What motivated those who invested in bitcoin in 2012? fate or foresight?

[Curious T]

It's more like "Insight". They saw what Bitcoin was, had a deep understanding of it and saw how impressive it was. They saw the role that it could play in the financial system. People who were in Bitcoin as early as then were people who understood Bitcoin and how it could work as an alternative money, unlike now that we have people who don't understand anything about it other than the fact that if they hold Bitcoin for a while the will make profit.

Even though some believe it would be worth a fortune in future, they still wanted to use it as money too. If all they cared about was how much it would be worth in the future, Laszlo would not use 10,000 bitcoins to buy 2 pizzas. He would have kept his bitcoin and bought the pizzas with dollars instead.

[ImGenius]

Most people who bought or earned Bitcoin around 2012 have sold them and used them when needed but there are some who are continuously holding them because they have seen the potential of Bitcoin as a unique financial system that is very useful for all kinds of people.
No one can control it not like fiat which can be controlled by the government. Bitcoin supply will never increasebwhich is why its value will increasing as it gets adopted around the world.

[Nrcewker]

To be honest, back in 2012, Bitcoin wasn’t really treated as an investment. People saw it more as an online payment method. At that time, payment options were limited, and Bitcoin became quite popular because it allowed for instant and anonymous transactions.

I still remember that many of my friends got into Bitcoin because, back in 2015–2016, we were able to gamble using it. Instead of receiving fiat currency, we used to get paid in Bitcoin when we made profits.

Now, if someone had held onto their coins from that time, then seeing Bitcoin cross the $10,000 mark would have definitely made them believe in its potential. I still remember giving away 0.5 or 0.6 BTC to friends, and at that time, Bitcoin was worth only around $400.

[SatoPrincess]

Early bitcoin investors were looking for the secure and saved system to keep their money but it was not really a kind of investment but to save their funds as a decentralized system but it was discovered later that the savings became increased and that motivated more people to invest in it. And it is written in the whitepaper clearly that bitcoin is an online coin to buy things and pay for service online.

I don’t believe early bitcoin investors bought bitcoin because they were looking for a “secure system” to save their money. I think many of the early investors were developers and people who were willing to risk their funds on a technology whose future was uncertain. Also, bitcoin price was really cheap back then so it wasn’t much of a big risk to buy a few satoshis. I remember reading a story on bitcointalk about a high school that gave students prizes in bitcoin in the early days. I think to them they saw bitcoin similar to a gift card.

[uchegod-21]

To be honest, back in 2012, Bitcoin wasn’t really treated as an investment. People saw it more as an online payment method. At that time, payment options were limited, and Bitcoin became quite popular because it allowed for instant and anonymous transactions.

I still remember that many of my friends got into Bitcoin because, back in 2015–2016, we were able to gamble using it. Instead of receiving fiat currency, we used to get paid in Bitcoin when we made profits.

Now, if someone had held onto their coins from that time, then seeing Bitcoin cross the $10,000 mark would have definitely made them believe in its potential. I still remember giving away 0.5 or 0.6 BTC to friends, and at that time, Bitcoin was worth only around $400.

I think I quite agree with you that some people back then only saw Bitcoin as a payment platform. I didn't use Bitcoin back then, but I know quite well that during that period, some bad actors had started using Bitcoin for criminal purposes because they didn't want their identities revealed through bank transactions.

Bitcoin wasn't very attractive then (in terms of profitability), so many people were still doubtful about its future potential. However, the ideas of decentralization, privacy, and anonymity attracted some people, including criminals who used it as a means to hide their identities.

This definitely cannot be the only reason people got involved in Bitcoin back then, but we really can't know what was in the minds of those who invested in Bitcoin at the time. Everyone can only speak for themselves.

[goldkingcoiner]

I cannot believe so many people answer with a completely nonsense answer such as "fate" when it is obvious that they are simply risk taking investors or gamblers. When I first invested in Bitcoin, I did not understand how it really worked on any deep technical level nor did I even understand why decentralisation was such an important thing. Especially when it came to currency. I just took a risk because I saw how excited everyone else was about it. Only much later did I start reading and researching deeper into the entire matter.

Now I can fully understand why they were so excited.

Had I known back then what I know now.. I would have had calm nerves during each dump.

[vapourminer]

Whatever his reasons are  throwing off 10,000 btc for 2 boxes of pizza is wild

you dont get it

if he didnt do it it would of been wilder

[Akbarkoe]

i am curious to know just as you.
what was the motivating force that made the early adopters of bitcoin to invest in it?

was it due to fate which we can call luck or they had good judgment or foresight to know that it was a good project or they were just risk takers?
i really want to know what was going on in their mind

I agree more on the risk takers for this because in the early steps to try something unfamiliar, something they do not know thoroughly and something that even need to use real money to make a purchase in the market that is still very conventional to make web transactions in the past, so obviously they are risk takers.
The stage is interested, try, feel then settle after that believe, this pattern must be felt, basically they will never think that bitcoin will reach $100k but they are someone who has an interest in taking risks in exploration.

