My $11k bitcoin odyssey

[kendog77]

Your main problem with mining was buying scrypt asics. As far as I can tell, scrypt ASICs have always been extremely overpriced. I did the math a while back, and best case they would have hit ROI in about 9-12 months.

If you don't take the time to do the math on projected mining ROI, and follow difficulty like a hawk, you should not be mining unless it's just a hobby and you don't mind losing money.

I'll stick to BTC mining with a 3-4 month ROI if hardware purchases are well timed. If you had used that money to purchase Antminer S1s instead, you would be in a much better position right now.

[BitsBitsBits]

My only opinion would be to not invest more into btc (more than you can afford) and just ride the train now to 2015. Good luck with your btc savings.

[giveBTCpls]

Check me out: I discovered Bitcoin in 2009, didn't do further research as it was always, aaalways linked to criminal activities (unless you were in specialised webpages about crypto and shit).

So fast forward 2013, I see the news in the mainstream new sites, bam BTC climbing to 700 USD. Needless to said I feel suicidal as fuck and this hasn't changed, as im perpetually broke and that could have saved my life.

The only positive stories I remember from gains with crypto is when I mined 500K DOGE in the early days, which after ups and downs leave me with less than 1 BTC. I've never had 1 BTC. Pretty depressing considering I heard about BTC in 2009. Guess some people just have bad fucking luck 

[dyland]

You still have the 6.5BTC right?
They're not worth anything until you sell them...

Not necessarily. They have value in themselves. The USD price is just a placeholder.

But, dude...

You're still ways ahead of many of the newbies into the BTC market. I would love to be in your shoes.

I wasnt even old enough to earn my own money when I first heard about BTC back in 2011.

Yeah, I always think of that Morpheus/Neo bitcoin meme with respect to intrinsic bitcoin value.

Well, I guess I am ahead relative to others, but that's true ad infinitum, unless bitcoin doesn't work out in the long-term.

I myself would love to be in almost anyone's shoes who entered before me and held more than 6.5 BTC without losing anything.

[dyland]

again, bitcoin is not a scam, but mining is...

I don't think it's a scam per se (for the mining industry en masse; there are some scammer companies, though, to be sure), because the writing is on the wall if anyone cares to look at it, but there is some woeful and willful ignorance occurring alongside some gross profiteering.

I think part of me wanted a more palpable connection to the whole thing, which is why I got into mining. I also thought (erroneously, so, so erroneously) that it was a decent hedge in a declining market, when in fact the best hedge was not buying or attempting to buy low instead of spending expensive BTC on mining equipment.

[dyland]

Here is my story too i feel like doing the same lol:

I first learned about bitcoin in 2011 through a story on yahoo as the price skyrocketed to $31. Not wanting to buy into a bubble, I limited myself to learning about bitcoin only, determined it was great, and decided to try to time the bottom. In December of 2011/January 2012 I figured it was about at the bottom, and my plan was to buy 200-300 btc, then slowly increase that amount to 1000 btc if the prices stayed low.

Well, I bought 200 btc for about $1200, and kept them on mtgox. Because I am such an idiot, I did not learn about paper wallets, and someone hacked my mtgox account. Thankfully they did not know what bitcoin was and did not take them, but I was scared someone else would hack me, and so I sold eneough bitcoins in order to withdraw my initial investment. I had about 40 bitcoins left at a price around $10 each. Essentially I kept them "just in case", so I would not end up kicking myself if they were to rise. Well, I did great with those 40 bitcoins, multiplying that investment by over 200 so it all turned out good.

HOWEVER,

I can distinctly remember, when bitcoin fell from $31 to $2, thinking to myself "Well this is probably the last time I can afford 10k bitcoin if I really really wanted to go all in" And I was almost 100% sure it was a perfect investment. (Would now be worth $20m if I had went in and traded the same, going x200)

Then later, as the price rebounded and was about to hit the 2011 ath of $31, I remember saying "Well this is the last time I will ever be able to afford 1k bitcoins", being almost 100% sure again that the price would spike once the ath was broken. (Would have been worth $1m+ if I went in at this point, from my trading)

And the whole time I held just the 40 bitcoins (increasing it slightly with litecoins). This was all while being a college student who really had no expenses, so the rest of my money just sat in a bank when it would have been so easy to put like x10 more in.

