How did you get into bitcoin?

[Acidyo]

What's your story? Where did you hear about it first? What got you interested? What made you stay?

[hilariousandco]

Probably through the media interest with the Silk Road controversy.

[Titiek]

First off all I'm looking for PTC (Paid To Click)... than I've got BTC is more faster to get then $.
I found it while I'm looking for trusted PTC, then I read all about BTC. and BTC is more interesting than PTC.

[Equate]

I was looking for rig configuration then I stumbled upon the mining section. Then instead of gaming , I was mining .

[Acidyo]

I was looking for rig configuration then I stumbled upon the mining section. Then instead of gaming , I was mining .

Nice, did you get an early start?

[gigEls]

Heard about it from a friend

[DubFX]

I randomly found it on some computer forums...in it's early stage thought.

[zolace]

I got into bitcoin last year,when was around $100,i just saw people talking about it on different forums .

[Reuben]

Just kept hearing about it on the news.

[gagalady]

From media but firstly i found it on the internet and started gathering more information about it and now i'm here .

[Mayuyu48]

from media, it reported some controversies about bitcoin and i interested learn about bitcoin

[Sindelar1938]

Friends in the Valley
The more I read about it, the more I was convinced

[blacksails]

I heard about it on a forum back in 2011. Didn't understand how it worked though, so I never got any bitcoins. I rediscovered it back in 2012 and followed what happened within the bitcoin world, but I didn't get any bitcoins until 2013.

[imready2rock]

I just randomly stumbled upon it while surfing the webs... It was not a while ago so it was pretty popular atm

[Equate]

I heard about it on a forum back in 2011. Didn't understand how it worked though, so I never got any bitcoins. I rediscovered it back in 2012 and followed what happened within the bitcoin world, but I didn't get any bitcoins until 2013.

many people despite knowing about bitcoin early , missed the train but bitcoin has evolved greatly over the years.

[blacksails]

I heard about it on a forum back in 2011. Didn't understand how it worked though, so I never got any bitcoins. I rediscovered it back in 2012 and followed what happened within the bitcoin world, but I didn't get any bitcoins until 2013.

many people despite knowing about bitcoin early , missed the train but bitcoin has evolved greatly over the years.

Nah, I still think I'm an early adopter!
In a few years I'll be rich thanks to Bitcoin!

[Equate]

I heard about it on a forum back in 2011. Didn't understand how it worked though, so I never got any bitcoins. I rediscovered it back in 2012 and followed what happened within the bitcoin world, but I didn't get any bitcoins until 2013.

many people despite knowing about bitcoin early , missed the train but bitcoin has evolved greatly over the years.

Nah, I still think I'm an early adopter!
In a few years I'll be rich thanks to Bitcoin!

so you didn't buy pizza with your coins

[blacksails]

I heard about it on a forum back in 2011. Didn't understand how it worked though, so I never got any bitcoins. I rediscovered it back in 2012 and followed what happened within the bitcoin world, but I didn't get any bitcoins until 2013.

many people despite knowing about bitcoin early , missed the train but bitcoin has evolved greatly over the years.

Nah, I still think I'm an early adopter!
In a few years I'll be rich thanks to Bitcoin!

so you didn't buy pizza with your coins

Lol, no, at least not for 10000BTC!!

[Natium]

I heard about that guy in sweden that invested a couple of $ in btc in the early time of it.

[instaBoost]

Lost my stupid job then struck gold

[Kiki112]

at first I wanted to purchase some herbs online to resell them here

but I realized that bitcoin itself is much more then herbs, that it is an investment much more worthy then some green stuff

hopefully this decision will bring me millions one day

[xdigital]

Newzbin.com shutdowned in 2011!
Some similar sites only accept bitcoins, I remembered it was only $10/coin, but it was too hard to buy one.
So I started to mine just enough to pay for the subscription
I have regretted that I turned off the mining software.

