• Konstantin Rabin, a finance and technology writer, shares his journey of discovering Bitcoin before it gained mainstream attention.
• He had the opportunity to invest in Bitcoin three different times but didn’t take it.
• Through this story he has learned key lessons which are worth sharing with anyone doubting BTC.
Discovering Bitcoin
I am one of those who was fortunate enough to find out about Bitcoin more than a decade ago before it gained mainstream attention. Sadly, I am also one of the morons who saw this opportunity, didn’t think too much of it at first and let it fly by. In this little story, I’d like to share the path that led me to pass on investing in bitcoin three different times before eventually giving in and becoming a HODLer. So, here are the key lessons I learned along this journey that are worth sharing with anyone who is still doubting BTC.
The Inception
Given that I started my first full-time job in an online brokerage back in 2011, it should come as no surprise that I had a bunch of colleagues who were really into trading and super passionate about everything related to investments, technology and the progress of the financial world. It wasn’t long before I made a friend named Edgar. We shared some interests, predominantly gaming and our long-standing nicotine addictions. Even though we worked in different departments and rarely had to collaborate for our jobs, we would still ping each other whenever it was time to head out and smoke a ciggy, gleefully chatting about life, the universe and everything else, as we dosed on nicotine and fresh air. One day, sometime during 2012, I popped through one of these “smoke?” messages to Edgar when I noticed that his Skype status was some sort of gibberish that looked like a cat had been walking over his keyboard. It looked something like this: “1BvBMSEYstWetqTFn5Au4m4GFg7xJaNVN2.” During our smoke session, I asked him what was going on—was it a cat or did his account get hacked? He denied both possibilities then went into an explanation about Bitcoin addresses and blockchains which piqued my interest immensely.
Understanding Doubts
Being familiar with many online scams such as e-gold made me skeptical about cryptocurrencies initially but after further exploration into its potentials ,I began to understand its value better .My biggest problem however was that 2012 was probably my worst year on record when it came to financial health .So even though 3 ,730 ,218 public keys already existed on the Bitcoin network by then ,I couldn’t afford investing any capital at all .
Missed Opportunities
As fate would have it ,Edgar continued talking highly about Bitcoins during our smoke sessions until 2014 when he finally took off his portfolio towards cryptocurrency investments .He bought several coins including Ethereum at around $ 0 .25 per coin while they were worth around $200 each today .He kept encouraging me throughout 2015 as well but sadly due to limited funds again ,I passed up another investment opportunity which proved costly later on when Ethereum hit an all time high of $1400 by 2017 .
Learning Lessons
After missing out three major opportunities for investing in Bitcoins ,my enthusiasm grew stronger each passing day until 2018 when I finally decided “This is IT!” without hesitating anymore .Though hindsight is 20/20 vision ,the lesson from my experience is clear :investment opportunities come once in lifetime so don’t miss them ! Also never invest more than you can afford losing because nothing is certain especially when dealing with volatile markets such as cryptocurrency market ..