[Smartprofit]

i am curious to know just as you.
what was the motivating force that made the early adopters of bitcoin to invest in it?

was it due to fate which we can call luck or they had good judgment or foresight to know that it was a good project or they were just risk takers?
i really want to know what was going on in their mind

I think any of us can still try our hand at being a technological pioneer.🙋

Let's assume we live in the following paradigm: Heard about a new technology, tried it, experimented, drew conclusions, and then experimented further with new technological innovations...

That's exactly what the technological pioneers of 2011 did, in my opinion. They tried everything new. That's why they bought Bitcoin. Other people weren't so curious. They didn't care. That's why they didn't buy Bitcoin.

In 2011, I don't think most people could have predicted that the Bitcoin price would exceed $100,000 in 2025. People were attracted to Bitcoin by its cypherpunk idea and amazing technology.

Besides the romantics, there were also pragmatists among Bitcoin's pioneers.  They reasoned like this: "What if Bitcoin really does become an alternative to the modern financial system in the future? Then it will be incredibly valuable! Today I can buy Bitcoin for next to nothing, and in the future, thanks to Bitcoin, I might become a millionaire!"

Many people truly believed that Bitcoin would become an alternative to the traditional financial system. If someone had told them about Michael Saylor, they would have been very surprised.

[OcTradism]

I cannot believe so many people answer with a completely nonsense answer such as "fate" when it is obvious that they are simply risk taking investors or gamblers. When I first invested in Bitcoin, I did not understand how it really worked on any deep technical level nor did I even understand why decentralisation was such an important thing. Especially when it came to currency. I just took a risk because I saw how excited everyone else was about it. Only much later did I start reading and researching deeper into the entire matter.

Now I can fully understand why they were so excited.

Had I known back then what I know now.. I would have had calm nerves during each dump.

Many years ago, spending money to buy bitcoin and considering it as investment was more risky than doing this in 2026 or a little bit latest years. It's because in the past, there was more risk of failure of Bitcoin project and people who bought bitcoin were either strongly believing in Bitcoin because they already learned about it well, or just pure gamblers with enough greediness to take very high risk. After that, not all of them holding their bitcoins a long time, and likely many of them lost their bitcoins by did not back up wallets.

Many risks, a lot of challenge, and people who believed in Bitcoin, bought it and held it many years are truly deserved to get richer, not only millionaires but billionaires.

[macson]

I think there were several reasons why they invested in Bitcoin at the time. For example, some people bought it on a whim and then abandoned it. Then, years later, when the price of Bitcoin was higher, they were lucky enough to still have access to it and made a significant profit. Others had the foresight that Bitcoin would become a major asset in the future. Others took the risk of investing their money and hoped that Bitcoin's value would increase. We can't say that any single reason applies to everyone, because each person has their own motivations to buy Bitcoin at that time.

[MarryWithBTC]

Curiosity The curious ones wanted to know about an intangible money, and the curious ones are always the adopters of every new technology.

Foresight The likes of CZ falls under here. They read the whitepaper and understood how bitcoin will play out in the future.

Gamblers/Risk takers This set of people bought and sold when they had like x3. They might have re-bought also.

Believers Satoshi and the early developers belong here

The internet addicts They follow every trend on the internet

[TedMosby]

I am sure there are various reasons, depending on the person. Just like nowadays. We need to be specific about which group of people we're talking about.

I tried to Google people who started buying BTC in 2012. I found out that some of them were the Winklevoss twins. They began buying BTC in 2012 when it was trading at around $10 per coin.

A year later, they made an even bigger transaction. They bought $11M worth of BTC, around 120,000 BTC (roughly $120 per coin). They used the money they received from their settlement with Facebook after the lawsuit.

Roger Ver also started becoming an angel investor in some Bitcoin startup companies in 2012, even though he had already started buying BTC in 2011.

These are not regular people. They clearly were not gambling or casually taking risks with the big amount of money they had. IMO, they knew something we didn't know, or they were just visionaries with good foresight.

The catalysts could have been the first halving that happened in Nov 2012, the crisis in Europe that made BTC seem like a safe haven alternative, and the birth of Coinbase, which has now become one of the most influential exchanges in the world.

[bangjoe]

i am curious to know just as you.
what was the motivating force that made the early adopters of bitcoin to invest in it?

was it due to fate which we can call luck or they had good judgment or foresight to know that it was a good project or they were just risk takers?
i really want to know what was going on in their mind

Because every person's mind is different for sure from every choice on the poll there are people who do it based on it, like Indeed he is in destiny, he is curious, he is a risk taker, he intends investment, he is a gambler or a person who can see into the future, I think from each of these categories there is a person as a reason why they buy bitcoin.