Then last year, When bitcoin price suddenly jumped up to $200/coin.
I started to read more about it, more interested ever since.

[byt411]

I got into bitcoin while I was earning dust on PTC sites. I found an ad of a program named "Rublik", which according to the site "performed calculations for the Bitcoin Network".

It paid users by downloading its software, and it paid by paypal. Just another bitcoin miner, but I found out about bitcoin.
Mined bitcoin at 77MH/s, and deposited onto inputs.io, and lost everything.
Oh well, I miss those days anyway.

[jonald_fyookball]

Well, one day I was hanging a clock in my bathroom.... I must've slipped and hit my head on the porcelain sink... And when I came to, I had a vision in my head and I drew this diagram. I call it the flux capacitor and it's what makes time travel possible.  Oh wait, that's something else nevermind :-)

[serenitys]

I have no memory of life before I ended up reading over half of this thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178336.0

It went to hell from there but I did manage to get processed and picked up one whole bitcoin at $404 last week...so at least now I can play.

I've also had this site

http://bitcointicker.co/

and this one

https://bitcoinwisdom.com/

up and check it every half hour since 3 days before I bought (which was still before the 4 day wait time and current 4 day transfer time)...

I might've slept 24 hours, not in a row...this forum is the devil.

 

[sorryforthat]

4chan in 2009. was given 20 BTC from a very generous miner. I know, I know, I was young

[counter]

Youtube, tons of information to be had there when they aren't blocking the flow with their censorship.  I remember there was alot of hesitation but still alot of interest back then.  Funny thinking back and seeing how far Bitcoin has come.

[killinitsoftly]

A bit of a long story.
My boss' business friend (owner of a small business in Seattle) was having lunch with us one summer day and mentioned Bitcoin in passing.  Most of the conversation went way above my head.

I got home and asked my wife if she heard about it.
Sure enough, she mentions that she saw it on CNN.

I read about it that same evening.
One week later I was mining.

Fast forward about 2 years and I have a huge scrypt mining farm in my garage, about 4TH/s SHA-256 mining and a diverse collection of coins.

 

[Ragnarly]

In 2012 finding this article by Erik Voorhees http://evoorhees.blogspot.com/2012/04/bitcoin-libertarian-introduction.html

 via http://www.reddit.com/r/Anarcho_Capitalism/

[TwoPints]

My friend and I heard about it at the end of 2013, did a ton of research, split an S1 early in 2014, and now we have 17 S1's plus 5 more on the way.

I see it as a great long-term hedge on an emerging technology, and am thrilled to see where people much smarter than me take it. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to convey it, especially mining, to other people.

If only we had seen this in 2011 or before...

[sj2199]

my friends were talking about it....but they never thought of getting it as i thought of...

[qin215]

from the internet and media.

[Beliathon]

I killed a man and found a paper wallet in his back pocket. Now I'm rich.

(I'm kidding, this was poking fun at the "bitcoin = criminal money" myth)

[circusmidget11]

I got into PTC and faucets, it was easy free money. 

[TheNewAnon135246]

I got into bitcoin (way too late ) through the media. I really liked the whole anonymous and fee-free payments. No banks or governments to regulate it

[Lauda]

Some random AD on some website which eventually led me somehow to this forum.

[RUEHL]

Introduction

I remember being introduced back in Jan 2011 during a dinner party among friends.  One friend was so excited about it, wanted to be a miner.  He only thought of it as a get rich scheme.  I looked it up on Wiki, and decided to pass along with the rest of the dinner party.  My computer didn't have the minimum specs and this Bitcoin thing wasn't enough motivation for me to get something more powerful.  The friend that wanted to mine was the only one among us that had specs to meet the minimum graphics requirements.  

Loosely followed along,  saw the news late Spring 2011 and the bubble peak to $30 USD then crash down to the single digits.  Bitcoin was still largely ignored by mainstream media. Asked my friend about it, and he said he never ended up mining.

