What's everyone's bitcoin story?

[_Miracle]

Late last year a friend asked me if I "knew what bitcoin was"?. I thought it was video game money, I have a daughter who's 24 so you can imagine how much cash I used to spend for "video game money" in her teen years. Then he told me the price, asked me to look into it and now it has a big chunk of my attention.

[dharmapuriharithaa]

My friend introduced about Bitcoin one year before. That time i don't had any interest in bitcoin. I thought it is a coins used in the games. When bitcoin reached at $1000 range that time only i got more interest.

[Lauda]

i started by mining in the gpu days till the end of 2012?  when spring came in 2013 it became unprofitable
i gambled  it all away a couple months ago
now im buying and holding long term as much as i can
im looking at least 5-10 year horizon and i will reconsider at that time.

You should have kept everything. Many of us made this same mistake.

[NxtSwag]

Joe rogan tweeted something about silk rd and bitcoin last march. Caught the crypto bug

[pabpete]

Cool to hear some stories 

[e1ghtSpace]

I googled how to get free steam games or something and someone said look into bitcoin mining.

[btcprice]

I learned about bitcoin in 2011 on another Internet forum. The price was skyrocketing so I bought 100 BTC at $20 each. The price promptly went down so I ended up selling at $8 each. Lesson learned I thought. I had been "tuliped" I thought.

Then I hear back in November 2013 that the price was climbing once again. Except this time I saw a chart that showed that the Chinese exchanges now were buying half the bitcoins after only approximately 1 month. I just received an $8500 signing bonus from work so it all went into bitcoin, starting at $301 each. Yes, I even bought a few at $1100 but most were bought in the $300-$500 range.

I've also been investing in altcoins. I took my bitcoin/altcoin profits and used them for a down payment on a house. I had the salary to buy a house, just never enough for the down payment until bitcoin.

[pabpete]

I learned about bitcoin in 2011 on another Internet forum. The price was skyrocketing so I bought 100 BTC at $20 each. The price promptly went down so I ended up selling at $8 each. Lesson learned I thought. I had been "tuliped" I thought.

Then I hear back in November 2013 that the price was climbing once again. Except this time I saw a chart that showed that the Chinese exchanges now were buying half the bitcoins after only approximately 1 month. I just received an $8500 signing bonus from work so it all went into bitcoin, starting at $301 each. Yes, I even bought a few at $1100 but most were bought in the $300-$500 range.

I've also been investing in altcoins. I took my bitcoin/altcoin profits and used them for a down payment on a house. I had the salary to buy a house, just never enough for the down payment until bitcoin.

. Wow, now that's inspiring. A down payment on a house with bitcoin! hope I can get that far.

[Bitcoin Magazine]

I have BTCitcoin, therefore I'm rich!

[tesene]

I saw a piece on the new and contemplated taking up mining but didn't.  Looking back, I sure wish I would have started THEN!

[durrrr]

i got into bitcoin from seals with clubs. i was a poker player before black friday in 2012 and i found seals. i played for awhile won and lost a lot and got out of it. bitcoin price skyrocketed and since ive came back

[HCLivess]

I read about Cryptsy by the end of November, 2013. I realised that I have been trading stocks which have incredible fees and low returns so I turned to BTC. The technology sucked me in completely.

[btcprice]

I learned about bitcoin in 2011 on another Internet forum. The price was skyrocketing so I bought 100 BTC at $20 each. The price promptly went down so I ended up selling at $8 each. Lesson learned I thought. I had been "tuliped" I thought.

Then I hear back in November 2013 that the price was climbing once again. Except this time I saw a chart that showed that the Chinese exchanges now were buying half the bitcoins after only approximately 1 month. I just received an $8500 signing bonus from work so it all went into bitcoin, starting at $301 each. Yes, I even bought a few at $1100 but most were bought in the $300-$500 range.

I've also been investing in altcoins. I took my bitcoin/altcoin profits and used them for a down payment on a house. I had the salary to buy a house, just never enough for the down payment until bitcoin.

. Wow, now that's inspiring. A down payment on a house with bitcoin! hope I can get that far.

Thanks. I hope the price of bitcoin goes up so much that you can afford a down payment on a house too. Then your investment on your house should get you even more money.

[CoinDiver]

Bitcoin was mentioned in March 2012 by one of the Ron Paul talking heads on facebook. I checked it out, and wasn't immediately convinced. It did catch my attention enough that I didn't stop researching. Within a few weeks I was relatively convinced, and started mining about .4 per week (about $2 at the time). I had thousands of dollars I could have dropped on btc at the time... but didn't. I'd buy and use them, buy and use them. Finally in January 2013 I put about $1k in and got my last major chunk (btc wise) just before the run up to $266. After that I sat there looking at the $120 price, and couldn't stomach a purchase. I converted 1/3rd of my btc to silver at the time, figuring we'd see another prolonged downtrend. Then came China. Now I don't have the stomach to sell at any price. I don't care what the price is any more, I just buy. I've taken every spare penny for the last 4 months and put it in to btc. I've bought at anything between $850 and $350 recently... and as low as $4.50 historically.

