How did you learn about Bitcoin?

[freeyourmind]

What prompted your interest in Bitcoin?

What resources did you use for educating yourself?

What are the most interesting things you learned?

What are you looking forward to learning?

I've had a passive interest in Bitcoin for a couple years now, but only recently started to learn about it actively.  I am very new and have a lot to learn, but I enjoy the learning process and have enjoyed the transition from newbie to much less of a newbie on several things.

I have read some, but don't have a good understanding of the logic/framework behind mining.  The most interesting thing to me is the potential functionality of Bitcoin or any cryptocurrency for that matter.  At a time of such irresponsible monetary policy, it's very cool to see how Bitcoin fits into the mix and starts to enter our lives.  I'm not too concerned about the speculative aspect of it and investing in it to make serious returns, although that may very well happen.  It's cool to be able to access your money without having to go through a financial institution.

I'd like to get a better understanding of mining, and potential ways of generating Bitcoin.  I'd even like to understand the revenue model of these CAPTCHA and gambling sites.

Looking forward to hearing your stories and learning tips!

Cheers!

[BTC-Bank]

Very interesting thread to see how most of us learn about Bitcoin.Personally i learn about it from a non famous article writer which was post it on Facebook in 2012 and was with the title ''the digital money Bitcoin another stock market buble?''This was the begin for me when i start reading about this and following it but i made the mistake back then to just read and follow it.. 

Kind Regards,
BTC-Bank.

[ducatitalia]

I've compiled a few useful high-level links here: www.sellingbitcoin.net

Best way to learn about Bitcoin is to research the science and use the technology.  The more you use it, the more you understand it in practicum and potential.

[chennan]

There are a lot of resource and real life app for you to learn and practice here https://bitcoin.org/en/resources.

[freeyourmind]

I've compiled a few useful high-level links here: www.sellingbitcoin.net

Best way to learn about Bitcoin is to research the science and use the technology.  The more you use it, the more you understand it in practicum and potential.

Great advice.  I've started using the technology, but need to do more research on the science behind it.

BTW, given your name, do you ride?

[cshelswell]

Someone told me about silk road which I could believe was real. I started investigating bitcoin's then and got a bit hooked bought some erupters and started to dabble in alts and bitcoin's, eventually I ended up working for some.

[freeyourmind]

There are a lot of resource and real life app for you to learn and practice here https://bitcoin.org/en/resources.

Thanks for the link - charts are awesome for understanding the historical movement sliced and diced in so many ways

Someone told me about silk road which I could believe was real. I started investigating bitcoin's then and got a bit hooked bought some erupters and started to dabble in alts and bitcoin's, eventually I ended up working for some.

Yeah haha, I forgot to mention Silk Road.  A friend bought some Bitcoin to make purchases and saw quite a bit of appreciation, however used it all up before the price exploded.

[Bizmark13]

I found out about the idea in mid-2011 from a forum I used to visit which has since closed down. I was quite interested in the whole thing but the fact that prices jumped up from several dollars to $33 and then crashed to 1/10th the price in such a short period of time kind of put me off the concept since I thought that it was a failure at the time. WIRED magazine publishing an article titled "The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin" at around the same time certainly didn't help things. I did attempt mining with my laptop on a JavaScript (?) based miner and browsed these forums as well as a site called Weusecoins.com (although back then it was on a .org domain) but it wasn't until late 2013 after the November bubble that I seriously became interested.

It's cool to be able to access your money without having to go through a financial institution.

Definitely.

I'd like to get a better understanding of mining, and potential ways of generating Bitcoin.  I'd even like to understand the revenue model of these CAPTCHA and gambling sites.

You mean faucets? They get ad revenue from the ads. It's not a lot but they don't pay out much either. Gambling sites have a house edge (typically 1%) so over a long period of time and across many bets, the site expects to turn a small profit.

[Mattex]

Bitcoin finally helped me achieve my dream of not using fiat currency.

The bitcoin community is my family(Although I'm still a newbie).

