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

[Mpamaegbu]

i really want to know what was going on in their mind

Apart from Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator, and one or two other insiders like Martti Malmi (Sirius), I don't think anyone who invested in Bitcoin then knew what they were getting into. It was pure risk they took, almost like a gamble. That's why most of them lost their keys because they didn't think much about it and for that didn't prioritize the safekeeping of their Bitcoin. It's the same thing that's happening now with some of the altcoins we've now and how some of us are treating them. Some of these altcoins may likely be generational wealth waiting to be realized. Yet, a lot of us are going to miss out on them. It's either we're selling off too quick or we aren't investing in them at all.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

I will not say it is their fate that makes them invest in Bitcoin in those early days, some have the foresight already, because they can go further to know what is behind this newly introduced digital currency and why it was invented, this is the same decision many have taken that made them acquire Bitcoin in those days. They have more ideas about Bitcoin, unlike when people are only making their stand not to consider Bitcoin because they are being ignorant of what it stands to present to the world.

[Miles2006]

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

You might want to identify these sets of holder into different category as mentioned, many who started their journey early had no intention of becoming rich through holding bitcoin reason why you still hear stories like people selling their bitcoin so early. I would say all three should be considered “fate, foresight, risk”, no matter the level of fate or foresight it takes a risk bearer to keep holding bitcoin at that level, talking about level simply bitcoin value then was not encouraging no doubt.

[TheUltraElite]

Probably the human risk taking behavior or the cyberpunk/cryptoanarchist idea seemed pretty cool to them. Most of them have sold coins after getting some 2x to 5x profits and probably never looked back but if some of them have held all these years they would have sold at 100k USD anyway. Even then if some are still holding, then those people get my salute.

Foresight would be tough to say, I would not have had that sort of foresight and saying that they had foresight now would not be accurate, its more like 1 led to 2 and hence I followed 1 without knowing what would it actually lead to - being the actual truth.

[EstherBtc]

some of us came from the hardware side rather than the investment side.

i ran folding@home on multigpu rigs back in the day for fun. switching to bitcoin gpu mining in mid 2011 was more as a hobby and for beer money than getting rich.

if anything i am as or more surprised at bitcoins rise as anyone else.

edit: voted foresight not because i knew what bitcoin truly was (i didnt).. its the closest choice to i mined specifically to turn my computer hobby into into extra money.

this means you were one of the early adopters of bitcoin we are talking about.

for the purpose of this thread i will categorize you as a tech guru or miner.

[ImGenius]

You might want to identify these sets of holder into different category as mentioned, many who started their journey early had no intention of becoming rich through holding bitcoin reason why you still hear stories like people selling their bitcoin so early. I would say all three should be considered “fate, foresight, risk”, no matter the level of fate or foresight it takes a risk bearer to keep holding bitcoin at that level, talking about level simply bitcoin value then was not encouraging no doubt.

I think another factor could be curiosity because most of the early adopters were programmers and some people were those who got interested in decentralized money. They weren't necessarily buying Bitcoin with the hope of making a lot of money. There were some people who saw bitcoin as an experiment and some people who wanted to put their fund in another place instead of traditional financial system because those people see the risk of traditional banking and other people who just wanted to support the new technology.

[Dunamisx]

Most likely that some of us that are active on this forum till today have not been privileged to know about bitcoin as at then in 2012, but you can as well always see it as the same way people will accept a new invention and some will always detest for it by exercising doubt about the opportunity, it's all depends on the ability we have to afford for the risk in digital Technology, but considering that many have already been affected in many ways and scammed through the same online opportunities, some may not give it a trial to consider bitcoin as at then except for few who are still more confidence in Bitcoin.

[Italian Panic]

I think another factor could be curiosity because most of the early adopters were programmers and some people were those who got interested in decentralized money. They weren't necessarily buying Bitcoin with the hope of making a lot of money. There were some people who saw bitcoin as an experiment and some people who wanted to put their fund in another place instead of traditional financial system because those people see the risk of traditional banking and other people who just wanted to support the new technology.