I have bought some cool stuff with BTC. I bought a high end (hobbyist grade) 3D printer, and used my stash as collateral on cash loan for a down payment on my house. Bitcoin has opened me up to business internationally. I've done btc business with Spain, Italy, Venezuela, and Ireland. Like more countries, but the state no longer matters with btc.

Since learning about bitcoin I've moved politically from an ideologically inconsistent liberty Republican, to an ideologically consistent deontological and consequentialist anarcho-capitalist. It's not because of bitcoin, but bitcoin has provided an ongoing thought experiment. The implications are phenomenal.

[Operatr]

Not much of a story I suppose for me. A good friend of mine made note of it to me (knowing my tech ninja status in my circles), though I did remember seeing something about Bitcoin a few years earlier on some tech website. Back then it was just a little known garage project. But, I was into Bitcoin hook line and sinker after that, forming Blockburner as a Bitcoin business in the realm of mining and infrastructure realizing quickly the potential of blockchain technology and it being the cutting edge kind of business I had been looking to start my entire life as a would-be entrepreneur of little success.

The end of the story is that Bitcoin did renew my overall purpose in life which had become lost to me sometime prior as a generic datacenter tech rotting away in a server filled corporate dungeon. So for that, my friend/partner has my eternal gratitude for getting me on an exciting new path.

[pabpete]

Bitcoin was mentioned in March 2012 by one of the Ron Paul talking heads on facebook. I checked it out, and wasn't immediately convinced. It did catch my attention enough that I didn't stop researching. Within a few weeks I was relatively convinced, and started mining about .4 per week (about $2 at the time). I had thousands of dollars I could have dropped on btc at the time... but didn't. I'd buy and use them, buy and use them. Finally in January 2013 I put about $1k in and got my last major chunk (btc wise) just before the run up to $266. After that I sat there looking at the $120 price, and couldn't stomach a purchase. I converted 1/3rd of my btc to silver at the time, figuring we'd see another prolonged downtrend. Then came China. Now I don't have the stomach to sell at any price. I don't care what the price is any more, I just buy. I've taken every spare penny for the last 4 months and put it in to btc. I've bought at anything between $850 and $350 recently... and as low as $4.50 historically.

I have bought some cool stuff with BTC. I bought a high end (hobbyist grade) 3D printer, and used my stash as collateral on cash loan for a down payment on my house. Bitcoin has opened me up to business internationally. I've done btc business with Spain, Italy, Venezuela, and Ireland. Like more countries, but the state no longer matters with btc.

Since learning about bitcoin I've moved politically from an ideologically inconsistent liberty Republican, to an ideologically consistent deontological and consequentialist anarcho-capitalist. It's not because of bitcoin, but bitcoin has provided an ongoing thought experiment. The implications are phenomenal.

very interesting! What type of buisness do you operate?

[thirdprize]

I have been following BTC on and off for a couple of years.  I remember when it was around $10.  It all seemed so obscure that I never thought it would go anywhere.  So i didn't bother investing.  Been kicking myself ever since. 

Got a cheap USB asic which might earn me .01 BTC in 6 months (as it only runs when the work laptop is on).  Might buy some coins when they get back down to $10

I just like the geekyness of saying im mining bitcoins.  Especially as it doesn't actually involve doing anything. 

[chiguireitor]

I have bought some cool stuff with BTC. I bought a high end (hobbyist grade) 3D printer, and used my stash as collateral on cash loan for a down payment on my house. Bitcoin has opened me up to business internationally. I've done btc business with Spain, Italy, Venezuela, and Ireland. Like more countries, but the state no longer matters with btc.

Yay Venezuela! Nice to see someone spreading the BTC love!

Since learning about bitcoin I've moved politically from an ideologically inconsistent liberty Republican, to an ideologically consistent deontological and consequentialist anarcho-capitalist. It's not because of bitcoin, but bitcoin has provided an ongoing thought experiment. The implications are phenomenal.

I think this is the most important fact about bitcoin: showing the anarchism can be brought to real life with technology being the enabler. I too have moved from a semi-leftist position to a more anarchist ideology. No need to be constrained by complicated and bureaucratic schemes. Nice to see someone else had the same reaction to bitcoin.

[pabpete]

I am very excited and believe wholeheartedly in this community!

[AshFir3245]

My name is Ash and I am from Germany.
Started with bitcoin in 2013 using gox and was really happy when bitcoin was going up 
Less happy when gox fell before I could withdraw my funds.
I even tried to speak with my bank, Dresdner AG, but they said my transfers were processed...

Anwyay, started working with my own cold wallet now, I have fate in bitcoin and looking forward for future