And the worst part is that I recognized that putting $10k or $20k in at such a young age would be perfectly fine... If i lost it all it would not really change my life at all, but it could have turned into a life changing sum. And the only thing that really stopped me was not figuring out how to use a damn paper wallet and being paranoid about someone hacking my mtgox account LOL   (Or simply just adding 1 more zero on my initial fiat deposit)

I should say that turning $400 into $80k while in college feels like a life changing amount of money, but in the grand scheme of things, it is not when you live in a first world country. It's also interesting looking for an entry level job after just graduating college, when you were so close to not even needing a full-time job for a while, and then trying to explain in interviews what bitcoin is in order to avoid the "why didn't you have an internship" questions.

Anyway, heres to hoping we enter another bubble/adoption wave, which I think will start the instant we break $700. Maybe this time i'll hold 50 bitcoins instead of 40 haha.

Anyway, i think everyone that has been involved with bitcoin for a while has a similar story and some regret, no matter how much they made. Maybe it is the case that they earlier you got into bitcoin, in general, the more money you made and the more you regret not buying more, so by no means am i complaining. The key to investing/speculating though is to realize that there is ALWAYS another opportunity, and I am confident bitcoin still has massive upside potential.  You may be able to sell your 6.5 bitcoin for much more than $11k in total, hopefully sooner than you think  

TLDR: Hindsight is always 20/20 and everyone involved with bitcoins has at least some regret. Perhaps many bitcoin buyers are just hoping to hedge against future regret, which is perfectly fine.

Really glad you shared this. It's interesting to me, I wonder which stings the worse: -11k, +80k (with missed chance at $1.2M)? I for one would still trade places with you.

I still need to make a paper wallet though. https://bitcoinpaperwallet.com/ - - this site is legit, right?

[dyland]

Your main problem with mining was buying scrypt asics. As far as I can tell, scrypt ASICs have always been extremely overpriced. I did the math a while back, and best case they would have hit ROI in about 9-12 months.

If you don't take the time to do the math on projected mining ROI, and follow difficulty like a hawk, you should not be mining unless it's just a hobby and you don't mind losing money.

I'll stick to BTC mining with a 3-4 month ROI if hardware purchases are well timed. If you had used that money to purchase Antminer S1s instead, you would be in a much better position right now.

Agreed on the main problem.

I wasn't totally naive--I did the math, and my ROIs were 90-110 days out, but the scrypt asic market started to move incredibly quickly. I am also very busy with work and family life, so I couldn't really devote time to the research needed. I was putting pretty heavy money (for me) into a hobby-level personal engagement.

Funny you mention antminer s1s. I got into a hosted group buy on those in March and they returned less than half my ROI.

[dyland]

My only opinion would be to not invest more into btc (more than you can afford) and just ride the train now to 2015. Good luck with your btc savings.

thank you. I will not buy unless we go under 500.

[dyland]

Check me out: I discovered Bitcoin in 2009, didn't do further research as it was always, aaalways linked to criminal activities (unless you were in specialised webpages about crypto and shit).

So fast forward 2013, I see the news in the mainstream new sites, bam BTC climbing to 700 USD. Needless to said I feel suicidal as fuck and this hasn't changed, as im perpetually broke and that could have saved my life.

The only positive stories I remember from gains with crypto is when I mined 500K DOGE in the early days, which after ups and downs leave me with less than 1 BTC. I've never had 1 BTC. Pretty depressing considering I heard about BTC in 2009. Guess some people just have bad fucking luck 

Yeah! I had that same sinking feeling too in November 2013 (and I still have it to some extent), which I think is part of the reason why I really threw myself financially at it as I was sure not going to miss out this time around. A lot of other people must have been thinking the exact same thing.

