitcoin?

I think I heard about Bitcoin around late 2012 or early 2013 and started mining.

— What was your very first transaction or mining experience like?

Started mining from my desktop. If I remember correctly, I was pool mining with 50BTC pool until it was compromised and I suffered some losses. After that I switched to multiple other pools like Eligius which had no fees, BTC Guild, P2Pool etc until I shifted completely to alts following the emergence of ASICs.

— Do you have a funny, surprising or memorable story from those early days?

It was a fun and strange ride. Early on everyone was proud to be a pioneer of a new technology, had mutual camaraderie and a goal and then saw huge debates, friends going sour, conflict of ideologies and many more. I made a lot of friends in this space, but majority of them are not active here anymore.

When you reach a point in your life, where constant battles and arguments does not mean anything and just drains your mental health, you learn to step away from it.

— What do you wish you had done differently? 😅

I would change nothing, every experience I had in this space was precious and helped me immensely in what I have in my personal life.

Getting rid of all my old hardware junk was a challenge.  
 

 

[JaanusRaim]

Maybe it should be extended to 2015 or 2016?
Not that I would have anything to share then either, but I wouldn't mind to hear some stories from that era as well.

Post-2013 was a fully different era because due to the World record that Bitcoin hit (the best profitability measured in usd of all times - around 10 000 % per year in 2013) the mainstream talked about BTC very much and reached everyone who was interested in investing.
Even "The Times" wrote about Bitcoin at the end of 2013.
BTC went mainstream in 2013, altcoins in 2017.