The various thought backgrounds are very compound and like in your mind here, and the answer is correct without having to choose one of them as the right reason to describe Bitcoin's early adopters.

[Somegory]

The majority of those early investors are people who knew something, and the rest are those who have some Bitcoin and spent the most of it and decided to keep the rest, because let's be realistic, Bitcoin was very cheap, if you have $500 of Bitcoin back then and you decide to sell you can leave some.

Whenever I buy some coins like 1000 for cheap and it's time to sell, I always leave like 50 pieces behind, unless per 1 coin is very costly like in $50 range or more.

Some people are now remembering that they have left some Bitcoin on their laptop or PC at the time, even if it's 0.08BTC it still worth's alot today, I read one on Reddit where the guy sold 250 BTC and left 76BTC behind, he later found the private keys and shared the good news online.

[Stepstowealth]

Curiosity The curious ones wanted to know about an intangible money, and the curious ones are always the adopters of every new technology.

Foresight The likes of CZ falls under here. They read the whitepaper and understood how bitcoin will play out in the future.

Gamblers/Risk takers This set of people bought and sold when they had like x3. They might have re-bought also.

Believers Satoshi and the early developers belong here

The internet addicts They follow every trend on the internet

There is also a category of people who just had a lot of money at that point to throw around and they went ahead to invest in Bitcoin not because they were curious about it or understood the White Paper or were taking a risk with their money or even believed this Satoshi, they just did so because they wanted to try out something new and had the money to do it. Some of these persons later went on to understand the benefit of the decision they made in investing in Bitcoin even without knowledge later on when they acquired knowledge about it and discovered that they still had the Bitcoin that they invested in in their holds. Having a lot of money can be of a lot of benefits which includes you spending money or putting money into places without thinking too much about it because you have enough money to be able to accommodate the risk and putting money there will not stop you from doing other things with money.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

There could be many conditions that determine those that were can invest in Bitcoin in early days, it is also necessary for us to identify that not everyone can really take the risk we are taking or make the same decision with two as of then, and this is one of the reason why everyone cannot make the same achievement in life, because not everyone as the ability of taking an extra step to know more about something before they go ahead for it and also ensure doing this with an understanding and India maximum capacity to bear the risk.

[SOKO-DEKE]

i am curious to know just as you.
what was the motivating force that made the early adopters of bitcoin to invest in it?

was it due to fate which we can call luck or they had good judgment or foresight to know that it was a good project or they were just risk takers?
i really want to know what was going on in their mind

I believe that those who adopted Bitcoin early had different reasons for the adoption. Some people adopted Bitcoin in those early days because it was something new, while some people adopted it because they had the foresight that the coin would be valuable in the future. Some people also may adopted it simply because they were risk takers. So, there may be  different reasons.However, if we look closely, most of these early holders of Bitcoin were miners. They got their Bitcoin through mining and those who obtained their Bitcoin through mining in those early days definitely believed that something good was coming for Bitcoin,but it very possible they may not know that Bitcoin will game the value in this shot period of time.

[OcTradism]

To be honest, back in 2012, Bitcoin wasn’t really treated as an investment. People saw it more as an online payment method. At that time, payment options were limited, and Bitcoin became quite popular because it allowed for instant and anonymous transactions.

I still remember that many of my friends got into Bitcoin because, back in 2015–2016, we were able to gamble using it. Instead of receiving fiat currency, we used to get paid in Bitcoin when we made profits.

There were always someone considered Bitcoin as investment but in the past, there were less people like Bitcoin investors. Bitcoin only became more famous after Bitcoin pizza trade and the Mt.Gox hack. The hack and collapse of Mt.Gox was like a bomb with potential of killing Bitcoin but Bitcoin did not die. Like "every cloud has a silver lining", what did not kill Bitcoin, made it stronger.

After Mt.Gox hack and collapse, many more people knew about Bitcoin, and it was like massive free marketing for Bitcoin. Then more people became Bitcoin investors after Mt.Gox accident.

Pizza for bitcoins?
Bitcointalk history of MtGox and how a Bitcointalk post caught the MtGox hacker.
Hacked exchanges since 2011.

[cyberninja2]

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Because every person's mind is different for sure from every choice on the poll there are people who do it based on it, like Indeed he is in destiny, he is curious, he is a risk taker, he intends investment, he is a gambler or a person who can see into the future, I think from each of these categories there is a person as a reason why they buy bitcoin.

This seems quite true as it depends on each individual's personal decision so it's impossible to say that what someone does is necessarily good in their opinion.

So, in my opinion after understanding each of our individual decisions our concept of buying Bitcoin is certainly to achieve significant profits. Whether we achieve this or not depends on our decision to purchase Bitcoin and its usefulness. We must make the decision ourselves. Our future depends on our decisions after making the purchase. This will provide concrete reasons for how we will treat it making our future more practical by having the amount of Bitcoin we have accumulated long ago.