[Etanllah]

Woulda, shoulda, coulda.

Sounds like you aren't doing too badly anyway.

If Bitcoin gets up to some of the projections, you will be doing fine!

[dyland]

even at the peak of $1200 in december..  your $11k buys would total more than 6btc..

going by your story you bought a load of coin at $450ish so lets say you threw $3k at the markets in february to get the 6.5BTC, what did the other $8k go to?

I think it went to mining equipment...right?

Even though you don't have too much BTC, you have been pretty financially successful to be posting this from your new home.   Owning a home is an accomplishment in itself.  The playdoh in the nose is priceless. 

That is right; buying scrypt mining equipment with expensive BTC.

Indeed, home ownership is definitely an accomplishment, though I don't really feel like I own it yet (mortgage).

So true and thanks about the comment re: the play doh; reminds me of a quote from Wilde. “Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

[inBitweTrust]

Oh man, that ASICs had done nothing well for this community.

ASICs make botnet mining futile.
ASICs allow the bitcoin network to be much more secure and more efficiently.

[dyland]

Oh man, that ASICs had done nothing well for this community.

ASICs make botnet mining futile.
ASICs allow the bitcoin network to be much more secure and more efficiently.

...You make a good point.

Any rebuttal on that? (I'm not sure I have one except I am clearly a witting financial victim of asic mining to some degree.)

[renee25]

asics make cheaper to buy than to mine...
so buy, hold, moon incoming... 

[DjPxH]

Think of the positive sides: You've hopefully got a decent life and people who care about you! Yeah, it's quite a lot of money but believe me, there are people who are far worse off than you!

[keithers]

Your main problem with mining was buying scrypt asics. As far as I can tell, scrypt ASICs have always been extremely overpriced. I did the math a while back, and best case they would have hit ROI in about 9-12 months.

If you don't take the time to do the math on projected mining ROI, and follow difficulty like a hawk, you should not be mining unless it's just a hobby and you don't mind losing money.

I'll stick to BTC mining with a 3-4 month ROI if hardware purchases are well timed. If you had used that money to purchase Antminer S1s instead, you would be in a much better position right now.

I agree with this.  Mining has become like a small arms race...which is why I never got into it.   I never had the time to do the proper research and to learn what to do.   I think the problem is that there are all these success stories floating around the net on how people amassed a huge number of BTC (in the beginning stages), using their desktop computers...and made riches..   

[BitcoinLlama]

There are still myriad ways to get into bitcoin and be successful. It starts with working hard. This is the same thing in bitcoin since I got into it in 2011. Its been a lot of hustle. I have made and lost a lot of bitcoins. It has been exhilirating and devastating. Such is life. I really enjoy it.

As for the ASICs, oh well. Was it greed or innovation?

[oceans]

I remember really early on seeing people start mining it when the difficulty was extremely low.
At that time I didnt have a second computer to mine on, so I would have to tie up my computer,
and at the time I didnt think it was worth doing. Here I am now smashing my head on the table going
"why(smash), why(smash). Haha Oh well, I have since figured out ways to get back in the game.
Good luck!

[counter]

Trust me friend most if not all of us have a similar bitcoin story.  Don't even try to trade altcoins it will drive you insane when you look at a coin, choose not to or simply forget to invest and off to the moon it goes.  Don't even get me started about taking your money out at the wrong time..

Think of it as a learning experience preparing your for the perfect moment when you make all the right decisions.  HODL

[hellscabane]

I honestly get where you're coming from. There is always that slight sting of missing out on amazing chances; but all we can do, is move past it. It's not like we all have clairvoyance right? And if we did, these sort of chances would never happen.

I've also missed a whole bunch of chances in the past (both with bitcoins and with altcoins). Now I just bide my time and let things come as they may. After all, there are much more worse things that can be lost other than an opportunity.