Most of those who acquired Bitcoin in its early stages did so because of their involvement in P2P and open source communities, where rumours about this electronic money had already been circulating for a few years. From then on, those who held on to Bitcoin over time, especially during the initial periods of extremely high volatility, did so mainly through luck and chance. Many sold and cashed in after buying for just a few cents (or via a faucet) and selling for a few hundred dollars.

[EstherBtc]

Do you know what the price of Bitcoin was in its early days? The price was so low that anyone who invested in it did not care much about it, but very less did. That is the reason why many forgot their wallet's seed phrase or security keys, and some even forgot that they had invested in crypto in their early days. This is why a lot of bitcoin supply is dead or locked permanently. That supply can not be recovered until they find their seed phrase.

Besides this, do you know about the pizza story, a guy who paid too many bitcoins just for two pizzas? Do a little research on it then you will come to know how people used to treat Bitcoin in its early days. But with the passage of time bitcoin growth and adoption started to increase widely, and those who were careless today regret that.

First off, people did not lose their bitcoins because they "did not care" or forgot a seed phrase.  seed phrases did not even exist in the early days.  Back then, you had to save a raw wallet.dat file on your actual hard drive.  The reason so much Bitcoin is lost forever is simply because old computers broke, got thrown out, or were wiped.  It was a technical limitation, not just people being lazy.

And as for the pizza guy, Laszlo?  He said over and over that he doesnt regret it at all.  In 2010, Bitcoin was just an internet experiment with zero real value.  By trading 10,000 BTC for those two pizzas, he actually pulled off the first real-world transaction in crypto history.  I dont think he treated it like trash. Quite the opposite - he gave it its very first use case.  Honestly, without people like him proving you could actually buy stuff with it, Bitcoin might never have taken off in the first place.

i have come realize that the pizza guy actually did what bitcoin was all about which was transaction with middle man. but fortunate now bitcoin is now a store of value. the very purpose of bitcoin was for transaction that is what satoshi enable but it is now doing so many things.

[Anayochukwu]

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 they just saw something that looked good to them and they went for it after all it wasn't expensive as it is now so they had nothing to lose if it had crashed back then, I think it's okay to say that investing in Bitcoin back then to them was like buying a cheap toy and years later it becomes most wanted toy by everyone, and let's just say that they were good investors that were willing to wait for as long as it takes for them to make cool profits. You might be surprise to know that buying Bitcoin back then in the minds of some of them it was just a joke and today it is worth it for them.

[Versatile_choice]

You might want to identify these sets of holder into different category as mentioned, many who started their journey early had no intention of becoming rich through holding bitcoin reason why you still hear stories like people selling their bitcoin so early. I would say all three should be considered “fate, foresight, risk”, no matter the level of fate or foresight it takes a risk bearer to keep holding bitcoin at that level, talking about level simply bitcoin value then was not encouraging no doubt.

I think another factor could be curiosity because most of the early adopters were programmers and some people were those who got interested in decentralized money. They weren't necessarily buying Bitcoin with the hope of making a lot of money. There were some people who saw bitcoin as an experiment and some people who wanted to put their fund in another place instead of traditional financial system because those people see the risk of traditional banking and other people who just wanted to support the new technology.

Yes, I believe there are people who Invested with the intention of using it as experiment by putting a smaller amount. in addition, There are people who Invested in bitcoin with the feeling that "let's give cryptocurrency a trial" while some must have seen a good potential in it. It's just like what is happening now, some folks are investing with the hope of making profit while some are investing in bitcoin just to store thier wealth and so on. So there might be other reasons why those early adopters decided to invest in bitcoin that we may not know.

[BRINIRHA]

If you look at what happened in 2012 maybe everything will be divided into several things including those who make this as an advantage because if we look at the price of bitcoin in 2012 it ranged from $4.3 - $13 at the end of 2012 so they also consider the price to be in this phase.

That's already in contrast to the price of bitcoin in the previous 3 years which may have been in fomo or hype or even just because of the fun of learning it.
That would probably bring up the consideration that price could be one of the reasons and that it would not be much different from what is happening now.  Indeed, in terms of its price is already far different but when it comes to profits and losses then 2012 should already have the same risk in purchasing as now and certainly some thoughts about expensive and cheap prices could have happened here.