[Amph]

What prompted your interest in Bitcoin?

another forum brought me to bitcoin here, actually i did know about bitcoin before, but i thought it was a joke or something lol, and i remember i didn't download the client, because i was afraid that the program could be a virus or something

What resources did you use for educating yourself?

mostly internet(more like 100%)

What are the most interesting things you learned?

how the whole encryption work, really interesting stuff, i like cryptic things

What are you looking forward to learning?

other stuff related to encryption maybe or new protocol/tech about the cryptoworld in general

[Q7]

I remember when I first started I actually read through everything on the bitcoin wiki page at en.bitcoin.it
I think the information there are the most comprehensive thus far and should appeal more for the non-geeks like myself. The best thing is when I actually met up with a guy who also shares the same interest in bitcoin and I find that talking face to face with him also helps me to understand on a lot of thing rather than just reading alone.

[worhiper_-_]

I just started with bitcoin yesterday , a friend of mine informed me about bitcoin but i have a lot yet to learn .

[randy8777]

i saw it on tv and got interested. that day bitcoin reached $1000 but i didn't buy and left it for what it was.
after another news episode about the price that went down i installed the client and earned my first coins through faucets.
that's how it started for me.

[Rude Boy]

last november(2014) i saw "bicoins accepted" <- this at some PTC website and i inspired to know bitcoins and googled, visited a lot websites, invested, gained a lot of BTC and now finally addicted..

[Netnox]

I was trading s&p e minis and someone mentioned in the chatroom bitcoin and how its going to be big so i looked up its price, it was $10.42 at that time, but bought my first bitcoin at $90.

[Remember remember the 5th of November]

On overclock.net back in April 2011. This is also the reason the price went to $30 as Bitcoin was exposed to a very large audience of computer enthusiasts, your truly included.

[CrackedLogic]

I was doing my usual rounds on YouTube - Watching PewDiePie, =3, Ryan Higa and some episodes of Kids React. On one of my suggested videos, I found something about Tor.
It looked interesting so I obviously watched it. Along my list of suggested videos I found lot's of things about recent hacks, fed attacks and so forth. I saw a video about bitcoin and it said something about leaving your computer to run in order to make money(mining). After that, I heard about exchanges and used some of my PayPal balance. Now I just sit here and browse.

[r1f696]

im new in this btc but little bit know about btc, how to get it, until some of expert btc user guide me to this, but i didnt know how to start

i learn everything from internet and ittle bit of my friend

[Lauda]

Well it's quite simple actually. First I saw the Bitcoin accepted here sign on a website, and I had no idea what that was nor did I bother.
A few months after I saw the same thing again, and then it hit me. I saw this somewhere before, it must mean something. Then obviously I searched the web and landed here. That's how it all started.

[bitcoinbing]

on TV

[freeyourmind]

You mean faucets? They get ad revenue from the ads. It's not a lot but they don't pay out much either. Gambling sites have a house edge (typically 1%) so over a long period of time and across many bets, the site expects to turn a small profit.

Yeah, the revenue model behind faucets included.  How does the owner of the faucet website establish the relationship with the companies advertising?

Also, what is the actual ad revenue vs. cost of users solving CAPTCHAs?  I'm sure there is a range, but I'd be interested to know.  I'd also like to know what % of CAPTCHAs actually click on an ad, and then what % of ad clickers would actually make a purchase.

The best thing is when I actually met up with a guy who also shares the same interest in bitcoin and I find that talking face to face with him also helps me to understand on a lot of thing rather than just reading alone.

Always amazing when that happens.

Anyways, very diverse range of events and experiences so far sparking the initial interest in Bitcoin

[DarkHyudrA]

There was a documentary about gaming in South Korea.
In the end of it, it started to talk about digital money economy, starting from the one day famous gold farms of MMORPGs like WoW.
But something got my attention in the end of the documentary... it said about a digital transaction currency... Bitcoin.

A few weeks later I read a lot about it, registered on this forum, got a few bitcents (in the day each BTC was 12~15USD) trough faucets, and here I am.
Almost Legendary Member and that traded over 3 BTC, with 0$ investment.