In 2013, during the Cyprus bail-in Bitcoin finally made waves in the mainstream media.  I still thought it was still just magic internet money riding on pure speculation.  Of course, Bitcoin crashed again but still maintained lofty heights over 2011 prices.  Late 2013 it blew up to $1,200 USD and continued to make headlines.  As expected it crashed but maintained lofty heights over the Cyprus bubble.  I continued to ignore it, as I thought the train had already left the station.




The Epiphany

On some random forum, saw references to the Zeitgeist Movement and it was told that their videos on YouTube would blow your mind.  Just like the Matrix, when Neo took the red pill I had an awakening.  



When Mt Gox fell in late January people on that same random forum were all laughing at Bitcoin calling it a Ponzi scheme.  Because the thread originator was Law Enforcement whom I've met in real life (and can be an ass), I defended Bitcoin just to be a thorn in his side (me being a rebel).  In order to debate my position, I started doing research and began to realize that Bitcoin is fundamentally sound.  It also appears to be a solution for issues outlined in the Zeitgeist movement, and by that reasoning still way under-valued.  Around March, I finally bought my first Bitcoin from a seller on eBay (of all places) and began using it as currency.  I also made a vow to purchase and set aside at least $100 worth every week.

The friend that originally introduced me to Bitcoin, I've expressed his need to accumulate.  Even just one.  He brushes it off with no interest.  My reasons are fundamental, but his interests are just speculative and from that point of view he thinks the ship has already sailed.  





Current goal is to own at least 4 bitcoins by June 2014.  Right now, I'm just shy of 1.  

[MeandMissNoob]

I heard about it in 2011, but started to be more interested after seeing some tv news show about Bitcoin. Really like how its develops.

[zulu860]

1 year ago I wanted to buy trees from a dispensary was typing all sorts of stuff ran into a silkroad article and that pretty much changed my life after that and here i am now I want to open up a community center with BTC one day now and have a mining farm in it so we wont have to rely on grants as a main source of income for projects and events for the community. All i want to do is good if/when i make it to my goal.

[IamCANADIAN013]

I heard about it a few times last year, but didn't pay much attention to it.  The the first bitcoin atm opened near where I live, I started to pay more attention to it. Started investing in it in January by buying some miners. Been buying and selling bitcoin for a couple months now.

[Swordsoffreedom]

What's your story? Where did you hear about it first? What got you interested? What made you stay?

Tenborru - On a certain site accepting bitcoin  - Reading Satoshis white paper - Hanging out and learning the system and understanding the potential involved

[sana8410]

I found the bitcoin from Google web search & joined. Now I am happy as a bitcoin member.

[Acidyo]

What's your story? Where did you hear about it first? What got you interested? What made you stay?

Tenborru - On a certain site accepting bitcoin  - Reading Satoshis white paper - Hanging out and learning the system and understanding the potential involved

A friend in the army was talking about it really early, this was in 2010, march-april, he also introduced me to reddit and I've been a lurker for a year til I made an account and recently reached three years.

He said he used it to buy digital goods for some online games, and that he could get the coins through his computer to pay for it, basically turning electricity into a form of payment for his wow gold. He was living at home so electricity was free for him, somewhat.

Forgot about it, started hearing it in the news mid 2013, decided not to buy since I'm still studying and never really have any extra income/money to spare.

Since november-december I've been mining altcoins trying to make bitcoins that I can save and hopefully make a nice profit in the next couple of years.

Gambling has been a major issue in my efforts to save btc though.

[jodybay]

my cousin told me about this way back 2010 he even give me a 2 btc but im not intrested that time then around dec or january he called me from canada that he lost the coins in mtgox and i just lost around 16 or 15k$ well that makes me into bitcoin now the poor guy lost his 12 btc

[MarketNeutral]

Primarily from 2010 slashdot articles, as well as the occasional whisper about bitcoin on virtual currency sites and precious metals sites.