[sunsilk]

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

There's a bit of stroke of luck but I don't think that they've just thrown money to bitcoin and invest in it without a valid reason.

They've seen something new and they have believed it at that time. Like they're cypherpunk investors. A good project and prospect that they've believed it shall grow in the next years to come.

I think that most of them have been overwhelmed by its growth and those who held for too long deserve the profit they took.

[Warkop]

Bitcoin's development was actually driven by foresighted individuals or risk-takers. Of course, Bitcoin's development had a purpose, and if it were destiny, it seems unlikely. Bitcoin itself has a clear and measurable concept, even though the technology wasn't as advanced as it is today at the time. There must have been a specific mission involving Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator. Or, perhaps it wasn't an individual, but rather an organization that wanted Bitcoin to exist.

From Reading the Previous Review:
Regarding the pizza guy, was it really true that he owned 10,000 Bitcoins, or was it just a marketing ploy at that time? The goal was to spread the word, so that Bitcoin could be widely known and discussed worldwide.

[Floxynice]

I've been thinking about this, and I believe they were simply risk-takers who saw Bitcoin as another Ponzi scheme and decided to try their luck. Others may have seen it as an alternative payment platform, which Bitcoin was said to be at that time. A lot may have played out in the minds of those who invested at that time. I truly don't care if they held their bitcoins for long or traded them within a very short time. I see those who invested early as heroes worth appreciating for believing in Bitcoin at that time. As of 2012, I saw Bitcoin as a scam or a Ponzi scheme. It is funny that I am here now.

[MarryWithBTC]

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

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.

This still falls under curiosity.

They were simply curious for them to commit money to bitcoin, they were probably  testing bitcoin if it will deliver all the promises it made them. And graciously, bitcoin fulfilled all the promises and even did more.

The environment then was full of uncertainty, even Satoshi himself at a point wasn't sure of anything; which laid to his controversial statement that bitcoin could worth a lot in the future and it could also worth nothing.

[promise444c5]

i have come realize that the pizza guy actually did what bitcoin was all about which was transaction with middle man. but fortunate now bitcoin is now a store of value. the very purpose of bitcoin was for transaction that is what satoshi enable but it is now doing so many things.

You still don’t really get it or maybe the way you understand it.. Bitcoin eliminates a third party which you can call a “middleman” or generally an “intermediary ”. 

The intermediary could be a centralized service like CEX or any Decentralized service, its always your choice to use it or not but that could depend on why you need it in the first place..

what Lazlo did was made payment inform of direct P2P for a pizza, which is how Bitcoin was meant to be used.. not sure there’re even  that much services that can serve as intermediaries then, that’s if there was even any.

[philipma1957]

it was fore site if you purchased and held.

no more complicated then that

I could have purchased and held 100 coins for about 6 x 100 =600

and I certainly would have sold them when it hit 1,000 a coin. in fall of 2013.


would I have purchased back the 100 coins when they dropped to 95 a while later not sure maybe

maybe not.

[Stalker22]

i have come realize that the pizza guy actually did what bitcoin was all about which was transaction with middle man. but fortunate now bitcoin is now a store of value. the very purpose of bitcoin was for transaction that is what satoshi enable but it is now doing so many things.

Thats exactly right.  Pizza guy did exactly what bitcoin was supposed to do at first.  But I seriously doubt he wanted to be a martyr; he just wanted two pizzas.  Back in the day it was like monopoly money, it was not worth the bytes it was encoded on, and it certainly would have perished on some esoteric crypto board if someone didnt do exactly what he did.

[Pi-network314159]

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 wouldn't pin point anything to be the reason but all you have said can not be far from the truth, which means that some where just lucky to make the right decision at the right time without knowing Their decision was for a turnover. Some invested because they just want to try another form of currency aside from fiat but it turns out to be an asset afterall. Some see it as something that will be useful in the future, some just bought without any kind of feeling just to have it. Of course everyone must not have same motive but different motive, but it turns out that everyone who participated regardless of what they thinked about it or not, where made rich. But at thesame time some sold it earlier because they didn't believe on it potential anymore, and as a result they threw away fortune to people that doesn't worth it. So all those guys had different motive why dey bought.