Wow so much history happened here.
In 2011, people couldn't believe that it would hit 2000k$/piece in one day; just like we can't imagine that it can reach 500k$ in the future now. (we actually can :p)
People sold their coins to buy coffees, pizzas and other crap. All lost the possibility of being a millionaire.
Long story short; You need to HODL till you make your dreams real. Otherwise It's not worth dumping. Doesn't make a bit of sense.
Why would you dump if you won't be living your dream life? Why sell your coins for a 100$ profit? or 1k$? Make it at least 500k$ and then we talk about dumping.
Those people made the same mistake and suffered for that decision. Be smart.
not sure if you were around 2011 or so but btc was very experimental (i did it for the geek/tech fun) so when it turned out you could actually buy stuff with the suddenly vastly increased value (cents to many dollars per coin) it was hard not to celebrate and do something "real world" like buy stuff. back then there was mtgox and dwolla to get btc to fiat. still new stuff at the time. after all if no one spent btc and proved it had real world value it would of most likely died. and there was no real reassurance it would last.
the stuff i bought for my wife and myself were a demonstration that the tech chain worked. that in itself was valuable. it wasnt till later when its worth and longevity were proven that i started to consider it a long term investment.
now i still buy things with btc to help with its adoption (overstock, steam) but generally replace what i sold.
HODL is the name of the game now. hoping it will help with retirement, which is edging close for the wife and i.
course if i had kept all i mined/bought and cashed out now we would be on our own private island right now. but regardless it was and is a fun ride. learned a lot and its hard to place a monetary value on that.
oh yeah played with lots killer hardware which i would not of otherwise done. bought with profits of course
